awebber

Hey guys so I put 15mm spacers on the front of my 350z due to a rubbing issue on my upper control arm. Completely fixed the rubbing BUT now my steering wheel vibrates above 35mph. Seems sketch so I haven't drove it more. They are hubcentric spacers and seemed to bolt on fairly easily. Any thoughts? Should I get higher quality spacers or wheel alignment. Are there other factors that may be influencing this?

Wheels on the car are rohana rc10 with +40 offset. Car has less then 50,000 miles. I know this is already on the forum a little bit but im not sure if there was a solution. People were saying to make sure they were installed right but are there too many spots to go wrong installing a spacer? Just kind of put it on the wheel hum and tighten it evenly, then put the wheel on the same way. I dont want to drop $150 on front spacers just to have the same issue but I will if the problem is that my $40 ECCP spacers are too cheap and arent going to fit right.

For the record, I only got cheaper spacers because I wasnt 100% sure that this would fix the problem because I had the wheels on for a year and never had issues until a month ago. Thanks for any advice guys!

SQuaLZ

Are these spacers bolt-on or slip-on?

What brand?

tjr_z33

TJ Hunt had the same issue with his widebody 350z. You could back to his YouTube videos and see what he did to fix it. I can't remember what he did. I know that he got an alignment and that helped a lot.
Good Luck!

SQuaLZ

Alignment has nothing to do with shaking, although I would recommend getting one since your camber is adjusted from the wheels being pushed further out.

Either the wheels need to be balanced or the spacers are not correctly on the hub, causing a vibration. I have Z1 bolt-on spacers, 20mm front and 25mm rear and had 0 issues. No vibration or anything like that.

travlee

iTrader: (8)

i wonder if the spacer hub bore is correct

MicVelo

We kinda started down that path here: https://my350z.com/forum/2003-2009-n...l#post10887923

If the wheels aren't perfectly centered, this could certainly contribute to vibration issues.

awebber

Here is a link to the ones I bought.


They are by ECCPP. Im guessing they are bolt-on right? I know they are cheap ones so maybe that is why i am having this issue but like i said, I wasnt sure if this was going to fix my problem so I wasnt going to buy really high quality ones. Even though I imagine it is possible for high quality ones to still vibrate. Maybe my wheels arent on evenly? I put them on how I always do so idk. The customer support seems very sure that these should work on the Z.

awebber

Thats a good point. To be honest, this is my first time using spacers so im not really sure what a hub bore is. Is this an extra thing you have to buy with the spacer or is it something that just may not be the right size on the spacer for my wheels / car? Here is a link to the spacers I purchased.

awebber

Okay I see what you mean. Would you suggest me jacking the car up again and just tightening the bolts down as evenly as possible? I normally dont put crazy effort into doing it because I had not expected to get the vibrations. If you think that could be a solution though, I can try again and pay much more attention.

awebber

Yeah I watch TJ pretty religiously and thought of the vid right away when it happened to me. I guess he just got more expensive / high quality spacers. He was doing 50mm spacers on a wide body though so I always figured that was way more drastic compared to 15mm on stock suspension.

MicVelo

Hub rings are nylon or aluminum rings that fit in the hub bore on the back side of the wheel. A lot of aftermarket wheels are drilled/cast/forged with a large hub hole to accomodate a lot of different cars.

The Z has a 66.1mm hub. If your wheels are 73.1mm, you'll need a 7mm hub ring or more commonly referred to as a 73.1 to 66.1 hub ring like these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Hub-Centri...JX3Pa2&vxp=mtr

(BTW, that "73.1" is not an arbitrary number I pulled out of my.... back pocket ... a LOT of 5x114.3 wheels use that size hub hole to be able to run on many different cars)

Don't buy them yet though. You first need to take your wheels off and check to see if they have them in the hub bores. If you don't happen to see them in the wheel, make sure you check the actual hub because they easily come out of the wheel and get stuck on the hub.

If they're missing, you will need to know the hub hole size of the wheels. You can either measure with an inside mic (not me, a micrometer) or other like calipers. Or, just check with the manufacturer of the wheel. It's usually listed with their wheels online.

Once you know the wheel hole size, order the correct hub rings. 73.1 to 66.1.... 72.6 to 66.1, or [ fill in blank ] then order accordingly.

awebber

Youre the man. I just purchased them now through the link you sent me. They were only $4 so its no big deal. I checked with the manufacturer and you were spot on with the 73.1 bore size. Ive had the wheels off a couple times and definitely never noticed any type of bore or anything of that nature so I will definitely give them a shot. I hope this works, too many problems with my car right now

travlee

iTrader: (8)

trav and mic tag teamed webber..... for the possible issue

awebber

Yeah I think you are right. I got an adapter for the 73.1 bore on my wheels and see if it fixes it to spec. I honestly didnt know you needed anything else besides the spacer. I guess it makes sense though so that the wheels can fit on more vehicles. Ill keep you guys posted on what happens.

MicVelo

Cool, hope that was the problem and this is the fix.

BTW, hub rings aren't just for spacers... you need them anytime the wheels don't have the proper hub centric fit. Pretty much, unless you're buying Nissan/Nismo wheels, you'll need hub rings; as most aftermarket companies don't sell specifically-66.1mm hub-hole'd wheels.

Something else I noticed you mentioned was about "tightening the lug nuts evenly" and "I don't do that usually". Careful there as you need to do a gradual torquing of the lugs in a star pattern thusly:



If you tighten them one by one in a circle, you run the risk of unevenly torquing the wheels and that can lead to not-so-good things like vibration/shaking and worse, warped rotors.

Hand tighten all the lug nuts to just snug then torque them down to spec (~85lbs) WITH A PROPER TORQUE WRENCH in the star pattern (or a cross pattern for 4 or 6-lug wheels). I emphasize the "proper torque wrench" part because it's something so often overlooked, even by supposedly "pro shops" like that place where you go to buy 55-gallon drums of mayonnaise as well as tires. <wink wink>

awebber

Thanks for all the advice, ill take it all into consideration! Also, i stopped going to wholesale mayonnaise places! They always steal change from my change compartment and my Creed CDs!

travlee

iTrader: (8)

LIES........you know it was the vanilla ice cd

MicVelo

Dammit Trav.... ear bug for the day now set to "Ice Ice Baby"! Shut it off, head! Shut it the f**k OFF!!

travlee

iTrader: (8)

Stop..... collaborate and listen

awebber

They scratched my CD! They picked it up in pure daylight and they scratched it!