[Ak1nza]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... 2469419707

Just wondering. I have heard they are unsafe and the such but how bad are they really?

I see it as a cheap way to push the rims out just a tad to get the wheels to fit the wells better.

I'm not buying them or anything so chill first before flaming. I just wanted more information about spacers and stuff.

Thanks in advance.

 

[MustGoFastR]

Interesting. I've heard the bad rap on them as well, but never really understood why. I'd like more info. as well.

 

[ujmot]

Same here... I've asked this question before: http://www.infinitifx.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=252

 

[phader07]

I've put on the H&R spacers (5mm) and everything is fine. It's been 1 week and i don't see any problems. The car handles a little better. And it looks definely better, but i don't think anyone can notice unless I tell them so.

 

[Ak1nza]

hey phader07,
A few questions if you don't mind.

Can you post some pics straight from the front of your car?

How much did it push your wheels out? The Ebay ad says 10-40MM or 40-60MM. Which did you purchase?

Easy/hard to install?

Did you purchase for all 4 wheels or just 2 for the rears?

If you don't mind, how much did you get them for?

How long after purchasing the car did you get them installed? Could you tell any difference in handling (you mentioned it handles better)?

I'd really love to see the difference it makes. Thanks in advance!

 

[phader07]

I bought mine from options auto salon. They sell in pairs, so I bought 2 pairs. 5MM thick.
http://www.optauto.com/webstore/product ... s&dept=417
H&R is a very reliable company. It's very easy to install. Just pull out your wheels and insert the spacers and put the wheels back on. Make sure you hand tight all the lugs before you torque(80ft-lbs) them in proper sequence. I've had my car for 1 month now and i feel less body roll after installing the spacers. I will post some pics soon.[/url]

 

[MustGoFastR]

I'm thinking it would need more than 5mm to make enough difference in looks and handling to be worth it. There's certainly room to push the wheels out further than that.

 

[ujmot]

The spacer kit for the FX looks like 15mm:

Infiniti FX35/FX45/G35/I30/J30/M30/M45/Q45
5/114.3 66.2 12x1.25 DRS 15mm 3065662

 

[Ak1nza]

Thanks for the info!

Anyways I did a bit of looking into this today. Here's a post from the ptcruiser forum (i did a search on google and it's what i found okay!? not a pt cruiser fan myself! just had some good info there) and here's what i found:

http://www.ptcruiserlinks.com/forum/top ... 3&ARCHIVE=

In short some guy had installed 25mm spacers on his pt and gave a positive review.

Also another guy from the same forum wrote:

..IRPT, no offense but you might want to get a new education on wheel spacers. The H & R's aren't the old "MR Gasket" style we used to use in the 70's that just slipped over the studs. The new hub centric's are made on a CNC machine and creates an exact duplicate of the wheel spindle with it's own new wheel studs. It bolts on the original spindle and studs and is perfectly centered on the hub snout with it's machined center, it's held on with new supplied lug nuts that are recessed into the spacer, new wheel studs are made on the spacer that the existing wheel is mounted on. I would bet these are stronger than the original wheel spindles. As far as CV joints, I can't see how they're effected being on the inner side of the front wheel spindle bearing. As far as offset load increase on the bearings it's no more than changing to a wheel of different offset... your just keeping the original wheel and adding offset. I have H & R spacers on many vehicles and never have heard of a failure or increased mechanical failure of the vehicle. We have a 4-wheel drive Ford F-350 wrecker with these spacers that are 2 1/2" offset. We use it for over the road transport and pull a 24' enclosed car hauler. It's got over 100,000 miles on the spacers, that's test enough for me!

link to that post here: http://www.ptcruiserlinks.com/forum/top ... el+spacers


I've heard a lot of negative things regarding wheel spacers and stuff. Not much support for the negativity though. I'm looking around for horror stories regarding them. Such as wrecked suspensions or something like that. I mean that's how much negativity surrounds them I think.

If you think about it, they're essentially the same as getting a wheel with a greater offset. If you bought a rim which you wanted to fill your wheel well that was the same width as stock, you'd have to get it with an offset which is stock + the spacer width. Lots of people do this with aftermarket wheels so what is the difference between doing this and getting a spacer?

