Why are these wheels made like this?

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jos51700

jos51700

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Walking through a parking lot, I spotted these on a Toyota. Why would you omit two holes in the rim like this?

IMG_20250708_121117.jpg


First thought was balance, because they're opposite the valve stem hole, but there were weights on three wheels, one right next to the valve stem.

Second thought was money, you're saving two punching operations, but then you have to clock them to the valve stem hole and still balance them.

Makes no sense. Any ideas why this is?
 
Simple!

In 50 years, the owner can point to them and say he’s got the ultimate Toyota COPO, Special Order, Ultra Rare, and almost unobtainable One-off, Factory Delete, “Two Holes Package” that makes his car a One of One!

Then again, probably not going to be too many Toyotas at car shows 50 years from now, so what the heck do I know!

:lol:
 
Looks like a spare tire wheel. Maybe some way to mark them as such though I have never seen this before.
 
ProjectBazza said:
But on a more serious note, I wonder if they’re not made this way to break-up the wind/airflow so that the wheels don’t “sing” at speed.
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I'm unfamiliar with this! Explanation?
mopowers said:
Does it have to do with the covers that were on them from the factory?
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Couldn't tell you, it was four of these, no hubcaps.
ocdart said:
What did the other three wheels look like? Were they also '13 holers'?
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Exact same, all four corners. Different weights and locations though. One had no weights on the outside.
BrianT said:
@jos51700 were you in Peculiar?!? :lol:
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This was in Grandview, actually
 
jos51700 said:
I'm unfamiliar with this! Explanation?
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I'll probably completely butcher this, as I'm at work and in a bit of a hurry, but at the risk of making a fool of myself I'll take a stab at this.

First, have you ever looked at (prop type) fan blades, whether in your house or in your car, and noticed that blades are never spaced evenly? That's done on purpose so that the fan doesn't generate an annoying tone. Secondly (and this one's a little "out there"), you can generate a tone by spinning a toothed wheel in close proximity to a magnetic pick-up (think of a pick-up sensor in an electronic distributor, but with a LOT more tabs on the reluctor), and then amplifying the signal that is generated by it. (Ha! This is also VERY loose correlation to how a Hammond B3 organ works.). Or maybe think of vibrating guitar strings....

Anyway, any regularly patterned "pulse" will generate a tone, and depending on the frequency, that tone may just be audible. And annoying.
 
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ProjectBazza said:
I'll probably completely butcher this, as I'm at work and in a bit of a hurry, but at the risk of making a fool of myself I'll take a stab at this.

First, have you ever looked at (prop type) fan blades, whether in your house or in your car, and noticed that blades are never spaced evenly? That's done on purpose so that the fan doesn't generate an annoying tone. Secondly (and this one's a little "out there"), you can generate a tone by spinning a toothed wheel in close proximity to a magnetic pick-up (think of a pick-up sensor in an electronic distributor, but with a LOT more tabs on the reluctor), and then amplifying the signal that is generated by it. (Ha! This is also VERY loose correlation to how a Hammond B3 organ works.). Or maybe think of vibrating guitar strings....

Anyway, any regularly patterned "pulse" will generate a tone, and depending on the frequency, that tone may just be audible. And annoying.
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THAT makes a ton of sense! Thanks!
 
I don't think I've ever seen a FABO thread with a dead end. Somebody needs to sneak on over to a good Toyota forum.
 
I think the simplest explanation is that those last holes were accidentally just left out.
 
I still think it has something to do with spares. Maybe a specific offset for a particular model so the robot knows which one to grab.
 

I googled it and this is all I could find.
Screenshot_20250710-000611_Google.jpg
Again, the missing holes are opposite the valve stem. To me, that seem like too much weight for a valve stem. Unless, it has one of those pressure monitors (that I am unfamiliar with).
 
Simple explanation, They were running low on holes and tried to save some.................
Makes as much sense as all the other guesses I heard on here.
The lugnuts are the wrong type for these wheels so one of them doesn't belong there.
Wrong wheels or wrong lugnuts, or both. Just a set of rims with the same bolt pattern.
Could be spare wheels.
Pictures of the rim stamping codes would tell unless there are some import car experts out there.
But really ? It just goes to show how much time we have on our hands to even think about stupid things like this.
Maybe we should just ask sleepy Joe
 
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Take it for what it's worth. Here's what ChatGPT had to say on the matter when I uploaded the image.

"The two “missing” holes are not a defect, but a deliberate engineering decision to balance structural strength, manufacturing efficiency, and valve stem placement. These kinds of asymmetries are common in steel wheels, especially on OEM economy models."

Tom
 
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