Spacers - Yes Again, Yes I've Searched

[dangerous_daveo]

Hi all.

Make a long story short. Basically I just got new tyres, tyre guy said all he was going to put on the form was he sold me tyres, and didnt fit them due to my having wheel spacers. So I asked him why are they a problem, his reply...

"Because the spacer its self can move and loosen the wheel nuts." That and the obvious hub centering an loading thing. Now I can understand this being true with the cheap nasty slip on spacers. However if you click the below link, thats my old cheap nasty spacers, and my new shiny custom made ones, to fit my hub, and my wheel. I had to use a rubber mallet to put these on the car.

He STILL seemed to think this was an issue. Obviously its in his best interests for me to have a problem because then he can sell me new wheels. That said I do understand they are still illegal, and obviously for a reason.

Basically how worried should I really be?

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/in...t&p=2432648

[r33_racer]

Wouldnt worry at all about it. Ive made, fitted and used homemade spacers before, fitted my own tyres and wheels with no dramas ever. With your new ones which look like they centre the wheel and locate it perfectly, with the nuts just holding the wheel to the spacer you should be fine.

If your that worried, im not sure if they make such a thing, but get a set of nyloc wheel nuts which cant undo. If the wheels are alloy, which im assuming they are cause no one uses steel rims anymore, the alloy itself acts like a springwasher and the nuts really bite in hard when you do them up.

[Taleb Tyres]

Its actually the smart thing to do, no matter how well the spacers fit onto your hub and wheel setup, if they are illegal, then thats all your insurance/police need to shift blame if anything happens, if he did not tell you then he would be liable if anything did happen.

The only way to have legal spacers on, is to weld them onto the hub, and then get them engineered,(coming from an rta inspector when i got defected for 30mm bolt ons)

That said, as far as drivability goes, those spacers you've got are fine, its the legality of them he was talking about mainly.

[dangerous_daveo]

Thanks fellas. I dont disagree with what they did at all. I mean they cant be liable, so from their business's point of view its the right thing.

My question was more so why he said they were illegal and a problem, Id never heard of the movement issue before.

[turboedsloth]

its because the cheap nasty spacers move an make the wheel nuts come loose and also because your widening the wheel track from standard, your modifying a standard part of the car and it also puts extra pressure on the wheel bearings. i made hub centric 10mm spacers for mine (like yours daveo) and when i went over the pits i asked him about them and checked my track and said because i had modified it it wasnt legal, he let it go but because i made them good an i made him some. also quite a few businesses wont do work on cars that they see can be a problem and the customer coming back with a lawsuit against them

Edited December 1, 2007 by turboedsloth

[n15m0]

its just an arse covering exercise...because spacers of any sort are illegal fullstop. Same thing goes, if you brought in some unroadworthy tyres to be fitted, I bet you they won't and will try and sell u new shit.

[Taleb Tyres]

he let it go but because i made them good an i made him some

Haha gotta love the mutual favours

But yeah as was said, some spacers do compress over time depending on their quality and material = loose nuts = bad.

this is why its recommended if you ever get new wheels, you tighten them after a short drive to make sure they stay tight, even if an air gun was used first time round.

Edited December 1, 2007 by T187

[DjeMz]

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/R3...32-t169774.html

i had them 'slip on spacers' and every time i came back from some dori, my wheel nuts where loose (all of the fronts)

then i decided to take the wheels off n inspect the nuts, the thread were f**ked coz it wasnt loosening off the car, it was being pushed out...

ended up buying $200 worth of wheel nuts/studs.

f**k the slip on shit, get some bolt on spacers they may be around 50-80 each but cant be worse then ur tire flying off mid drift.

[turboedsloth]

these are the ones i made. never had any problems and after nearly 2 years they still look like i made them yesterday

[DjeMz]

maybe it depends on the kind of abuse.. ie sideways vs straight line?

[Laurence]

With slip ons, I usually tighten them up on the car. drop the car, tighten them up. drive the car around a bit turning left and right and tighten them up and then I am good to go. They usually have a bit of a turn left in them when I do it so they do seem to settle as you load. This was when I was running 2 slips totalling 18mm (10+8). Prior to that I was running 3 (5+5+8).

A tyre shop has told me that you only need tyres speed rated to 100km/h and a million other interesting facts so I wouldn't worry too much about what they say.

[turboedsloth]

mines an all rounder. daily, track and quarter mile thing and yeah they still look good

[GTR-80Y]

Ran slip on spacers for 6yrs....never had a problem.

[STATUS]

i refuse to use slip-ons, in drifting the abuse always ends in tears, bolts -ons are the only way to go....

but in your case pull the wheels and tyres off and take them in to your tyre place of choice... they cant refuse what they cant see.