XuperXero

iTrader: (2)

I've recently installed a set of Ichiba wheel spacers. 25mm on all 4 corners with built in studs. It has seen one track day and multiple 150mph+ runs and has less than 1000 miles on them. However, on saturday, I was on my way back to Toronto from Buffalo.
I noticed some vibrations in the car and decided to push for another 140mph and see if it got any worse since I suspected a weight on the rim to have fallen off. But after a couple of high speed run, I heard a loud noise and the vibration sudden became earthquake like. I pulled over to check it out.
What do I find? one of the studs on my driver side front wheel is missing... The stud broke off on the spacer. The rim was also spacing itself away from the spacers as if it were stretching the threads on the studs. I had about 5mm gap between the rim and the spacer. Very dangerous indeed...

I cant fix it right now since I lost my wheel lock key and I have to take it to nissan for them to use their master key.

But I'll post pics of them once I get it.



A side note, this is a recent shipment of Ichiba spacers, they seem to be different from the older version. The studs on the newer version has goldish/yellow colored studs while the old version are all silver. So it is possible that in order to save cost of material, Ichiba may have switched to a lower grade studs made out of weaker metal...


Careful guys...

phreaktor

iTrader: (22)

A few things...

!. This is not a problem with the spacers. You are supposed to retorque the lugs on aluminum adapters/spacers AND aluminum wheels soon after installing them. Aluminum is is a "soft" metallurgic compound and it's properties change with heat. The lugs will loosen due to heat transfer.

2. The "gold" color studs are Grade 8 quality materail with a higher thread strength rating than the softer Grade 5 (all silver) studs. Trust me, I know because I used to install hydraulics on lowriders and they were used to mount the cylinders to the suspension due to their strength. The gold studs are BETTER.

Basically, this happened because you didn't retorque the lugs after running thiem in extreme conditions. If your run at 150 MPH for extended periods you need to inspect your vehicle.

Good Luck.

918 Z

iTrader: (11)

just lil fyi, if you hear a vibration, dont speed up. not a good time to test equipment. if you wouldve lost that wheel at 150, it could have been really ugly

SuperBlack350z

iTrader: (59)

lol, yeah, i agree.

z-u-later

iTrader: (43)

I have wheel spacers on all four corners, and autoX my car once, sometimes even twice a month. Never have any issues since I always re-torque my lugnuts almost every run. Like others have posted, you need to check & re-torque your lugnuts. Driving your car to 140mph to find out what is causing the vibration is not a smart way of diagnosing the problem.

dmoffitt

iTrader: (4)

yeah, that was QUITE dumb.

why is this in the track section? I'd expect most of us to be smarter than this.......

z-u-later

iTrader: (43)

My thoughts exactly . . . mods should move this thread to the wheel/tire forum.

Billhyco

iTrader: (14)

LMAO @ this..... why in the world would ANYONE if hearing a potential problem with their vehicle decide that a 140mph speed fest would help solve a diagnostics mystery.

Darwin Award canidate!?!?!?!!? WOW!


EDIT: on a side note, are spacers commonly found at track use? seems to me that with all the stress of high speed cornerning and braking, wheel spacers would not seem like a good idea. I would love to have a set of 15mm spacers but would DEFINATELY not use them at the track. Maybe I am just a paranoid freak. Anyone else using them at a PDX/HPDE????

Axelerate

iTrader: (19)

I use 10mm spacers for street use, and only 5mm for my track wheels. Never had any problems.

XuperXero

iTrader: (2)

Alright, I admit it was stupid, but I was really curious to where it was coming from...

I couldn't retorque it since I lost the wheel key. But I did torque the lug nuts both on spacer and wheel twice to 90lb/ft.

If the gold grade 8 metal was stronger, I'm surprised it still snapped on the highway...

usmanasif

iTrader: (4)

LOL! You are surprised? A 1.5+ ton mass hurtling forward at an extremely high rate of speed on a regular basis has a way of stressing even the strongest components. And as others have pointed out, your components' strength was highly compromised to begin with. How you lived to even tell us the story is beyond me...speeding up to check an imbalance issue? Hmmm

But then again, you claim to be a Super Zero...

racerbob4

iTrader: (8)

You cant just keep retorquing lug nuts. Lets say you use a torque set at 65 lbs. Then you take your clicker torque wrench and retorque and its up to 70. Then torque again and its up to 75, and then 80, and so on. Then it breaks and its the studs fault. Each time you torque your wheels be sure you are starting from a lower torque number and are really approaching the setting you want. 149 mph, your luck to be alive.

mhoward1

Question answered, so let's let this go.