Wheel Spacer Vibration

[still_life127]

Hi All. This issue is driving me insane, so I hope someone has some experience with it.

After finally deciding to ditch the knock off FR-500 that have been giving me hell with balancing from day one... I was left with the brembo clearance problem with my stock 18's. Obvious solution? 1" Wheel spacers... Seemed easy enough. Lots of people run them. I was going to pick up a set from american muscle but I wanted black, being that my rotor hubs are powder coated black and my wheels are painted black, I didn't want this sore thumb sandwiched in the middle. So I came across this set:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/380802961934?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

Perfect. Affordable, Black, and according to the item description - "hub centric"

So after a month of dealing with the god-awful stock 2 pistons I finally got these bad boys in the mail and got to work. I did everything the way I had read to online. I cleaned everything up as best as possible - the hubs, rotor faces, back of the wheels, etc. Slipped these on, cranked them down to the factory specified 100 lb ft per lug in a star shaped pattern with my torque wrench. The front ones were a bit snug around the wheel hub, so I screwed the lugs onto the wheel spacer studs, gave them a little tap with the sledge and bolted the to the hubs, followed by the wheels. Also torqued to spec of course. Now, the stock studs stick out a bit passed the wheel spacer but the stock wheels have the cavities between the mounting holes and appear to measure 1/8" deeper then how much the studs stick out. The wheels appear perfectly flush with the spacer when mounted. Everything appears to fit perfect.

Unfortunately, Now I'm left with the worst vibration ever in what appears to be all 4 wheels... I contacted the wheel spacer manufacturer and they said to have the wheels properly balanced on a hunter gsp9700 road force balancer as wheel spacers can exacerbate previously un-noticed wheel vibration. Seemed like a valid possibility so I took them and had them properly balanced. Vibration unchanged. I removed the rear wheel spacers and that seemed to eliminate the vibration in the rear wheels but the steering wheel shakes so much that it seems to vibrate the whole car so its kinda hard to say for sure. Unfortunately I cant try taking off the front spacers as now I have the brembos back on and really don't want to go through that again unless I have to.

Am I missing something here or are these things just garbage? I did a bit of research and found somebody saying you needed to use the hub-centric type that h&r and eibach sell with the lip sticking out passed the wheel spacer center bore. Aren't the stock wheels lug-centric though? Isn't that why the lugs are taperd at the bottom as well as the wheel mounting holes? I mean technically these wheel spacers sit tight around the wheel hub center, so doesn't that technically line them up and make the "hub-centric" as the manufacturer claims? Would eliminating the second set of studs installed in the wheel spacers and installing longer studs to compensate fix this problem?

Help...

 

[Jucostud]

Stock wheels are hub centric, not lug centric. Also, you aren't supposed to use spacers with oe wheels because of the length of the stock studs. These spacers are not hub centric. They claim they are because the spacer mounts up hub centric, but it doesn't have the hub centric lip for your wheel. You also have to cut the factory studs to use these spacers with stock wheels.

 

[weather man]

Junk

 

[TGR96]

I have had both positive and negative experiences with different types/brands of wheel spacers, and the best set that I have ever personally used were the Eibach 1" wheel spacers. I'd try a set of those if I were you, and just paint them black with some high temp paint. Or have them powder coated.

This is the exact spacers that I used. Notice the little lip that extends from the hub center? That's the part that makes them "hub-centric." It looks like the ones shown in your ebay ad don't have that, therefore, they aren't truly hub-centric.

http://www.americanmuscle.com/eibach-spacers-25mm.html

I will say though, even with these high quality hub-centric wheel spacers, I did have occasional vibrations at highway speeds, even after having the wheels and tires load balanced.

 

[Jeffk]

Or you can get these and have them PC'd black.

I got a full set from Cam and ran my car up to 140 with no issues.

http://www.mustangwheelspacers.com/

 

[cbass]

I would call adaptitusa. Buy the right part the first time, and leave the ebay parts for Hondas and Scions.

 

[KrisR]

I'm just throwing this out there....you did remove the rotor retaining clips before bolting the spacers on, right? I'm guessing you did, just thought I would ask.

 

[Jucostud]

Spacers usually have tendamin relief cut into the then back side which means it wouldnt matter if the clips were there or not

 

[frank s]

H&R-costly results in zero problems. I'd take steps to be certain the stock wheels actually do have voids where the hub studs emerge beyond the spacers, however; I know it's a fact on the old "Fanblade" wheels, but don;t know about any others.

 

[skwerl]

I'm just throwing this out there....you did remove the rotor retaining clips before bolting the spacers on, right? I'm guessing you did, just thought I would ask.

This.

 

[still_life127]

Stock wheels are hub centric, not lug centric. Also, you aren't supposed to use spacers with oe wheels because of the length of the stock studs. These spacers are not hub centric. They claim they are because the spacer mounts up hub centric, but it doesn't have the hub centric lip for your wheel. You also have to cut the factory studs to use these spacers with stock wheels.

Are you 100% sure on that? I've had more then one technician tell me they were lug centric. Then again, we all know how easy it is to get a certification and call yourself a "technician". The factory studs should not be interfering. I measured the length that the stock stud is sticking out passed the spacer vs. the depth of the cavities between the mounting holes on the wheels. I have about 1/8" worth of room.

