Centreless wheels

[PardonTheWait]

I have some questions.

a) What is the actual point of centreless wheels? Is there some advantage I haven't been made aware of? Why do Peugeot/Citroen do it, is it purely aesthetic?

b) Why can hardly anyone balance them? Are they that uncommon? Surely there's enough Pugs about for tyre fitters to bother getting the attachment for the machine.

c) Why can't I get a straight answer from anyone about why they can't balance them? I've been told that centreless wheels don't need balancing by several tyre fitters which smells strongly of bull**** to me and I've had a few centreless wheels balanced before (they needed it) - I presume they just say this because they don't have the machine.

If anyone doesn't know what I mean by centreless wheels:

No centre cap. Looks nice, pain in the arse.

 

[PardonTheWait]

normal tyre balancers have a rotating shaft that needs to pass through the centre of the wheel when you bolt it on. some balancers have an attachment that gets around this, but i don't know if it affects how well the tyre gets balanced
i used to have this problem all the time when i had a citroen 2cv. most tyre fitters dont have the adapter, but i didn't know any modern cars had this issue.

Doesn't affect how well they balance at all, it's just as you say - most garages/tyre fitters just don't have the extra attachment for balancing these wheels, so can't and don't balance them at all.

As far as I know centreless wheels are almost exclusive to PSA. I've had three sets of pug wheels now that are centreless, and there's loads more. I've just always been puzzled as to why they bother - I do think they look better than wheels with centre caps/holes, but let's be honest, not by much, and they're a tremendous pain when it comes to getting new tyres or having your wheels balanced.

I do wonder though about the 'don't need balancing' thing. Whether or not it actually works (and I can tell you it doesn't) is that the intention? Surely it can't be.

Last time I got one balanced I ended up going to a pug main dealer and they charged me £15!

 

[PardonTheWait]

Interesting stuff. I think the other place I had them balanced at was ATS, I wonder if there's one close to here for in future.