After market wheels and hub centric rings

I bought my car with Konig wheels on it. Noticed that those wheels were not hub centric. Finally after buying new tires last month, noticed the car still had a shimmy around 75 mph. Thought it was wheel balance. It was not and Discount tire suggested hub centering rings. Had themstalled. Big difference. But they only had the plastic rings and still had a slight shimmy. So I bought some aluminum rings. When I swapped them out, the plasic rings fit very loosely in the wheel. The metal ones had to be tapped in with a hammer and wooden block. Wow, no shimmy now, even at 95 mph. So, I do recommend getting the metal rings, if your after market wheels are not hub centric. Installing the wheels with the rings are a breeze now.

Agreed... My last set didn't have centering rings, but as long as I slowly torqued them I could get them centered well with no vibrations. New wheels have the rings - good point on ease of install too. I kept the tool from my old Audi that threads in to a lug hole first so the remaining lugs can be started - that really helps.

Thanks for the info. I have the plastic ones. I didn't realize metal ones were an easily available option.

As gforce points out, careful torquing of your lug bolts will center the wheel.
However, you MUST have the proper countersink on that bolt.

Be aware that there are 2 types, ball seat, which is the VW standard, and
cone seat, which is a straight taper. In my experience with aftermarket
rims, most are the cone. The rims I got had been used with the wrong
seat, VW ball in a straight taper. This had distorted the wheel countersinks.

I bought a large 60 degree countersink and re-reamed the wheels and then
used the proper cone lug. No problem whatsoever with plastic rings. And
I do carry my own torque wrench and carefully & gradually tighten the bolts.

The kid I bought my XX10 racing rims had them installed on his Jetta, and
was blissfully unaware of the problem he had created. Throw in tire shops
and their hammer drill installation of the bolts and you've got a subtle
problem that can be hard to diagnose.

BeetleDragon737 said:

Thanks for the info. I have the plastic ones. I didn't realize metal ones were an easily available option.

Click to expand...

I got mine on Amazon Prime. Paid $12 for the set of four. This is the size I needed...73.1mm OD to 57.1mm ID, Aluminum Hub Centric Rings