Last fall I ordered tires and rims from our 2020 Prius Prime from Costco. I stored the factory rims and tires for the winter and yesterday I took the after-market rims and tires off and proceeded to install the factory set back on the car. I rotated the tires and ensured they were torqued to 76 lbs. When I took it for a test drive around the block, I could tell something was not right. The car had a wobble. When looking at the after-market tires/rims I noticed that on the inside of the rim the diameter of the center was bigger on the front rims and smaller on the back. Looking at the factory rims the diameter of the center of all the rims are all exactly the same size. Putting on the rear rims the center of the rims fit exactly over the wheel hub assembly and the wheel studs extended out with plenty of room to put on the wheel nuts. When putting on the front rims the center of the rims doesn’t fit over the wheel hub assembly and the wheel studs do not extend out. I can get the wheel nuts on but something is not right. Inspecting the Prius Prime the center of the wheel hub assembly (Where the dust cover would go on other car models) is a larger diameter on the front then the back. What am I doing wrong? ReplyForward
The diameter variations you describe are of with the central hub opening on the rim? And the wobble you're experiencing is with the stock Toyota wheels/tires? It seems counterintuitive that the stock rims would have problems; had you used them before, and were they ok then?
Grant, the aftermarket wheels probably need a lug nut with a tapered face that seats against the wheel. These are lug-centric...centered by the lug nuts on the lug studs. The factory wheels are hub-centric (centered on the circular protrusion on the hub) and need the factory lug nuts. If you did not get the factory wheels centered and fully seated on the hubs, then the lug nuts can bolt on tight but the wheels is off center--and likely to loosen the lug nuts, and isn't safe. The factory lug nuts slide into the wheel's lug holes, and when everything is centered will firmly clamp the wheel to the hub.
Inspect the center hub on the car (not the wheels you took off), I am almost sure what is happening is that the center hub ring that was used for your aftermarket wheels stayed on your car side and did not get removed with the winter wheel you took off. The center hub ring is a black plastic ring that fit exactly the size of the hub on the car and the outer diameter is exactly the size of the larger bore of the after-market wheel. Exactly the same thing happened to me once. But in my case, I could not install the OEM wheel over the center hub ring, so I figured out what was happening before driving it. See the photo below. A red arrow is pointing to the black plastic center hub ring used for the oversized bore of the aftermarket wheel. The photo below it is on the other side of the car without this center hub ring.