Anyways i'll still research into this and post my findings. If I don't find anything really negative about it I think it's a great way to fill out your wheel wells without having to buy wider rims.

Any comments?

Anyways can't wait to see the pics phader!

 

[Ak1nza]

I'm thinking it would need more than 5mm to make enough difference in looks and handling to be worth it. There's certainly room to push the wheels out further than that.

The spacer kit for the FX looks like 15mm:

Infiniti FX35/FX45/G35/I30/J30/M30/M45/Q45
5/114.3 66.2 12x1.25 DRS 15mm 3065662

I looked up on H&R's website and they list 5MM, 15MM, 20MM, and 25MM as possibilities.

OptionsAuto lists up to the 20MM for the FX.

If you used 5MM spacers on each side of the car your width would increase by 10MM which is just under 1/2". That's about 1/4" on each side. The 15MM spacers would yield a total increase in width of 30MM or just over 1" so 1/2" increase on each side.

 

[MustGoFastR]

I just did some measuring on mine. Looks like 15mm is about right; maybe 20, but that might be pushing it. For it to really look right, I think you'd need the drop provided by the Eibach springs to accompany them.

 

[mushutofu]

So spacers help with how the car handles?

From the pircture I'm a little worried about the spacers because it might reduce the amount of thread available on the stud to bolt down our wheels.

 

[kcrudup]

If you think about it, they're essentially the same as getting a wheel with a greater offset.

How would that affect ASS-SEVA (ATTESA-ETS) and/or VDC, though?

 

[mushutofu]

I don't see why it would affect out traction control.

 

[phader07]

5MM is wide enough for me. I just wanted to keep the stock look with a little bit of improvement. You would need to install longer studs if you want 15MM or wider spacer. I didn't want to go through that trouble. With 5MM you don't have to change anything. They will fit right onto you stock studs.
I will post some pics tomorrow.

 

[MustGoFastR]

So spacers help with how the car handles?

From the pircture I'm a little worried about the spacers because it might reduce the amount of thread available on the stud to bolt down our wheels.

See Ak1nza's post above. These don't work like that.

 

[Ak1nza]

As per H&R's site and the EBay auction, the spacers will include longer wheel studs. This means that by using them you aren't actually reducing the amount of stud for the wheel lug to screw onto.

I guess the 5MM kit doesn't include them since 5MM is so little that there is still enough stud for you to screw onto.

Spacers don't reduce the contact patch on your car. Handling is improved because you're making the car track wider. This should reduce the amount of body roll you are feeling although I wouldn't expect it to be a huge amount since it doesn't widen the car that much.

You'll only reduce the contact area if you lower the car which will affect your camber.

It shouldn't affect VDC or AWD since both the front and the rear will be spinning at the same rate. I believe that's how AWD senses slippage.

A good thing I think that comes out of this is if you get a 15MM in the rear and a 5MM in the front, that sort of simulates a staggered set up when it essentially isn't. Am I right here?

A bad thing is that by making the track wider in the front you reduce an already poor turning radius!!

 

[kcrudup]

A bad thing is that by making the track wider in the front you reduce an already poor turning radius!

You think the FX turning radius is "poor"? I've found it to be pretty good- I can make uies in places I didn't think I could!

 

[mushutofu]

I took a ruler to measure out the gap and 15mm seems a lot. The way its set up right now the tire is pretty flush witht the side of the fender.

But I guess its ok if the car isn't dropped to go with 15mm. I don't think our vehicles could ever bottom out on a bump.

 

[MustGoFastR]

Well, the idea IS to push them out to the extreme edges of the fenders. The rears don't look bad as-is IMHO, but the fronts could deffinitely come out a bit (and if you were going to do that, then you'd have to do the rear). Depends on how far the suspension compresses as to whether or not you could do a drop as well. Eibachs only drop 1.8" or so and I believe they are progressive rate springs. I don't think I'd want to do this if it would significantly increase the turning radius, though; it's pretty good as-is, but I woudn't want it to be any wider.