just put on a set of 25mm spacers on my ride this morning before work but. i use the hand brake to get the lug bolts/nuts on and when i was leaving for work the car did not want to go, as if the rear breaks where stuck. i put the car in drive and it made this really ugly noise {a big bang} i check the car but everything look ok., when i started driving, the car sounds like something is loose or like the wheels are gonna come off., i had these things custome made and they fit perfect [hub & wheel centric] guess i will have to check it when i get home, but do ya'll [lol am in TX] have any ideas ???

 

Dont know for sure but I have heard of people driving the lugs in too far and hitting the brakes (getting to long of replacements)...Might want to make sure there is no rubbing anywhere. Also the E brake might have just been sticky and the bang was the sound of it releasing???

 

i was thinking the same thing. and maybe the wobbly sound was just your imagination after the loud bang.

 

hub spacers are a bad product, causes excessive stresses on the suspension.

 

interesting. i did not know that.

 

Man I know exactly what happend to your car because it happend to me too. That noise you heard was the parking brake shoe springs and crossbar breaking off inside the hub. Take your car to the dealership and tell them you need rear short and long parking brake shoe springs put on. I believe the one spring is actually the shoe to shoe spring. When putting your new wheels on the lugs probably recess into the wheel further than on your factory wheels, thus making the bolts drive further into the hub (a bad thing). Those sounds you hear are those metal pieces flying around inside your hub. Oh and those springs are not expensive, maybe like 15 bucks for all of them. And then labor which shouldn't set you back to bad. Don't let someone tell you it's more than an hour of labor. It shouldn't take more than an hour to get the problems fixed and you will be good to go, and don't use spacers...They throw the wheels of balance and your car of balance, I tried some, bad idea. Just get shorter wheels studs. They may be hard to find but you can get them, I had to order some for mine. Good luck to ya.

 

man., this is great info., man i like the way the car looks with the spacers ., well before the next mod i'll make sure i ask lots of questions thanks for the info.,

 

25mm is alittle much?! 15mm would probably the thickest without risking integrity. also be sure that these spacers are hub centric any other spacer will not allow your wheel to seat properly against the hub and eventually loosen and fall off. as far as lugs go i would compare your stock lug and wheel setup to see how far the lug actually threads into the rotor and then be sure the new lug threads as close to oem as possible better more than less but as you found out the hard way, to far messes up the brakes.

 

i had my lugs go too far with my new wheel install. smashed the threads and messed up the spindle on the way out. cost was $180 in parts but after enough complaining, i got the tire shop to cover their damage. total including labor was around $400 on the invoice.

 

may I suggest we make this post a sticky, since everyone has this problem on the early models.

 

today i took the spacers off n put the wheels on, drove the car and no problems no noise at all., after checking the lug bolts they had a very small nick, at the ends, i think they are just about 1.5mm to long, well am gonna try to cut them and have the spacers trim by about 5mm, but i think some members have 20 or 25mm spacers, any problems?

 

I have 10mm in front and 15mm in back, 20 and 25mm sounds like to much. What kind of rims do you have?

 

I have the same exact spacers on Stern ST1's 19X8.5" and 20X9.5" These rims come with 35 mm offset and even after careful measuring the lugs I ordered were 2 mm too long. After I hung the tire/rims in back I SLOWLY rotated the wheel to listen for any noise. A faint "ching-ching" was heard.

I took an OEM lug and placed it in the OEM rear rim (sitting on the ground of course) and measured the projection with a caliper:

.650"

THIS IS THE MAXIMUM PROJECTION FOR LUGS IN THE REAR OF YOUR CROSSFIRE. ANY LONGER CAN CAUSE DAMAGE TO INTERNAL BRAKE COMPONENTS!

Removed the new wheel/ spacer assembly and did the same:

.740"

.090" longer (~2.3 mm).

I spent about 20 minutes on a grinder shortening the 10 rear lugs and chasing the threads. Works fine.

There is damned little room for error. I'm surprised more folks don't run into this problem.

Another little observation (here comes the engineer in me):

There are only 6 threads in the spindle. 6 threadsX1.5 mm/ thread = 9 mm.

Bolt diameter: 12 mm.

I don't care if the engineer is German, Pole or Italian, a 1:1 ratio is MINIMUM for strength. Adding a spacer (increasing the moment arm) is really stressing an already weak design. There is another issue concerning this, but I'll leave it alone for now.

Just my 2 cents.

 

lol just finish doing the same thing., will post pics later.

 

I sent a PM to the administration to request this to be a Sticky.

Might save some folks some $$$.

 

Wow. I must be having a blonde moment, but I just can't wrap my brain around how spacers are causing parking brake damage. Can someone give me the "For Dummies" version?

 

I believe what they are saying is that when these guys are putting on wheel spacers they are purchasing/using longer lug bolts to compensate for the spacer.

In order for it to work properly you must measure the new lug bolts very precisely so as to not be to long - otherwise they will cause parking break damage b/c they will stick out too far thru the hub.

This was my understanding anyway.

Cheers,
KrzyFast

 

Perfectly stated.
See posts #6 and #13

 

Out the back of the hub?

 

No.

Go out and take a look.

There's stuff inside the rear hub.