Aluminum vs Plastic Hub Rings?

[GTI Jake]

Not all Audi wheels require rings as some have the same hub size as us.

Mine are 66.6 hub bore

 

[Handguns4heaRTs]

I’ve been running Audi wheels with no hub centric rings for about 40k miles now.

No vibration or issues of any kind.

Curious as to why you(personally) wouldn't use hub rings with wheels that are a different hub bore. I understand the "lug centric", etc. stuff.

 

[Petey T]

I run the red plastic rings from UroTuning with anti-seize and they have been perfect. I had vibrations with cheap eBay rings and the new ones cured it immediately

 

[GTI Jake]

Curious as to why you(personally) wouldn't use hub rings with wheels that are a different hub bore. I understand the "lug centric", etc. stuff.

I bought them used from the original owner so they didn’t include any.

Ran two sets of tires worth of removing and replacing them regularly for maintenance/mods/rotations and never had any issues or need for rings so I never bought them.

 

[Jimdog]

My rings have a split in them so you can expand them by hand when taking them off. Kind of like a C clip but since its plastic it is very easy to do by hand.

 

[DiscusInferno]

I'm considering downgrading my daily set up from the stock 18" Milton/Dallas set up to bronze 17" Konig Hexaform or Fast FC04. However I have always hated hub rings because every spring I have to get a chisel and hammer to free the plastic rings from the hub. Even if I put grease or anti-seize on when I install my winters in the fall.

Since these are going to be my summer wheels, they will see little to no salt. With this in mind, do I still need to worry about the hub rings getting stuck on the hubs when I do my seasonal tire changes or when I switch over to my track set throughout the summer? If no, should I get plastic or aluminum rings? I know aluminum is stronger, don't wear out as easily, and costs more.

Plastic makes life easier, even if it means that you have to stock up on them and replace them every few years. Never had issues with ECS tuning's Alzor wheels, with 66.67mm center bore with plastic hub rings. But... I prefer to get wheels with 57.1mm hub rings that uses the stock bolts also.

With aftermarket wheels that uses cone seats, you should also carry a set of stock lugs (ball seat) in case of a flat and you need to use your spare

 

[dnos]

I plan to go with the metal APR hub rings with my hexforms. That being said, I emailed konig and they recommended plastic ones.

Edit. ECS said "Honestly, they will work and function the same so I would just go with whatever ones are cheaper. " so I'm probably going with ECS plastic ones since others here also recommended them.

 

[pitterchi]

When I first bought my aftermarket wheels I bought aluminum centering rings. The vibration was terrible above 65mph.

There's a post somewhere deep in a forum with a picture of the wheel hub and the actual sizes being 56.1mm on the inner part with it tapering out to 57.1mm. This was causing the vibration with some of the centering rings even though they were technically the right size. I ended up buying plastic ones from Urotuning and now I keep a set on hand as a backup.

 

[Shane_Anigans]

Go with plastic. I've run both on my old car, and there was no difference in driveability. However, the metal rings had to be heated with a torch to remove them, which was annoying since i had to do that every autumn when I put the winter wheels on. If you're not running winter tires, you'll find out how badly they get fused on when you need to change a flat by the side of the freeway, in driving rain. The plastic ones either came off with the wheels or were removed with a pick.