Hub centric and wheel centric adapters?

[shaved240]

Ok, im going to order some wheel adapters from motorsport-tech. They have a $1,000,000 policy on defective wheel adapters. So the question is... Do I also need the adapters to be wheel centric on top of being hub centric? Has anyone had problems with adapters not being wheel centric. The wheel centric adds another $100 dollars to the adapters price...making them out to $240 dollars for all four. Thank You

Justin

[fast850turbo]

i have a set of gilracing adapters. they are hub and wheel centruic they are awsome. i have no problems with that at any aspeed. true they cost a bit more but i've ponly heard good bout them

[Roguls]

Absolutely get them to be wheel centric as well. Why risk it? Being only hub centric will put an insane amount of stress on the wheels because only the bolts/studs will be holding them.

Alvaro Gil makes a phenominal set of spacers, as does Juha P; www.gilracing.com or www.volvonet.org/tpc

[BoxDriver2]

I have some GilRacing units, very good in quality and build.

[spongemonster]

Well I believe I was maybe the one who turned you onto those spacers in the first place. Mine have arrived but I've been working 12 hour night shifts every day for two weeks out of town so I haven't even seen them yet. They arrived the day I left. I will get to see them late tomorrow night (mine are hub centric but not wheel centric). I do know the advantages to having them be hub and wheel centric but honestly with different sized after market rims that may even have a different sized hub I didn't spend the extra money. Either way I will let people know as I am already impressed with teh company's professionalism and fast response not to mention how quickly I got the spacers. I think it only took a couple weeks to get them built and shipped to Canada.

James (mm 17 inch MSR's)

[Spac]

I'm not entirely sure about the terms "hub-centric" and "wheel-centric"... I assume you're talking about the spacers being spigotted* onto the hub, and the wheels being spigotted onto the spacers?

If so, then it is a good idea, but far from mandatory.

This is one of those things that gets discussed regularly WRT after-market wheels, and is always potrayed as Instant Bad Karma if you don't do it... What a load of rubbish - many many cars have wheel centres that don't locate on the alxe/hub, from the factory... And things like Mazda RX-3s have a "locator" on the rear axles - but the locator is held to the axle with two 6mm low tesnile screws... If four 12mm high-tensile wheel studs can't attach the wheel adequately, what hope do a pair of phillips head screws have?
Actually, the RX-3 is a good example - they regularly get used for things that I'd imagine would have been well outside of the design brief, and only have four wheel studs (compared to Volvo's five).

If the spacers are well made, and made using good quality materials, then I'd be amazed if you'd encounter a problem between now and the end of time.

[riseosiris]

Ok, im going to order some wheel adapters from motorsport-tech. They have a $1,000,000 policy on defective wheel adapters. So the question is... Do I also need the adapters to be wheel centric on top of being hub centric? Has anyone had problems with adapters not being wheel centric. The wheel centric adds another $100 dollars to the adapters price...making them out to $240 dollars for all four. Thank You

Justin
I got my adapters from the same company, and had them hub and wheel centric. I was/am seriously impressed with their work. As to the question, a lot also depends on your wheels. If the lug nut holes are conical in shape, then you can often get away w/o having a centering ring. The lug nuts themselves will locate the wheel. On the other hand, if your mounts are just flat, or have very little depth to them, then they would most certainly need one. Hope this helps!
-Lloyd

[Captain Bondo]

Having a "lip" on the spacer that simulates the wheelhub is a nice feature, but assuming you use proper tapered wheelnuts/bolts they will locate and hold the rim imo.

[Greg Wong]

I know a guy with a 245 who used some wheel spacers on the back of his car. They were 5mm spacers, used with the original studs, so the wheels did not mount onto a hub-centric type of arrangement. (BTW, 5mm is pretty much the most you can space without using longer studs, in case you didn't know)

He had vibration problems and had to loosen and tighten the nuts a few times before he could get rid of them. So he did get it to work, but it goes to show that using spacers that are not wheel centric can cause a noticable problem.

Greg

[Captain Bondo]

Hey greg, I think what we're talking about is adapters that have their own studs, rather than relying on the existing ones. You definitely need to make sure that each tapered nut seats correctly and that they are torqued right though for sure.

[spongemonster]

I just got my spacers from motorsport-tech and I love them although I had to have my studs ground down a bit to fit and had to use different nuts to hold them on. The studs in the spacers are also not volvo studs. They are very well made and quickly made too. I expected a long wait but I got them a couple weeks before I ever thought I would. Right now I am having some slight vibration problems but I cannot attribute them to spacers yet because there are too many other things that may be causing the problem.
James (well worth the money for the spacers I think and my rims are freakin awesome looking)