[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

non-stock wheels



Deb Summa/Jim TenCate  ASKS:
Dear sister-in-law's 325iC has non-BMW aftermarket wheels.  Tonight I
discovered something interesting.  It seems as if the central hole of the
wheels is much too large (2 mm larger diameter or so?) to mate up snugly
with the BMW hubs!  The holes for the lug bolts are spaced right but the
bolts are the only thing keeping the wheels centered!  On the fronts there
ARE remnants of plastic(?) ring/spacers which probably are there to keep
the wheel centered but in the back there aren't any spacers at all!  I
don't like any of this but I'm not going out and getting four "new" wheels
so I'm looking to see if anyone else has ideas about the best thing to do.

Questions:
1.  Are such hub centering spacers common and if so, where can I get some
the right size?
2.  Is #1 a bad idea?  Will I always have trouble with these wheels?  Even
now I'm having trouble balancing them.  Off the car, of course, they're
fine but once on the car there's sometimes a nasty vibration, sometimes
not.

ANSWER:

I had a similar situation.  I brought a stock wheel and an aftermarket wheel to
a machine shop.  The shop took measurements an d made up 4 Aluminum Hub
centering rings.. They are working just fine.

Hope this helps
Bob
Many BMWs