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Project Kic Spacer Issues.

Old May 15, 2007 | 07:04 AM
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Default Project Kic Spacer Issues.

I will first start off by saying the product seems to be fabricated from high quality material. That being said it's NOT a simple bolt-on as advertised. I bought two pairs of 20mm (my offsets were a crappy 38mm in the front and 37 mm in the rear). So the spacers would put my offsets at 18/17. My fenders are rolled so there should be no rubbing on the rear tires.

Here's the main problem: The factory studs stick out too far past the 20mm spacers. They stick a good 5mm beyond the spacer. So when I mounted my wheels it didn't sit flush with the spacer. Instead of being flush up against my wheel only the ends of the 5 factory studs were flush.

So now instead of the spacers being 20mm they're acting as if they're alteast 25mm. Which puts my offset at 13/12, which is no bueno since I'm dropped over an inch in the back. Nevermind that the wheels stick out further then desired. My main issue is there's no way it can be remotely safe to have my wheels touching only the 5 factory studs instead of being flush with the surface area of the spacer.

I bought these because I didn't want to mess with the factory studs, but now it looks like I'm going to have to. The easiest way IMO to fix this is knock the factory studs out, put 5mm worth of washers between them and the other side of the rotor and call it a day.

Mind you if I had bought only 15mm spacers the problem would have been even worse. Now instead of 5mm of the factory studs protruding, I'd have 10mm protruding. I just wish the vendor would have given me a heads up with this issue.

Feel free to comment.


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Old May 15, 2007 | 07:12 AM
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I had the exact same problem as you about 6 months ago. I contemplated different options, including cutting off 5mm from each stud. I ended up selling the KICs on the forum and bought some 20mm Ichiba spacers w/ longer studs. I think that is by far the safest thing to do. I had them installed at function:tuned, because I'm too pu$$y to do it myself. All it took was an hour of labor. Good times.

you may have some luck re-selling the KICs to someone who's looking to stay on stock wheels but wants to push them out. The 5mm extra is a non-factor w/ stock wheels.

Last edited by bonusfrag; May 15, 2007 at 07:15 AM.
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Old May 15, 2007 | 07:20 AM
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Originally Posted by bonusfrag
I had the exact same problem as you about 6 months ago. I contemplated different options, including cutting off 5mm from each stud. I ended up selling the KICs on the forum and bought some 20mm Ichiba spacers w/ longer studs. I think that is by far the safest thing to do. I had them installed at function:tuned, because I'm too pu$$y to do it myself. All it took was an hour of labor. Good times.

you may have some luck re-selling the KICs to someone who's looking to stay on stock wheels but wants to push them out. The 5mm extra is a non-factor w/ stock wheels.
I like these spacers a lot (quality-wise). For now I think I'm going to keep them and just put some washers in to offset the difference. I already know the fronts are going to be a PITA.
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Old May 15, 2007 | 07:21 AM
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Might be your wheels, not the spacer....

I have the 15mm spacers and the stock studs did poke out a bit, however, the the backside of the wheel hub where the studs meet have "gaps" between the holes where the stock studs were able to fit. Not sure if I'm explaining that right but check the backside of your wheel hub. If you do not have the gap between the stud holes or the gap isn't wide enough then the spacer will not work with your wheels.

Wish I could take pictures for you so you see what I mean but my brother's Alt SE-R is in the shop so he's had my Z for the last few days....
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Old May 15, 2007 | 07:24 AM
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Don't use spacers to gain the extra 5mm of clearance. Take the factory studs to a local machine shop and have them cut 5 or 6 mm off of the studs. Shouldn't cost much to do, and would be an easy job for any shop.
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Old May 15, 2007 | 07:26 AM
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Originally Posted by RNL323
Might be your wheels, not the spacer....

I have the 15mm spacers and the stock studs did poke out a bit, however, the the backside of the wheel hub where the studs meet have "gaps" between the holes where the stock studs were able to fit. Not sure if I'm explaining that right but check the backside of your wheel hub. If you do not have the gap between the stud holes or the gap isn't wide enough then the spacer will not work with your wheels.

