Whenever I buy new wheels, they always come with a rubber/plastic insert for the hub so that one wheel design can be used on different cars. These are a nuisance because they sometimes stick to the hub or fall out of the wheel. When I put my regular tires back on in the spring, I'm going to glue them to the wheel - somehow. Do all aftermarket wheels come with these adapters?

A tip from a tire dealer: put anti-seize lubricant on your wheel bolts and the back of the wheel. That will prevent the wheel from getting stuck to the hub. I once had to bring a car to a gas station because the wheels were solidly rusted onto the hub. It took the guy a lot of work to get them off the car.

This is very handy stuff. I bought my current bottle in 2008, and I'm ordering another today.
https://smile.amazon.com/Permatex-80...eize+lubricant

 

afaik, buyer is responsible for buying their own hubcentric rings

at least for me anyways, I've never been lucky enough to receive free hub rings

 

Wow! I've bought wheels from Discount Tires Direct and Tire Rack, and they always came with the inserts.

 

for 8 bucks, I just bought em and called it a day

 

It's good to know that they're available.

 

When I was buying steel wheels and winter tires for my new Fit a year ago I had a choice of either buying wheels which required hub rings or buying exact fit wheels for the Honda Fit hub. Price was the same so needless to say I bought the exact fit wheels and did away with any need for that hub ring hassle. This is my second winter on those wheels now and tire changeovers are easy and everything runs fine. These are steel wheels though and maybe the availability is not there for exact fit alloy wheels if that's what you're buying.

As far as wheels sticking to the hub goes, yeah I had that problem once with a VW. The wheel had seized to the hub somewhere and I could not get it off. In the end I just left it and ran with that frozen wheel for another 3 years when I finally scrapped the car. I used to pray every day when I got up to not get a flat that day in that one tire. I'm sure a shop could have gotten it off for me but with the car nearing the end of it's life I wasn't about to pay for that.

 

I always grease the mating surfaces of the wheels and hubs when changing wheels. One reason why I still rotate my own tires.

Here's a tip: if your wheel is rusted to the hub, back the lug nuts off about two turns, then release the jack pressure and drop the car back to the ground. The weight of the car will break the wheel loose from the hub. At least it's always worked for me.

 

Thanks for the tip. I have I never have to try that.

 

I use anti-seize on the hub face, a little goes a long way. I don't put it on the wheel studs, because it will make getting an accurate torque reading impossible. Also don't glue those hub centric rings in your wheels. They will need to come out when the tires & wheels are balanced.

 

I learned my lesson many years ago with alloy wheels and steel hubs. I spent hours heating and beating to get 4 of them loose. Now every alloy wheel that I touch gets a light coating of anti-seize. One application lasts a lifetime. Anti-seize is also available at any autoparts store and at Walmart Automotive. One bottle will last a decade or two.

 

If you use Anti seize on lugs, NEVER get it on the tapered part of the lug nut or lug bolt, they can come loose, they need to bit in to each other a little.
Rather than the mess of anti-seize, I wipe the contact areas of the wheel and hub with a rag and a small amount of lithium grease.

Not against anti seize in general but I've had to repair too many cars that lost wheels when the lugs came loose.

I also won't mount a wheel that requires a hub-centric ring. Again,, too many problems with them shifting
and letting wheels loose. Both on customer cars and my own... FWIW,, to use them in road racing they have to
be aluminum, plastic ones melt under hard braking.

YMMV - good luck!