Hub Rings

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Fri Oct 07, 2016 4:40 pm

I've been chasing what feels like a tire vibration on the Miata for a bit. It seemed fairly minor so I took it to the shop down the road and had the tires re-balanced, it actually seemed worse afterwards despite the fact I think the guy who balanced them did a good job, there wasn't much weight required on them in the first place.

I rotated the tires front to back this afternoon and decided to check if there were any hub rings on these things and turns out there isn't, the wheel (949 Racing) is a 67.1mm and the Miata hub is 54.1mm I believe. There is certainly plenty of play on the hub before the lugs go on.

Have you guys experienced vibration from lack of hub rings on aftermarket wheels? The internet tells me the answer seems to be yes so i'll probably just pickup a set from 949 racing. Just curious if anybody else experienced issues without them.

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Fri Oct 07, 2016 9:01 pm

Can't speak for the Miata, but my experience is that hub centric is a good thing.

Richard

FrancisChan · **Posted:** Sat Oct 08, 2016 3:54 pm

I ran the konigs I had without hub rings when I initially got them and didn't experience any vibrations without them. That being said I did eventually get some hub rings to simplify getting them bolted up.

The only vibration I have now is from the flat spots on my tires. :lol:

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

I have had some non-hubcentric wheels which required me to be really careful when bolting them up to avoid vibrations. If you're using an impact to brap the lugs on, might need to do that in several steps to avoid one lug from clamping the wheel on a little bit crooked. It's entirely possible for the other lugs to not center if one lug is too tight.

Or you could just get the rings. Check Amazon, recently I've always been able to find them there for cheap.

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

I had bad vibration on my NA when I didn't run the rings with the 15x7s I had. I can't remember if I used the impact to zip them on or not, but there was an immediate difference on both the Mazda2 and the Miata.

DickRasmussen · **Posted:** Mon Oct 10, 2016 9:37 am

MikeWhitney wrote:

I have had some non-hubcentric wheels which required me to be really careful when bolting them up to avoid vibrations. If you're using an impact to brap the lugs on, might need to do that in several steps to avoid one lug from clamping the wheel on a little bit crooked. It's entirely possible for the other lugs to not center if one lug is too tight.

The non-hubcentric autocross wheels for my Mustang are fine assuming careful progressive "star pattern" installation. Ditto with previous cars. The Mustang has well over 20K highway miles on those wheels.

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Mon Oct 10, 2016 10:02 am

I swapped wheels front to back last week and hand threaded them down while wiggling the wheel around and it seems to have reduced the vibration. I'm sure the shop who did the balance for me just used a impact, and suspect that's why it seemed worse since I usually don't use an impact at home when tightening them down.

The 949 racing rings are a nice anodized aluminum and 24 bucks for the set so i'll probably go that way since I would expect them to fit perfectly since the wheels are 949 15x8s.

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

They're also a pain and don't stay on when you go to put the wheel on the hub. :soap:

It should fix the issue, though.

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Mon Oct 10, 2016 4:50 pm

Now onto the next issue, the spec miata hard top plates appear to be bowing up the middle of my hard top so it won't seal up. Discovered that while leaving to go to VIR Saturday morning.

JamesMilko · **Posted:** Mon Oct 10, 2016 11:32 pm

Andrew Jonell wrote:

They're also a pain and don't stay on when you go to put the wheel on the hub. :soap:

It should fix the issue, though.

It's better than the plastic ones I have for my Konig wheels that require a small screwdriver, putty knife and pliers to remove.

Cash Davidson · **Posted:** Fri Oct 28, 2016 9:34 am

JamesMilko wrote:

Andrew Jonell wrote:

They're also a pain and don't stay on when you go to put the wheel on the hub. :soap:

It should fix the issue, though.

It's better than the plastic ones I have for my Konig wheels that require a small screwdriver, putty knife and pliers to remove.

I had plastic ones that came with my Konig wheels. Melted them at CMP. Now I have Aluminum.

Cash

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