Vibration after fitting wheel spacers

Fast,not furious

Fast,not furious

Dealing with an OCD
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I fitted 10mm spacers to the front,and 12mm to the rears during the week,all seemed ok,but i've only been driving locally.

I took the car out on the motorway this weekend,and noticed quite bad vibration,seemingly coming from the front,as i felt it in the steering,most noticeable between 70-80,and ok at 85.

Could it be wheel balance exaggerated by the spacers (H&H hubcentrics)?
I haven't noticed it before though!

Or maybe that the locking bolts were 5mm too long on the front,and i didn't bother cutting them down?

I've checked that the bolts are tight,and the wheel balancing weights are still stuck on....and i haven't bumped over a kerb or potholed them,so balance should 'theoretically' be ok.

Any ideas guys?:uhm:
 
Had exactly the same thing mate.

The spacers magnify any slight balancing issue with the wheel.
I had exactly the same thing at about 80mph.
I actually circualted my wheels to get even tyre wear and with the rear wheels at the front the issue has gone!

Try it - if it goes that is the issue. You can then go to a local tyre outfit and get the wheels re-balanced!

Hope that helps
 
If hub centric then it shouldnt be them at all, I would check each spacer closely as I've had fair few hub centrics & never had these issues you mention, but then again mine wernt H&R

Did you check each spacer on the wheel hub to check all secure, flat & no movement at all, if even the slightest gap it would cause this
 
Did you order ALL the bolts for front and rear at the same length? If you've got 36/37mm bolts on the front with say a 40mm locking bolt that's probably your problem. Even just that bit of extra length on 1 wheel bolt could be throwing it out of balance at higher speeds.
I wondered about this when i was ordering mine so i ordered all the bolts at the same length.
 
Thanks guys,i think i'm going to cut all of the locking bolts down so they're the same size as the spacer bolts - i figured i try them out first though :( (McGuard only had one length in stock),making sure that the spacers are fitting totally flush (pretty sure they are,but i'll check) and swap front/rear wheels around! That's all bases covered!

:undwech:
 
Just to finally add, I had smaller size bolts on fronts than rears & didnt make any difference at all interms of vibrations mate, so I would have your wheels balanced again & check spacers.
 
have you got the right bolts? if you have got standard alloy wheels then you should have radius bolts. it could be that they have sent you tapered bolts in error.
 
I have vibrations and so does L6ON after fitting H&R hubcentric spacers ( very common )

p
 
That would be why I didnt get vibrations then, mine wernt H&R, I am leading to believe these spacers arent totally hub centric fitment cause 1 ok possible other issues on car but 3+, its gotta be the spacers.

I made an assumption the bolts were correct but good call though Mikey as even the sellers of spacers dont know which bolt is which, lol
 
Well i've got H&R's on the front and Eibach on the rear. 40mm bolts throughout. Only fitted them this weekend so haven't ventured onto a motorway yet...
Might have a quick blast tonight and report back.
 
Mikey said:
have you got the right bolts? if you have got standard alloy wheels then you should have radius bolts. it could be that they have sent you tapered bolts in error.
Click to expand...

Yup! Standard wheels,so defo radius bolts...just waiting for the rain to stop so i can check everything out!
 
phantom said:
I have vibrations and so does L6ON after fitting H&R hubcentric spacers ( very common )

p
Click to expand...

I had the same problem mate and after swapping the wheels round it's gone - Damian @ DPM mentioned to me that they exagerate and unbalanced wheel, so I clearly had one slighty out of balance at the front. After swapping the rears to the front I've not had the problem again. Worth trying as it annoyed the hell out of me and I'm much happier now it has gone.

J
 
jamiekip said:
I had the same problem mate and after swapping the wheels round it's gone - Damian @ DPM mentioned to me that they exagerate and unbalanced wheel, so I clearly had one slighty out of balance at the front. After swapping the rears to the front I've not had the problem again. Worth trying as it annoyed the hell out of me and I'm much happier now it has gone.

J
Click to expand...

LOL mine has just started to vibrate - very slightly - just after I swapped the front and rear tyres around ! If it get any worse then I will swap them back - tyres seem to be wearing prety even anyway

Richard
 
Right - just swapped front for rears! It might be worth noting that McGuard bolts (standard,not Ultra) weigh in @8 grammes heavier than the supplied H&H bolts,when cut down to size...i know it's a little,but it may well be enough.

Oh,there was a ****** great lump of tarmac stuck on the inside of one of the rears....only had them off to fit the spacers and clean them last week! That would have been enough to unbalance that one!

Motorway test to follow...

Also,pics of bell housings now painted with Halfords VHT paint.
S3003-3.jpg


S3001-4.jpg
 
Yep, I had the same thing after fitting 10 mm spacers, wheel wobble at 80. When I first fitted mine I didn't order any locking nuts so I was driving around with only 4 nuts for each wheel, serious wheel wobble!! Got some locking nuts and most of it went away. Had some new tyres fitted to the front recently which were obviously balanced properly and its gone completely.

Must be down to the wheel nuts or out of balance wheels that causes it. Try either and see what happens.
 
Might be that you have a slightly buckled front wheel. Might be worth getting the wheels balanced again. Swapping the rears to the front may not cure the problem if the rears are not perfectly balanced
 
I had this same issue, got my tyre guy to balance my wheels and spacers together, with the bolt holes lined up, then we put a mark on the wheel and spacer so when we refitted the wheels to the car the spacers where in the same postion. Hey presto. perfect.
 
You will find if you take the wheels off the car sometimes they are not balanced totally correct from the factory!

Mine were not on my previous S3 and had to have them rebalanced and this solved everything when I fit my spacers.
 
I've now had my wheels balanced - they were all out,and the ones i swapped from rear to front were also slightly buckled!
I can only blame that on the **** poor quality of the roads around Yorkshire and Lincolnshire,nowhere else do i have to switch lanes so much to avoid potholes and ****** great bumps on motorways and A roads,as the car has never been kerbed or indeed bumped up or down a kerb,and i'm the only driver. And i'm really looking forward to the impending speed bumps near my abode!

I'm gonna try swapping the rears for the fronts again(although it started before the switch)

If that fails,the spacers are coming off!

....a costly morning for me,as i've just booked the car for a custom high flow cat and 3" downpipe! :yes:
 
The spacers are safe....i've swapped the wheels around again,so the slight buckling is on the back....she's nice and smooth now! :)
 
Fast said:
....she's nice and smooth now! :)
Click to expand...

Good stuff....Just how we like it!

I found out at the weekend that i'm getting a little wobble at 80mph (iwas on an autobahn obviously) so going to get the wheels balanced next week.
 
lol, yeah thats lift of speed huh
 
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