Hub Centric Spacers E46 Style 42's

[literbikehero]

Hey Guys,

So every morning on my way to work it is like riding in a washing machine. I have bought and installed a set of ECS tuning plastic hub centric rings that are 72.X to 74.1. They pretty much remedied the problem......for a day.

So now I am right baack to where I started a week later. What I was think is if I could find a 5mm spacer that does the 72mm to 74mm hub conversion and then run a set of studs all the way around as well.

The quesion is, what are you guys doing that has worked? I heard decent things about the plastic rings but as i explained haven't had great success.

Thanks,
Alex

[klodkrawler05]

that doesnt make any sense.......

hubcentric rings are only there to center the wheel until the lugs are tight. at which point the lugs are holding the wheel in place. I've temporarily ran wheels without any hubcentric rings for a couple days while waiting for the rings to arrive.

are you properly torquing the wheel to the correct spec? and are you going throw snugging all 5 lugs in the correct order before giving them a final torque?

the wheels should square up on the studs completely regardless of rings or not so I'm suspecting you have a different issue if indeed you are properly torquing the wheels.

[literbikehero]

that doesnt make any sense.......

hubcentric rings are only there to center the wheel until the lugs are tight. at which point the lugs are holding the wheel in place. I've temporarily ran wheels without any hubcentric rings for a couple days while waiting for the rings to arrive.

are you properly torquing the wheel to the correct spec? and are you going throw snugging all 5 lugs in the correct order before giving them a final torque?

the wheels should square up on the studs completely regardless of rings or not so I'm suspecting you have a different issue if indeed you are properly torquing the wheels.

Yes. I am doing all of this. I am putting the wheels on my hand and a ratchet just to get them snugged up. And then I tighten them down with an impact and a torque stick torquing them evenly and a little bit at a time. I have heard both side of the argument where the ring is there only for mounting and that the ring's job is never done.

If it were in fact a torquing problem, then why would my issue be directly impacted by the ring in a positive way and then have the results slowly go away over the next couple of days as if I am hitting bumps that are throwing the wheels off by a quarter of a millimeter. I have in fact found the vibration problem. It is something to do with the hub centricity or else it wouldn't have almost entirely gone away the first ride I took after installing them and torquing my wheels to spec in stages.

[klodkrawler05]

you must have some pretty nasty bumps in PA then! even auto-xing without rings I haven't seen an issue.

do the rings look deformed now after driving for a while? the spacer with a ring machined into it would be a good choice as well or a cheaper option would be to try some aluminum hubcentric rings.

[CheckeredApex]

I have the aluminum rings on my style 42's and never had a problem.

[Snowy555]

Interesting. I also have a similar situation. I installed hub centric rings and the vibration completely dissapeared...for a day. It's now back, although alot less worse than when I did not have the rings.

Are torque specs the same for all wheels on an E46?

[sicarius82]

the wobble/vibration could have messed up a few things:

- messed up alignment
- uneven wear of the tire/unbalanced wheel
- slightly bent the wheel bolts

when i had a similar issue, it was the last one.

[JE BMW]

try putting the back wheels in the front. maybe fronts are bent and you cant tell.