Hey everybody

I been wanting to put some steel wheels with "D style spoke" on my 3rd gen runner, the stock wheel size is 16x7 and the tire size I'm running is 265/70R16. I was told something about 4runners or Toyotas being hub-centric and best suited with alloy wheels not steel wheels which I was told were lug-centric. My question is, does anyone running steel wheels have problems running steely's?

Thanks!

 

What you'll have to do is either find a set of hub rings, which I'm not sure of anyone making them, or have them balanced with an adapter. Toyota put out a service bulletin reguarding this exact issue. Most tire shops don't know this, so they balance lug centric wheels with a hub centric adapter on their balancer. I know my dealer has the adapter for our balancer. Make sure you find a shop that has one, and you'll be fine.

 

Shouldn't be any problem Toyota sold them with steel wheels. I believe the lug studs are different for alloy and steel wheels though. You may have to change your studs.

 

Exactly what I was saying. The alloys use a shank style lug nut that uses the cent hub to center the wheel. The steel wheels used acorn lug nuts, that center the wheel using the lug nuts and studs. That's the reason behind the service bulletin I mentioned in my last post.

 

Thanks for the insight, I'm looking into buying steel offset wheels which this adapter you mentioned will be used to balance my steel wheels for hub centric use?

 

Sorry, I should've mention the wheel I wanted were to be offset. The stock steel wheels Toyota put out aren't offset. Obviously. Thanks.

 

Oh and about the lug studs, I didn't know those might have to be changed. How are the two different? Aside from the lug nuts and lugs holes on the wheels.

 

The studs are the same between steely's and alloys. Te difference is in the lug nuts themselves.

Here's a pretty good explanation. The steel wheels use the lug nuts on the far right, and the stock Toyota alloys use the center lug nuts.

 

I see now, but I can't remember exactly what my lug nuts looked like. I want to say they were tapered. So now if purchase the wheels I want, I would need to purchase the correct lug nuts right? Then when it comes to balancing the wheels would go with lug centric balancing or hub centric balancing?

Thanks again!

 

Exactly. Most tire shops can get you a new set of lug nuts.

 

I'm sure a million of us use these types of wheels on our trucks. I haven't heard of anyone having problems with theirs. You shouldn't either.

You don't need new studs. Just a change of lug nuts. Different lug nuts are used for aluminum and steel wheels.

 

I wasn't telling him he would have problems. I was just letting him know about the issue that quite a few people have seen. I mean, if there were enough complaints that Toyota issued a service bulletin, then it was a fairly big issue.

 

It shouldn't be a issue at all. Wheels are wheels. Toyota lug studs are centered perfect. Therefore any 6 lug wheel that matches the bolt pattern and center bore will fit. No matter how the tires balanced it should be fine. If you use the correct lug nut with the corresponding wheel there should be no vibrations or anything.

Please correct me if I'm wrong

As for the original post.
Your steelies should fit with no problems. Make sure your tire doesn't rub the upper a-arm and use the correct lugnuts

 

Thanks ya'll. One more thing, you reminded me about the rubbing issue. With offset wheels, is it most common to add wheel spacers to keep the tires from rubbing the upper control arm.

 

If the backspacing isn't enough you will encounter rubbing. However a spacer will accommodate.

 

And which service bulletin was this? Does this service bulletin apply to our beloved older pickups and 4Runners, or just the newer trucks?

I only know of the few that were issued to newer trucks with TRD wheels and/or TRD brake systems.

 

http://www.ih8mud.com/tech/tsb/Toyot...r/tsu00296.pdf

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/ballancing-problem-40204/

http://www.4runners.org/writeups/haweka/

There you go. It's been a known issue since the early '90's.