please advise: 14" winter wheels not a perfect fit
 

I have 14" steel wheels for winter tires (195/65 R14). These wheels don't fit exactly. They are slightly larger than the protege5 wheel hub. My mechanic tells me not to worry aout it. The car feels okay but I'm worried about causing damage in the long run. What do you think?


2002 Protege5, 5spd, midnight blue

Take it to a real tire place, maybe your mechanic doesn't know enough about wheels.

I am running 14's on my LX ,they are not mazda rims ,rather universal rims ,the center bore is larger than the hub bore on these rims ,I have had no problems . The wheel nuts will hold the rim in place ,torque the wheel nuts to 85 ft/lbs and you should have no problems .

In the interest of safety and handling, wheels should be hubcentrically mounted. That is, the centerbore diameter of the wheel should match the car hub diameter. In this case the wheel will be supported by the hub, and not the lugs, as it was meant to be.

If you allow the wheel to only be supported by the lugs (lugcentric mounting), the lugs have to support the full weight of the wheel and and are subjected to bump forces and cornering stresses that they were not designed to absorb. This can result in wheel displacement and even lug breakage and is obviously a dangerous condition. Torqueing the lug nuts to the proper setting does not solve the problem.

The proper way to mount a wheel with a larger centerbore than the hub is to use hub adaptor rings. The outer diameter of the ring just fits inside the centerbore of the wheel and the inside diameter of the ring just fits on the outside of the car hub. you should be able to obtain hub adaptor rings at any decent tire dealer and they are also available on-line.

When you buy aftermarket wheels, in almost all cases the centerbore diameter is larger than most cars wheel hubs so that with the proper size rings the wheels can fit a wide variety of car models. The P5 has a larger hub diameter than the sedan so take this into account when sizing rings.

goldstar's got it right.

I also remember reading something about there being a difference between hubcentric and lugcentric wheels. I don't know enough about this to comment but if you do a web search you should find some useful information.

The most important thing is that if those 14" steelies are hubcentric, it is important that you get those adaptor rings that goldstar was talking about. They are typically not expensive and are easy to install. When I talked to a representative from Discount Tire Direct, they told me that the main purpose of the ring is to make sure the wheel is seated properly, not so much that it takes load off the lug nuts (since it is just a plastic ring). But I do thing that having that piece on will ensure that everything is positioned properly. The lugs will only go in 1 way (the proper way), now that the ring is there.

I would seek the advice of a wheel expert concerning those 14" steelies.