Wheel spacers are used with no issues for many reasons, from allowing non model designated wheels to be fitted to just making the wheel track look nicer.

 

Of these the hub centric spacers is the most expensive and the most well considered one's as they reinstated the hub connection rather than relying on the wheel nuts to centre the wheel on the hub.

 

However not all spacers and wheels are compatible and this must be checked thoroughly, a case in point is shown in the pictures below. The spacers were fitted to the front wheels only as they offset needed to be altered to ensure the wheel spoke missed the calipers.

 

At this stage I am not sure if they were supplied and / or fitted by the new wheel supplier or by the owner, I had been previously warned the front wheels were tight to remove off the hub even with all of the wheel nuts removed.

 

Well this was an understatement as the wheels were held fast and with every effort been made to avoid any damage to the new wheel it took some time to remove them.

 

But it was not the hub fit that was tight it was the incompatible spacers securing nuts fouling on the rear of the wheel spokes , in fact forcing the wheel to fit had mullered the nuts into the spoke recess! interestingly steering wheel shake was one of the items on the to check list?

 

Always a good idea to be especially careful when marring after market parts from different suppliers /manufactures as they may be top notch gear but not necessarily work together.

 

 

Jeff TT

 

 

 

 

 

Wow to get that kind of damage on the inner face of the wheel, must have cranked the wheel on super tight, even to get the face to sit flush.

just fitted some on mine the other day!! :ohmy:

 

but i dont remember the nuts being tight to wind on. and there ultralite (the company) ones which came off a 200sx so i assume there fine. Still, hell of an eye opener.

lol who in their right mind would use them type of nuts. Whoever put them on isnt a mechanic surely. Engineering isnt simply a case of DIY some of the time :)

Moral of the story: Buy wheels that fit.

Moral of the story: Buy wheels that fit.

 

Ideally, but often unlikely.

 

Moral of the story is to use the correct nuts, which should come with the spacers.

Apart from ensuring that you get nuts that fit, what other things do you need to look out for when fitting spacers?

Apart from ensuring that you get nuts that fit, what other things do you need to look out for when fitting spacers?

 

Hubcentric is a great start, make sure if you buy second hand the person has all the nuts that came with the spacers, otherwise more than likely they wont fit.

Looks like the wrong nuts, this was the issue I had with my car where the nuts worked loose as the spacer was aluminium and the nuts steel, so the nuts just ate into the spacer and worked loose.

 

Really made a mess of them!

Looks like the wrong nuts, this was the issue I had with my car where the nuts worked loose as the spacer was aluminium and the nuts steel, so the nuts just ate into the spacer and worked loose.

 

Really made a mess of them!

 

Wouldnt say that was caused by the nuts being steel, more like the facing's between the spacers and nuts were incompatable, or the spacers just had not been properly fitted

Wouldnt say that was caused by the nuts being steel, more like the facing's between the spacers and nuts were incompatable, or the spacers just had not been properly fitted

 

Well it just had steel wheel nuts fitted to the spacer when the car arrived with me, sadly i knew no difference and didn't think to check, until the wheel came of!

Lol, I hate spacers for one reason:

 

On the driver home after buying my Z one of the front wheels flew off! Luckily I was only doing 5 miles per hour trying to overtake a cyclist at the time.(The wheel overtook him but not the car lol)

Upon inspection all the wheel studs were fine and the wheel nuts were still bolted on tight.....to the spacer! but the spacer and wheel were no longer on the car. The seller had obviously done the spacer nuts hand tight 'cos he couldn't get his socket on them or something!

 

Even if I had checked the wheel bolts having bought the car (not something you usually do having just bought a car!) they would've appeared tight!

 

Could've been a whole lot worse!

 

The biggest thing wrong with hubcentric spacers is the users of them as JeffTT's pictures and my story show

Lol, I hate spacers for one reason:

 

On the driver home after buying my Z one of the front wheels flew off! Luckily I was only doing 5 miles per hour trying to overtake a cyclist at the time.(The wheel overtook him but not the car lol)

Upon inspection all the wheel studs were fine and the wheel nuts were still bolted on tight.....to the spacer! but the spacer and wheel were no longer on the car. The seller had obviously done the spacer nuts hand tight 'cos he couldn't get his socket on them or something!

 

Even if I had checked the wheel bolts having bought the car (not something you usually do having just bought a car!) they would've appeared tight!

 

Could've been a whole lot worse!

 

The biggest thing wrong with hubcentric spacers is the users of them as JeffTT's pictures and my story show

 

Exactly what happened to me! Same speed ish as well, although I had noticed a knocking 100 yards previously and had slowed to a crawl to get to a lit carpark a few hundred yards away so I could have a proper look.