Opinions - Bolt On Wheel Spacers

[hr32gts]

At present I am doing a bit of a brake upgrade on my R32 GTS

The plan is as follows

R33 GTS-T calipers

R33 GTS-T slotted rotors (redrilled to 4x114.3 PCD )

I Can get the above to all bolt up and sit good ... (bend the backing plate away from rotor and they spin fine without noise or scraping)

Only issue I have is my wheels wont clear the calipers as they are bloody huge and hit on the inside of the wheel spokes ..

I have some 6mm slip on spacers and when using 2 so thats 12mm they alow clearance for the calipers but the wheel studs are not long enough to then bolt the wheel on ...

I was thinking about getting some Billet bolt on spacers from Justjap around 15mm spacers should be all that I need to clear the brakes ...

What are peoples opinions of using these spacers ... I gather the Bolt on style hub spacers are safer to use than the generic crappy slip on style ones

Alot of people have told me to just upgrade to 5 stud but I allready have 2 sets of 17" wheels in 4x114.3 pattern and I dont want to change my wheels just yet...

[hr32gts]

Also does anyone have a pair of 4x114.3 bolt on spacers so that I can trial fit my brakes with them to check for offset and guard clearance

[mjfawke]

The bad news is that they are not legal. The JustJap hub-centric (ie. they locate on the wheel hub rather than the bolts) spacers seem to be well made, but if you get roadworthy'd or (worse) are in a crash might regret it. Especially if you crash and your insurance company walks away from you because your car wasn't street legal. Even the brake upgrade could be a pain - legally you need to get an engineers certificate.

Edited June 21, 2009 by mjfawke

[StinkyPoo]

I've run bolt on spacers on my car before.

There seems to be some hit and miss with the bolt on spacers. Some people have issues, some people don't have any.

15mm is too small. Look for atleast 20mm spaces but I've found the 25mm ones are the best. I do have a pair of 20mm bolt on spacers but I can't use them on my rims because the studs from the hub hit the rim. You could try them, but they are on a car at the moment.

If you want to keep everything legal... I think you'll be okay with the R33 gear on the R32. The specifications (I think) are the same as the R32 GTR. So you will not be changing anything that is not a factory option for the R32 therefore does not require certification.

Edited June 21, 2009 by StinkyPoo

[hr32gts]

I have everything pretty much sorted except for the wheel spacers

R33 calipers

R33 slotted rotors

All bolt up fine but need to space the wheel out to clear calipers or get wheels with a good offset which I don't currently have

Eiji if I can borrow 2 to test that would be cool ...

The reason being Is I wanna see if the hub studs will hit on the inside of the rim when bolted up using the 20mm spacers or if I should go with wider spacers like 30mm all round

Bolt on Spacers seem a lot cheaper than buying a new set of wheels for doing a simple brake upgrade

[datto260Z]

I had some 25mm ones on the rear of the datto. I got about 2ks and the wheels nearly came off the rear. I wont be trying them again, but some have lots of luck with them too.

[humsup34]

Hey All,

Been reading heaps on bolt on spacers and spacers in general. It seems everytime i find a positive post there seems to be as many negative posts about this particular item. I have a a set of rims which i would love to use but unfortunately the offset is incorrect. A set of 25mm hub centric bolt ons would save the day but then again am i gambling a bit too much? Anyway I thought i would add to this topic with a post i found at another site with regards to spacers. The post here doesnt refer to skylines but it does talk about suspension and so forth.......Anyway it seems logical what this person is saying but since Im not an engineer nor expert i guess for the time being im going to be sitting on the fence........

http://www.tundrasolutions.com/forums/tires-and-wheels/16949-wheel-spacers-are-they-safe/

You will never find wheel adapters or spacers on any vehicle I own.

The design of vehicle suspensions, and the matching of wheels to those suspensions, should be left to experts. The hairs go up on the back of my neck when I read about putting spacers or adapters between the wheels and the hubs JUST TO CHANGE THE APPEARANCE OF THE VEHICLE.

Here's a bit if insight into some of the effects of doing this:

A vehicle is not a "rigid body". It is flexible. As it rolls down the road, it flexes, and this includes the suspension components. I mean that the individual components of the suspension actually change their shape, and they change their positions and orientations relative to each other.

For example, the upper and lower control arms of the Tundra front suspensions pivot at their inboard ends. They pivot about bushings that are partly RUBBER.