I have had both positive and negative experiences with different types/brands of wheel spacers, and the best set that I have ever personally used were the Eibach 1" wheel spacers. I'd try a set of those if I were you, and just paint them black with some high temp paint. Or have them powder coated.

This is the exact spacers that I used. Notice the little lip that extends from the hub center? That's the part that makes them "hub-centric." It looks like the ones shown in your ebay ad don't have that, therefore, they aren't truly hub-centric.

http://www.americanmuscle.com/eibach-spacers-25mm.html

I will say though, even with these high quality hub-centric wheel spacers, I did have occasional vibrations at highway speeds, even after having the wheels and tires load balanced.

This may be the route that I have to go. I could deal with a little vibration now and then. This will just be a temporary setup so I can continue running my brembos until I can save for a good set of wheels and tires. Unfortunately Im probably SOL on getting my money back on these spacers so I'm going to try to see if this same company has a truely hubcentric version, possibly with longer studs to replace the stock ones so I don't have to have the setup with 2 sets of lugs/studs.

I would call adaptitusa. Buy the right part the first time, and leave the ebay parts for Hondas and Scions.

I generally agree with you 100% with ebay parts. I don't have a single ebay part on my car before this. I was just trying to find an affordable temporary solution.

I'm just throwing this out there....you did remove the rotor retaining clips before bolting the spacers on, right? I'm guessing you did, just thought I would ask.

Of course I did =p

H&R-costly results in zero problems. I'd take steps to be certain the stock wheels actually do have voids where the hub studs emerge beyond the spacers, however; I know it's a fact on the old "Fanblade" wheels, but don;t know about any others.

Yes these stockers do have the cavities. Like i said, I measured the length that the stock stud is sticking out passed the spacer vs. the depth of the cavities between the mounting holes on the wheels. I have about 1/8" worth of room.

Thank you guys for all your help. I'm kind of debating between buying a good set of true hub centric spacers like the eibachs or finding a cheap set of stock brembo or 07-09 GT500 wheels... Hmmm...

 

[Newman]

Are you 100% sure on that? I've had more then one technician tell me they were lug centric. Then again, we all know how easy it is to get a certification and call yourself a "technician". The factory studs should not be interfering. I measured the length that the stock stud is sticking out passed the spacer vs. the depth of the cavities between the mounting holes on the wheels. I have about 1/8" worth of room.

Yes they are hub centric .

 

[Jucostud]

^^^ what the other discount tire empoyee said... Lol.

 

[still_life127]

^^^ what the other discount tire employee said... Lol.

Oh god no, I wouldn't listen to anybody from a automotive chain like that... lol. I try to avoid those places like the plague.

The ones that told me they were lug centric were actually from privately owned performance shops... Sad.

 

[302GT]

Had a pair of these on the rear my '04 Mach 1 and never had a single problem. They're hubcentric too.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-pcs-1-INCH-5x4-5-Wheel-Spacers-Adapters-5Lug-1-2-FORD-MUSTANG-/121245076753?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item1c3ac50d11


Of course I wouldn't track the car with them but I did have it up to the speed and didn't have any vibrations.

 

[Jucostud]

Oh god no, I wouldn't listen to anybody from a automotive chain like that... lol. I try to avoid those places like the plague.

The ones that told me they were lug centric were actually from privately owned performance shops... Sad.

Two differant situations bro. Discount tire is a specialty shop that only deals with wheels and tires. They are also the leading tire and wheel seller in the country. You can't compare information that you got from "some performance shop" to a wheel and tire expert.

 

[2012Coyote]

http://www.mustangwheelspacers.com/

On a different note, do you want to sell me your headlights?

 

[cbass]

Two differant situations bro. Discount tire is a specialty shop that only deals with wheels and tires. They are also the leading tire and wheel seller in the country. You can't compare information that you got from "some performance shop" to a wheel and tire expert.

Yup. Can't count how many times I've had people tell me their impact breaks are manufacturing fault because their cousin who dropped out of UTI looked at it.

 

[still_life127]

Two differant situations bro. Discount tire is a specialty shop that only deals with wheels and tires. They are also the leading tire and wheel seller in the country. You can't compare information that you got from "some performance shop" to a wheel and tire expert.

Well It should definitely be that way. To be fair, Its been a long time since I've actually been to a Discount Tire, as unfortunately there are none in my area. The few times I had been to one in the past, i definitely had a good experience. However, I have had more bad experiences then good at chains like Tires Plus, Midas, etc. vs. generally good experiences from privately owned places. So when somebody mentioned discount tires, I did lump them together with the other chains. My bad.

Also, one of the performance shops that told me the stock wheels were lugcentric wasn't just some "performance shop" aka some privately owned bay out of random warehouse district. This place is a gorgeous, free standing building and they regularly work on Lamborghinis, Porsches, and other exotic cars so i assumed they had their shit together. But obviously looks can be deceiving. Or maybe this place is legit and this guy was just new or made a mistake. I dont know.

 

[Jucostud]

Not trying to bash the performance shop, just stating that most mechanics no nothing about wheels and tires.