I know this topic is common on most forums but I just encounter it after replacing my stock 16" inch wheels off my 97 LS4 with 19" RPM r505's. My new wheels are 19x8.5 and 19x9.5 and they look sweet.

Anyway as soon as I drove away I felt some serious vibration at 50mph and up. After a long afternoon of google searching and a bunch of mis-information people were talking about everything under the sun was causing the vibration. Then, I found out something new. these wheels like most wheels that are designed to fit a variety of vehicles, come in different lug patterns. They actually have a hub "gap" or in my case 6.5mm of play in any direction when you place them on the lugs and tighten them. So they must of not have been perfectly centered on lugs when they mounted them. I think this is called "lug-centric"? I read something about being hub centric and kept searching.

So I found this website http://www.justforwheels.com/hub-centric-rings.jsp
which I believed explains hub rings in detail and was a very good source of information. I spoke to a person there and they confirmed that not having these hub rings was the cause for my vibration. Upset that the wheel shop didn't know about these or didn't put them on my wheels, I called the manufacturer. They told me the shop was dumb and shouldn't got these hub rings for me at the time they order my wheels. The wheel company "speedy wheels" was so nice they told me they would give me the hub rings free, so I stopped by and picked them up.

Needless to say after I put the wheels on with the hub Rings all the vibration was gone and my baby is as smooth as butter once again.

the rings are: 73mm to 60mm fitment in case anyone needs some.

 

the hub diameter is 60.1mm, the outer diameter will vary wheel to wheel, with many being 70-76mm in diameter.

cliffs: measure your aftermarket wheel inner hub surface before ordering hubcentric rings.

 

PD has you covered.

What's next for your ride?

 

No really sure.
I need to do something about the emblems. Maybe try no emblems, or some black ones might be nice.

 

Used that site a few years ago for my rims. Very good source to deal with.

 

Your car looks good man. Where are you going to get the black emblems? I want some black chrome ones for my ls

 

car looks good, u should lower it next

 

Sometimes if you torque the wheels on really well w.o hub rings it can help eliminate some of the vibration. It's kind of equivalent to cutting springs though. If you have the means to get the proper parts you should go that path. Glad to hear it all worked out.

 

more dangerous than cutting springs, overtightening the lugs or even running w/o rings can lead to a wheel(s) parting company with your car...

 

Good to see you figured your issue out.
Next thing IMHO should be getting ride of the gap.

 

Emblems are easy to remove with fishing line to release double sided paint but know there are studs on the emblems that stick into holes in the trunk (bummer). Emblems are easy to remove and paint however, leaving them off means $200-$300 to get holes filled and trunk lid back painted. I went through this and like the no emblems versus black as I had before.

Also on your wheels as previously stated I had same issue with correct hub centric rings - shop was over tightening...now I torque in the air and my LS runs smooth since.

 

I didnt know that about the emblems. Thanks for the info. I like the idea of matching the white, gotta find a pic first to see how it would look.

I found some clear signals for the front only 55 bucks
http://www.lextasy.com/ls400_parts_18_ctg.htm
Thats something cheap that I can do right now.

 

Yes I agree, excess overtightening is very detrimental to the car. I was told by a D1 driver that you can run without hub rings as long as the wheel is on very securely. I ran my car without hub rings for a few days without problems. Because of the alarming amount of vibration from the OP, trying to tighten on more would do more harm than good.

 

lextasy has a crap rep on the forum, you may want to search for them.

they generally just mark up and sell the same stuff you can get on ebay...

 

Thanks for the heads up! I will search ebay for sure.