Think about what happens to the control arms when you apply the brakes: 1) The forces generated try to rotate the spindle so that the upper ball joint is pushed forward and the lower ball joint is pushed rearward; 2) They push the tire, wheel, and spindle toward the rear, which pushes both ball joints toward the rear; and, 3) They try to rotate the tire, wheel, and spindle so the front of the tire points more outboard (i. e. because of the positive scrub radius, it tries to make total toe more negative), by putting an inward force on the end of the tie rod, thus pulling outward on both ball joints. Now, just what is the "net force" on a ball joint, and thus what is the "net change" in the orientation of the control arm to which it is attached?

If you space the wheel more outboard the vehicle, this DRASTICALLY increases the scrub radius, which is small to begin with. It thus DRASTICALLY increases the negative change in total toe that happens upon braking, especially hard braking. Do you want to GUESS what the effect is, just because you like how it LOOKS?

As I stated above, the vehicle flexes as it rolls down the road. In fact, total toe changes as it rolls depending on, among other factors, the speed of the vehicle. In a rear wheel drive vehicle like the Tundra, with rack-and-pinion steering mounted behind the front axles, total toe tends to become more negative as the speed increases. The specification for total toe is set such that the the "dynamic" total toe at a nominal speed (commonly about 55 mph) is zero. This prevents tire wear and increases stability, because the tire is not "scrubbing sideways" as it rolls down the road.

The increased scrub radius GREATLY affects the change in total toe due to speed. So, if you set the alignment of total toe dead on the factory spec, does that result in total toe being zero as you cruise down the road? Again, do you want to GUESS what the effect is, just because you like how it LOOKS?

How often have you seen or heard of a traffic accident which appears to have no reasonable cause? The driver just turned a corner or put on the brakes and the vehicle swapped ends? Next time it happens, look to see if the vehicle has stock wheels and tires on it.

I apologize for the rather strident tone of this response, but this subject is a raw nerve with me. I don't presume to tell people what they can and cannot do in modifying their own vehicles, but I point out that the accidents that result from modifications often have undeserving victims.

I follow the beat of a different cliche. I don't own a vehicle to impress anyone. Mine look fine, and I keep them clean and in good repair. To me, they are just transportation. I am concerned with how they work and how safe they are, not with what passersby think of them.

So, what do I drive? I have a 2000 Tundra Access Cab V8 SR5 4WD with the offroad package, on factory alloy wheels with Michelin LTX M/S in P265/70R16 tires. My wife has a 2001 Sequoia SR5 4WD, on factory alloy wheels with Michelin LTX M/S in P265/70R16 tires. I am VERY satisfied with how they drive. Please keep something in mind in your search for wheels.

Suppose you were to use a spacer or adapter to space the factory wheels out from the hub. Compare that to not using a spacer or adapter, instead using a different wheel with a "deeper dish" that moves the tire out the same distance the spacer or adapter did. From the point of view of the effect on the suspension, THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO SITUATIONS.

Perhaps I wasn't clear on that point.

I don't like the idea of spacers or adapters because of the potential of weak mounting, runout, and imbalance of the whole assembly. My primary concern is the effect on the suspension of spacing the wheel out from the hub compared to where it was designed to be. The effect of moving the wheel out is the same, regardless of whether it was done with a spacer, and adapter, or a different wheel.

[xRHETTx]

A bit of a thread hyjack, but I just discovered tonight that 2 of my rear wheels studs have snapped and another is threaded, all on my left rear wheel.

My car runs cheap crappy spacers on the rear wheels, the previous owner put them there to push the wheels out into the guards a bit more. They are only about 10mm thick though. The spacers dont have any hub centering lip or anything.

So I've done a bit of reading on snapping wheel studs and spacers etc, and it seems to be very common. I think my cheap crap spacers meant the wheels were not locating centrally on the conical wheel hub bit. This is also the part where all the weight of the car is meant to be taken, the wheel studs are only meant to be there to hold the wheel on. It seems because of the spacers ,the studs were taking the weight of the car and therefore snapped.

This seems to also be common with cheap multifit wheels, where the central hole doesnt line up with the wheel hub 'cone' to form a tight fit when the wheel is bolted up.

So once I replace all my broken/threaded wheel studs tomorrow, I will be removing the spacers and using them as frisbees.

cheers,

Rhett

[Trozzle]

I lol'd at the end, good idea mate!

[LANDSCRIBBLE]

Hi ive got a 1996 R33 GTST S2, are there any wheel spacers out there that are safe to use? has anyone personally had any problems with them? or is the guy in that quoted thread just paranoid to the shitter?

Cheers.