Alloy Wheels - with or without Center Steel Ring

[hastu]

Hi all
I am just on the way to refurbish my 5 Alloy Wheels for my Elan +2 S130.
Unfortunately 3 of the Wheels are different from the other 2.
3 of them have a center steel ring (pic1) , the other 2 (pic2) have not.
They also seem not to be from the same manufacterer.
Does anybody knows why this steel center ring was used for.
Which is the better solution? with or without?

[Andy8421]

All the alloy wheels I have seen have a steel ring. They do fall out and get lost, which is what may have happened to the two you own without the rings.

[JimE]

Don't use them without the steel ring otherwise they will work loose. Back in the day, Christopher Neil use to supply reconditioned alloys without the ring. I took a set to the Lotus Service Garage to have them fitted and John Sewter (Service Manager) refused to fit them on safety grounds.

[nmauduit]

it seems from the photo that one kind was made for having a steel collar (slight recess) and the other without...

My experience of similar wheels (though on a 2 seater) without collar is that when torqued at the high hand of the specs (220 ft.pound i.e. 300N.m on a long Facom torque wrench I purchased just for that) they hold quite well even in harsh condition (wet track with quaife LSD and lots and lots of slides), IF the (rear) hubs are flat (i.e. not distorted when taking them out, esp. the rear ones) - never had issues with the front hubs.

[hastu]

Hi Andy
As you see on the following Detail-Pictures, there seems to be 2 different manufacterer of the alloys. As you can see in picture 3, the steel ring is embedded in the rim (flush at the top) and was not additionally mounted on top.

[hastu]

thanks for the different feedbacks.
Another question has just arisen in this context. One of the wheel Nuts(Pic5) says "steel wheels only. There is nothing on the other wheel nut with 3 wings. Are there any specifications or combinations that do not fit?

[Gordon Sauer]

There’s quite a bit on here about this and I put in Sarto wheels and then up come a number of entries about the differences in the wheels and whether there’s galling and whether you’re bottoming out the nut and even about the steel wheel only business and bottom line is I’ve had my +2 since 89 and Never had any trouble with it coming loose and have no spacer and only trouble was coming down pikes Peak and probably didn’t tighten it enough and I did have steel wheel only on there but for correctness I put on the others but for the years I had that one, never had any trouble either but lots of good reading about this Gordon Sauer

[friedy]

None of my wheels have a steel insert, they were like this when i purchased the car 10 years ago. Here's a pic of one. Seems to have a very small recess, so should these be used with an insert?
Thanks. Alan.

[JimE]

As I have already commented above, Lotus refused to fit these alloys without the steel insert for safety reasons. Presumably without, they could crack when tightening the nut or work loose. Jim

[hastu]

Hi Jim
Thanks for your Input. I will not mount the wheels without the steel ring. My wheel shop told me, that they can mount this Steel ring. To put one alloy wheel back to "new" state, they demand aprox 500.- swiss Frank. Actually thats to expensive for me and i am looking for an other solution.

The steel ring has a round shape, but the wheel nut has a plane 90 degree edge. i wonder how this will match together.

[Andy8421]

Hi Jim
The steel ring has a round shape, but the wheel nut has a plane 90 degree edge. i wonder how this will match together.

You need to investigate this further. The knock-off spinners/nuts have a conical face where they mate against the wheel. This partly to help centre the wheel, and is also an important part of the way the spinner/nut stays tight.
Do you have a picture of the nut you are planning to use?

[hastu]

Here a draft of my Question: Flat Wheelnut and rounded Wheel = minimum connection