Quote Originally Posted by chargeR View Post
The majority of the load from the wheel to the suspension/knuckle is carried through static friction between the hub face and the wheel mounting face and it is the clamping load of the properly torqued nuts that make sure that this friction is sufficient.

In order for the protruding hub area to carry any load with a hubcentric wheel placed on it the fit between the centrebore of the wheel and the outer diameter of the protrusion on the hub would have to be extremely tight, bordering on a press fit. This is not the case.



Good addition, and an oversight on my part. Post was getting long and rambly, but I definitely missed this. Torquing both the spacer nuts and the wheel nuts correctly becomes even more important when using a spacer


Quote Originally Posted by chargeR View Post
Wheels being hubcentric primarily aids in getting the wheel centred when mounting so this is particularly important when using spacers as there is greater potential for mounting the wheels off centre which can cause havoc. I don't believe that it is essential that aftermarket wheels be made hubcentric with the use of hubcentric rings however.

We had similar issues to what you describe at a track day in the past with an e30 running 20mm bolt on spacers up front. The spacers had been off while some work was done and were replaced without centering rings on the outer spacer lip to suit the wheels. Driving around on the street it wasnt noticeable, but the car had almost violent steering feedback at 140kph+, and was basically undrivable, due to the wheels not being centered 100%. Simple part wasted a whole day.