wheel spacers

alright when i bought my rims they came with these plastic ring spacers that you put in the center, i guess to make more contact w/ the hub. do i need these on there? i got a replacement rim from somewhere else and they said i didn't, and the other day i rotated my wheels and one of the spacers didn't fit back perfectly, and i didn't notice it at the time, and of course when i drove, and the plastic got hot, it made it so the wheel was no longer held tight, which lead to 2 snapped studs. can i just take these things out?

The are hub centric rings. You should use them and not use the studs/lugs to center the wheel on the hub. Just order another set they're like $1-2 each.

what do you mean they're used to center the wheel

i'm not sure if we're talking of the same part- this doesn't appear to do anything towards centering the wheel, just increasing the surface contact area; will check though

From Tirerack:


The centerbore of a wheel is the size of the machined hole on the back of the wheel that centers the wheel properly on the hub of the car. This hole is machined to exactly match the hub so the wheels are precisely positioned, minimizing the chance of a vibration. With a hubcentric wheel, the lug hardware will not be supporting the weight of the vehicle, all they really do is press the wheel against the hub of the car. Some wheels use high quality, forged centering rings that lock into place in the back of the wheel. This is an acceptable alternative.

If you have non-hubcentric (lugcentric) wheels, they should be torqued correctly while the vehicle is still off of the ground so they center properly. The weight of the vehicle can push the wheel off-center slightly while you're tightening them down if left on the ground.
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You should get the metal rings instead of the plastic ones, you won't have to replace them.