Tweet
Recently I bought some American Racing Estrella 14" wheels, and put on a set of 185/60x14 Kumho tires. I bought longer aftermarket lug bolts for the rear, because the aluminum wheels are thicker than stock steel ones, and I needed the longer bolts to fully grab the brake drum. On the front, I used stock lug bolts because they were long enough.
When I drove the car, it was undrivable on the highway due to vibration. Long story short, when I switched to the aftermarket bolts for the front as well, the vibration went away. The difference is that the aftermarket bolts were a deeper "cone" shape than the stock ones. This helped center the wheel into the lug hole better than the stock bolts. Also, the deeper cone gave the wheel more surface area to grab onto. The stock lug bolts have what I would call a "half-cone" shape--they don't go far enough for deeper, aftermarket aluminum wheels. I was afraid I would need hub-centric rings to fix it, but figured out that the original lugs were the real issue.
When I drove the car, it was undrivable on the highway due to vibration. Long story short, when I switched to the aftermarket bolts for the front as well, the vibration went away. The difference is that the aftermarket bolts were a deeper "cone" shape than the stock ones. This helped center the wheel into the lug hole better than the stock bolts. Also, the deeper cone gave the wheel more surface area to grab onto. The stock lug bolts have what I would call a "half-cone" shape--they don't go far enough for deeper, aftermarket aluminum wheels. I was afraid I would need hub-centric rings to fix it, but figured out that the original lugs were the real issue.
Comment