I purchased a set of 20" BOSS 331 in chrome that were sitting on the dealers showfloor they had taken off a G8. Already had tires and sensors in them and the price seemed really good - $2,100. Problem is the steering wheel shakes a bit between 40 and 60 MPH. I went to a wheel shop today and they said the BOSS was not made for the G8 and because the hub sizes were different the car was wobbling on the lugs. They could not find a hubcentric ring that would fit to fill in the gap between the cars hub and the hole in the wheel. Anyone know of any place that might carry these? Anyone else have this problem? I like the wheels but can't live with a wobbly steering wheel.

Thanks,

Nice to see someone local. Did you get these from Cross? They had a MGM there that had those; I like the way that they look.

Do you the bore size of the 331's? If you measure them you can call Discount Tire and see if they have them. I got some from them for my wheels for $15. Your G8 has a 67mm center bore.

Did the tire shop just make the claim of 'wobbling' based on the lack of a hub centric ring? That can be a problem, however OOR, poor dynamic balance, or excessive runout can be the cause. Find a shop with a Hunter GSP9700 and get the wheel package road forced balance and tell them you want a print out of the runouts and road force of each wheel. The centering rings you get these days are plastic in most cases, and they don't do a super great job of providing a 100% mechanical fitment. They do help considerably, but centering rings to make the wheel hub centric will not fix an out of round or improperly balanced wheel assembly.

If you can't find a set of rings, a local machine shop can make you some with a few quick measurements and a quick turn on the lathe.

If you can't find a set of rings, a local machine shop can make you some with a few quick measurements and a quick turn on the lathe.

Very good recommendation, and you'd probably get the best results. One of these days I'll get my lathe - I have a CNC mill, but no lathe yet. :(

I did get the wheels and car from Dave Cross. These wheels were on a black V6 they had on the floor when I was first looking. They dealer traded that car and removed them. They were stacked up in the corner when I bought my GT last week. I mentioned I liked them and they offered me what seemed like a good deal.

I took the car to Chux Trucks to get them balanced. They told me they had put those wheels on three other cars for another dealer and run in to the same problem with the wobbling. They hadn't sold the wheels so they didn't know what the outcome was but they had tried to rebalance them and it didn't work. They never did take one of mine off and put it on the machine to see if it was balanced or not.

I'm running over to the dealer tomorrow morning to get my paperwork for my tags so I'll talk to the salesman and see what he has to say. Maybe they can have me run over to the shop that put them on and see what they can do. If that doesn't work, I'll call 1010tire and/or Tire Rack once I find out what size the hub is on the BOSS. The machine shop sounds like a good idea too, I'll look in the Yellow Pages.

I would swap the tires front to back and see if the vibration lessens or worsens. I would say about 1/4th of shops now have a Hunter GSP9700 and I would personally make the dealer reimburse you for the problem. A tire shop with a standard dynamic balancer cannot detect minor variations in the wheels that can cause the wobble. Swap the wheels front to back, torque to specs, and retest. If the wobble goes away, then chances are the one or both of the rear wheels needs to be balanced and checked. It'd be a real PITA if you got the centering rings, only to have the problem persist. I'm not sure if you have seen my "Peep my new wheels..." thread in this forum, but if not - read up. I have spent MANY hours dealing with this exact issue, and the centering rings were not the cause.

I bought aluminum hubrings for my GTO from a guy in the Kansas City area. He was selling them for $70. a set shipped. Realize the hub on the G8 is smaller, but thought someone might be making metal hubrings that will fit our G8's. Most of these wheels were developed for BMW hubs so would guess that one size hubring would fit most aftermarket wheels. Also, some of the wheels I have purchased from TireRack that were adjustable, used metal hubrings. They may have them available if you know both the inside and outside diameters. They currently have about 150 different wheel types available for G8.

As for vibrations and wobble, it takes a good tire shop to balance large sizes wheel/tire combos. I bought some aftermarket 20" wheels from my GM dealer for my Denali which did the same thing around 60 - 65 MPH. The GM Dealer had a Hunter Road Force Balancer, but the kid doing the balancing was an idiot! Took it to another shop and the wheels came out perfect. No problems in 60K + mi with same tires.

Good Luck!

RRM

I was at the dealer this morning and they put both front tires on their machine and said they were balanced. They had another car coming in this afternoon with the same complaint but did not know what wheels he had. The dealers own service department did not mount and balance the wheels to begin with so I do not think they were lying.

I did talk to American Eagle Wheels (maker of the BOSS) after that and they do have a ring available with 67mm inside and 82.8mm outside (those are big holes in the BOSS wheels). They are ordered and I should have them tomorrow. The dealer said he would pay the $12.00 each they cost. Hopefully this will solve the problem.

lets see some pics.

I was at the dealer this morning and they put both front tires on their machine and said they were balanced. They had another car coming in this afternoon with the same complaint but did not know what wheels he had. The dealers own service department did not mount and balance the wheels to begin with so I do not think they were lying.

I did talk to American Eagle Wheels (maker of the BOSS) after that and they do have a ring available with 67mm inside and 82.8mm outside (those are big holes in the BOSS wheels). They are ordered and I should have them tomorrow. The dealer said he would pay the $12.00 each they cost. Hopefully this will solve the problem.


Keep us posted. Oh yeah, you have to post pics too!

It looks like the hub rings solved the problem. I put them on and drove around awhile this afternoon and the steering wheel didn't shake anymore. I did get a little vibration once but I think it was the road. Here some pics of the wheels. I think it needs red calipers like my goat had.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v730/IndepGTO/IMG_0384.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v730/IndepGTO/IMG_0390.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v730/IndepGTO/IMG_0386.jpg