Wish I could take pictures for you so you see what I mean but my brother's Alt SE-R is in the shop so he's had my Z for the last few days....
Yeah I know what you're saying. My wheels aren't hubcentric, but I had no problems (vibration) with them when I didn't have the spacers. But yeah, there's no "gaps". I'm going to stick with the washer idea and see how it goes.
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Old May 15, 2007 | 07:28 AM
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Originally Posted by jtabraham
Don't use spacers to gain the extra 5mm of clearance. Take the factory studs to a local machine shop and have them cut 5 or 6 mm off of the studs. Shouldn't cost much to do, and would be an easy job for any shop.
Actually I wanted to do the exact opposite. I wanted to put spacers between the studs and the rotor. So basically the factory studs would not stick out as far. I think I might just go your route though (cut 5 or 6 mm off).
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Old May 15, 2007 | 07:32 AM
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If you cut them on your own, make sure you thread a nut onto the stud before you make the cut. This way, after you make the cut, removing the nut will "re-thread" the cut edge.
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Old May 15, 2007 | 07:38 AM
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Originally Posted by jtabraham
If you cut them on your own, make sure you thread a nut onto the stud before you make the cut. This way, after you make the cut, removing the nut will "re-thread" the cut edge.
Thanks! ... great piece of advice.
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Old May 15, 2007 | 08:54 AM
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putting washers on the studs on any side sound dangerous to me....
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Old May 15, 2007 | 09:18 AM
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oh noes. mine are coming this week.
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Old May 15, 2007 | 09:19 AM
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i def would have the studs cut my buddy with an sti has the same issue and tried using washers between the spacer and rotors...he ended up having all kinds of vibration at speed.

you can always replace the cut studs with factory ones down the road if you ever need to
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Old May 15, 2007 | 09:46 AM
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Originally Posted by umzzz
i def would have the studs cut my buddy with an sti has the same issue and tried using washers between the spacer and rotors...he ended up having all kinds of vibration at speed.

you can always replace the cut studs with factory ones down the road if you ever need to
Yep, that's what I'm thinking. OEM studs are easy/cheap to replace and I won't be doing it anytime soon (if at all). So the washers idea is no longer on the table. I'm either going to cut off 5mm myself or have function:Tuned do it.
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Old May 15, 2007 | 09:47 AM
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Originally Posted by noodleman
putting washers on the studs on any side sound dangerous to me....
After further contemplation/pondering, I agree .
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Old May 15, 2007 | 01:28 PM
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The safest solution is to buy hubcentric spacers that don't have studs on them and replace the factory studs with extended studs.
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Old May 15, 2007 | 02:51 PM
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Take it to Dave, have him cut it, problem solved...
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Old May 15, 2007 | 04:33 PM
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Originally Posted by tonywenzel
The safest solution is to buy hubcentric spacers that don't have studs on them and replace the factory studs with extended studs.
This is what I'm looking at doing. Is Eibach the only company with these? Doesn't matter anyways, there products are great quailty.
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Old May 15, 2007 | 05:18 PM
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H&R also makes spacers...tirerack sells them.
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Old May 15, 2007 | 07:47 PM
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Originally Posted by Alberto
Take it to Dave, have him cut it, problem solved...
Cut them myself. About a 1/4 inch off on all of them. I actually did a decent job of it, I thought it would be a lot harder then it was. Took a hour and a half. Spacer is completely flush with my wheel. Probably would have been less but I took my time and was extra cautious jacking it up and put kick stands on both sides (I've heard too many nightmare stories). Thread will be up with pics in a few. All I gotta say is, my Z "looks" a lot meaner then it actually is.

BTW ... knock on wood. No rubbing. It's cutting it close though.

Last edited by dutchboy350Z; May 15, 2007 at 08:15 PM.
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Old May 15, 2007 | 08:00 PM
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I have Kics spacers, and checked for space on the back of my rims due to this:

Originally Posted by Auto RnD
Quality would be just as good. Difference is that H&R typically does not produce studded spacers in less than 25mm. That's how the KICS can be a huge advantage. You don't have to press studs and so forth as long as your wheels have a cavity to soak up the extra lugstud threads. Which the RAy's ones do.

Rishie
from their sale thread: https://my350z.com/forum/newreply.ph...eply&p=2855935

I would add that I had to retorque the rims after driving on them for a couple weeks -- they shook loose (even with hubcentric rings).
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