If you have aftermarket wheels that are not "hub centric" to the mounting flange on the car, you need a small ring that takes up the space between the wheel center bore and the hub. You can't just put on the wheel and tighten down the lug nuts as it will not be seated correctly on the hub and you will get vibration. You either need to get the hubcentric rings from a place like tirerack or put your OEM wheels back on. You could have eventually sheared off the lug bolts and your wheel would have come off of the car-very dangerous.

It makes sense in a way, the rims on an HHR from the factory be they alloy or steel are what is called a "hub centric" design. That means the rim is indexed onto the hub by the center hole, the studs are there to clamp the wheel to the hub but not to center the rim in proper relation with the hub.

In your photo it looks like you have aftermarket alloy rims, its possible that the adapter needed on that corner to allow the wheels to work on a "hub centric" vehicle, is missing or it broke when you hit that pothole a while back. Or the Walmart tire fitters lost or disposed of it.

You need to contact the place where you got the rims and see about getting another adapter A.S.A.P. There is a possibility of breaking the studs on that corner and losing the wheel, plus the vibration will drive you nuts in the meantime.

I just can't buy into that theory of not having the hub-centric rings installed being a problem. We have had what? 100 years of wheels on vehicles before hub-centric stuff came along, and never had a problem with studs shearing and wheels coming off.

When the wheel nuts are installed, they are a conical shape where they contact the wheel, and that is what centers the wheel with the 5 nuts on the studs and the hub.


To say that you will get vibration without the HC rings is "misleading". As I run my winter wheels without HC rings - and no vibration. And no, my studs haven't broken, and neither have I lost a wheel - and I drive some pretty rough roads at times. I do install the wheels myself with a torque wrench, and they have never loosened off.

I think the OP is looking at a different problem.

ps: some tire stores supply PLASTIC HC rings - like they would do much in the first place

The hub centric issue is mostly to do with wheels that are aftermarket. Many of them today may have the same hole size but with so many different cars with the same lug pattern the centers are not always on a solid hub.

In the past most cars ran a similar size center hub pattern with their bolt patterns.

Today if you get some import wheel and it is not on the hub like the factory wheel you should put a ring in. They may not always wobble or break anything. In fact it is not common to have these issues on most cars though some are more inclined than others.

It is one of those deals most people get away with it and have no issues but there is still the right way to do it.

His issue here could be the lack of a ring or even the lugs not being tight. Both could do this kind of damage.

If you note the factory wheels on the HHR are snug on the hub. In fact they are often too snug and you nearly have to beat the wheel off the hub.

If your wheels are not centered, you are going to keep having issues. A problem that happens with some aftermarket/universal wheels.

Thanks everyone for your tips and advice. On Friday I plan to change back to my factory rims. Better safe then sorry. Not only for me but to my fellow driver. When I purchase the rims on line almost a year and a half ago the seller never mention anything about hubcentric rings. I just took them to a tire shop and had them put on. Its true this is the second time I had to replace a stud/studs. Nobody every mention hubcentric rings and it took a young tire technician who have experiance with rims to mention something.
I will let you know what happens after the changeover.

Thanks again!

Joe

That will prob take care of this.

It is odd but some cars and wheel really are effected by this while some people get away with out them. I see a lot of them that require rings but don't have them.

This all started when we started seeing more wheels with the metric patterns and they started to make the hub centers larger on these wheels so they could have one wheel that fits many applications.

Well I got the aftermarket rims off and had the factory rims put on. I still had old ( but good) tires still on the factory rims so I keep those and told the tire guy just to leave the
tires on the aftermarket rims ( only 2 of them)... Well during my afternoon lunch brake I took a ride on the interstate. Rode smooth...no vibration. The older tires felt much better then the 1 and half year old tires.
I will just stay with the factory rims.....

Is there a way to touch up the factory rims ( paint wise )...

Just want to say thanks to everyone for there help!

BigJoe-

Smooth sailing is always nice...

a pic of the factory rims would help in answering yer question.. So many different factory rims..

Hi Sleeper

check the photo section. I have pics up there when I first bought the vehicle. Those are the ones I put back on.