Originally Posted by velociabstract
Wow! You sure hate spacers. I don't like using them but since I upsized my tires on the stock rims, I had to; for clearance reasons. I got some 5mm spacers but they were too problematic. So I got hub centric 10mm spacers now. No issues with them. I have to torque the wheels in steps or I'll get a vibration but other than that, all the Who's in Whoville are content. There have to be 10's of thousands of spacers on cars out in the world and the only negative noise I hear is concerning balancing problems. Occasionally some buz about premature wheel bearing noise. I'll agree that it's better not to use them if possible, but geez, wheel spacers are not as dangerous as smoking or talking on the cell phone or texting while driving. Or taking FDA approved medicine for that matter. I'll keep my 10 mm spacers until my $1300 tires wear out and I can replace them with the stock size. And since I race the car at the track, I'd say the front ones (where I use spacers) will need replacing during 2010.
Les
I just want people to be educated cause most people don't know the downs about them. they just think it'll make their wheels fit and that all's good. WRONG... and when something does go wrong, they're so uneducated that they want to blame everyone else except there ignorant selves for their own mistakes.
3 step torque process is the correct method.
and I understand what you're saying, but majority of the work I do is on track cars and street/strip cars that cost more than my house, and when the cars make to me, I get to see all of the problems on a regular basis that most people dismiss as "not common" or "rare occurrence".