What do hub centering rings do, do we need them

[Loochy88]

First of all, i dont even know the centerbore on my 185's but its never been an issue for me.

For those that arent familiar, heres the info from discounttire.com

From discount tire:

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Q. What Are Hub-centric Rings; Do I Need Them?
A. Most aftermarket wheels are manufactured with a center hole that will fit a wide range of vehicles. The hub-centric ring is used to fill any gap that may exist between this hole and the vehicle's hub, thus centering the wheel on the axle. If you have vibrations after installing new wheels, chances are hub-centric rings were not used.

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Ive never heard any talk about this in these forums. Should i have used these when installing my wheels? Ive never noticed the vibrations were talking about here. I suppose its possible that SAMS put them in without me noticing/knowing, but i doubt it.

Are hubcentric rings absolutely necessary if the centerbore doesnt match?

The reason im thinking of it is that were looking for new wheels for my fiance's 01 eclipse gt. The folks over at club3g.com are obsessive about hubcentric rings. Maybe they really are that important, i dunno?

Can anyone fill me in on this topic?

edit: thinking over it more: is it because we have the acorn style lugs, the wheels tend to center themselves once we get them all on there?

[AZ3.8Camaro]

Re: What do hub centering rings do, do we need them

When the centerbores don't match (non-OEM wheel) hub rings are often used to help center the wheel.
I guess the centerbore is more accurate than the bolt pattern and often helps center the wheels and therefore gives a better ride.

At Discount Tire we install them in about 1/3 of the wheels we install. (I work there FWIW)

Do they help?
I don't see any noticable change in the amount of ride complaints with or without them. If you have ride problems, try them out but usually there is something more at play that centering problems.

They are not needed by any means.

The ONLY time I have seen them personally make a large difference is in the case of a BMW. The guy that owned it was a wealthy guy, very nice. Someone had sold him (not us) wheels that were for a GM vehicle.
GM bolt pattern is SAE (5-4.5) and metric (converted) to be 5-120.65
BMW bolt pattern is metric at 5-120.
There is a .65mm difference. Its not a lot, and doesn't really affect the safety of the wheel bolting on, but when used on a LUG-CENTRIC wheel (meaning the wheel bore and hub do not match (NON-OEM wheel) it threw everything out of whack. Hub rings allowed the wheel to center on the hub, so the slightly mismatched bolt pattern did not off-center the wheel as badly. Car rode great from then on.

CLIFFS NOTES:
Buy them only if you have ride problems to begin with.

Anybody that swears by them I generally do not trust and question their intelligence. I don't know why, but its the truth.

[Loochy88]

Re: What do hub centering rings do, do we need them

thanks ryan. if anyones curious, heres the thread i was reading that got me thinking about it.

http://www.club3g.com/forum/showthread.php?t=516