Hi, just had 4 new tyres put on Eunos Mk 1. Tyre place was offering free alignment check with the 4 new tyres, but they couldn’t do it as my wheels were missing spigots, as I have aftermarket alloys!? Gave me a couple of places to get them and have looked on ebay too. Anyone care to explain in simple words what they are, anywhere else I can look?
The presence or absence of spigots will not affect the accuracy of any alignment work. They are talking nonsense.
The MX-5 wheels are hub-centric, meaning the centre of the wheel should be a snug fit on the hub. The aftermarket wheels have too big a hole in the middle, the spigots are to take up the slack so to speak. They are usually in the form of a plastic ring, or perhaps aluminium. You will need to know the size of the hole in the wheel and the size of the hub in oder to get the correct spigots. The missing spigots may affect the balance of the wheel on the car but not alignment.
Got some off ebay for 2quid a pop, but when garage fitting them today, they were about 3mm too small. They did show me when my car was on the ramp etc. Still all seems a bit odd to me. The alignment was a freebie with the 4 tyre purchase so not moaning too much and ebay shop happy to refund.
On the plus side, it was nice to see under my car and see my cheeky cat bypass I had put on a few weeks ago [:)]
I’ve been running for about a year without spigot rings, The only thing I would say is to tell the tyre fitters to tighten up the wheel nuts little by little so the tapers on them can pull the wheel central on the hub.
The only issue I can see is if you loose a wheel in an accident, Your insurers are going to take a dim view.
I once ran a set of volvo T5 wheels on a VW Sharan. The PCD of the wheels was wron so I had the inserts milled by an engineering shop. I ran the car without spigots for a while but things got shaky 90mph+, not a great worry. I then had a set of spigots milled up by them and it was much better.
I’ve had to buy some in the last week or so as i’ve just bolted one of my old sets of wheels off my MX5 onto my girlfriends Tigra. I’m sure it is possible, but i’d certainly not want to drive around without them on !! To stop any possible wheel shake and and any further repocutions for the sake of a few quid is money well spent … you’d not drive round with only 3 bolts on a wheel etc.
I got mine from Rochford Tyres (www.alloywheels.com). They were £15 delivered. Which I know is more expensive than Ebay, but they were the correct ones and fitted perfectly. If you call them and tell them what alloys you’ve got and what car they are being bolted onto then they’ll post out the correct ones.
Thanks for that. Will give them a bell. Had a look at my allolys as never taken note of what make - Madeeni!? Anyone ever heard of them? Nothing really comes up on google.