Spacers causing vibration? (2 Viewers)

[vjr021]

Recently installed 3/4 inch BORA spacers.

Prior to this, smooth driving throughout speed range.

After installing the spacers, steering wheel shakes between 52-65(ish).

Planning on having the tires balanced today, beyond that, any ideas?

 

[medtro]

If you are going to balance the wheels, you may want to balance them with spacers installed on wheels.

I would try to balance with beads or airsoft BBs, DynaBeads Tire Balancing Beads

 

[abuck99]

Someone posted in another thread last week that they installed front spacers incorrectly. If the spacers arent oriented correctly or snugged up on the hub correctly- they would cause some runout issues.

 

[vjr021]

I’ll double check.

 

[BEG]

3/4" isn't very much, but when installing spacers, mating surfaces need to be spotless and they need to go on perfectly straight and torqued on in stages. I put on 1.25" Spidertrax and didn't notice any vibrations at first. I got major vibes after a wheeling trip and thought I had bent studs or something. Turns out I had a big gash on the inside sidewall of one of the tires and that was enough to throw it way out of balance. It doesn't take much.

 

[bwell]

×2 On everything mentioned so far. Balancing with the spacers on might be a last resort but worth a shot.

I've been running some 1.25" flea bay specials for about a year and did have to rebalance two tires after install due to them being off just a bit.

They will exponentially transfer any balance issues you are having if the tires are not spot on.

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

I have had good results balancing with spacers attached using the cheapest priced spacers available on EBay

 

[vjr021]

I'm gonna take it in to a shop with a balancer and have them balance the wheels with spacers on.

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

I'm gonna take it in to a shop with a balancer and have them balance the wheels with spacers on.

Tire monkeys are not always the brightest make sure they index the spacer on the wheels so it ends up in the same place as when you balanced it.

 

[geanes]

My vote is to check spacer orientation. I just installed the BORA 1.25" and have no wobble at all. I can drive up to 80 and it handles the exact same. The front spacers are tricky. You have to rotate them until they "seat" properly (only ONE orientation works). Then, you have to evenly torque them down until they make clean contact with the hub. I used a wire brush to clean the "face" of the hub so I'd have good contact and blue LocTite on the threads. Then, when you put the wheel on, it's VERY important to evenly torque the lug nuts all the way round making sure the the wheel "seats" evenly and that the index teeth of the spacer are completely within the center of the of the wheel.

It sounds to me like one of your spacers may not be flush.

 

[SparksParts]

I've been running spidertrax for 4 years on my 100. Never had a balance issue. I know they need to be hub centric spacers, the only time we've ever run into issues with customers vehicles were they weren't hub centric or installed incorrectly.

 

[vjr021]

I think we found the issue.

Plus both front wheels were out of balance.

I’m gonna kill the Toyota Dealer.

You had one job.

 

[BEG]

I think we found the issue.

Plus both front wheels were out of balance.

I’m gonna kill the Toyota Dealer.

You had one job.

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Oh wow. That's a first.

 

[DirtDawg]

WTF

 

[vjr021]

Oh wow. That's a first.

I know. I called Lenny at BORA and he was like “don’t drive like that”

I’m having all four removed. I may own a Toyota dealer by the end of the day.

 

[geanes]

Those are destroyed. Dangerous as heck! I'd choke the dealer for doing this to excellently designed spacers. They not only ground off the indexed lip, but never oriented the spacer correctly in the first place. What's sad is that I'm not that mechanically inclined and even I could figure out how to put on these spacers. You're dealer/mechanic is a moron.

 

[geanes]

I know. I called Lenny at BORA and he was like “don’t drive like that”

I’m having all four removed. I may own a Toyota dealer by the end of the day.

Yeah, that's not only a poor installation, but potentially life-threatening. Incredibly dangerous what they did there. Let us know how it works out. They owe you BIG time.

 

[SparksParts]

Holy cow. That is crazy. Glad you caught that before anything worse happened.

 

[vjr021]

Lenny and the guys from Motorsport Tech are looking into this issue.

Regardless of if the parts were right, but installed incorrectly, or if they were wrong parts, the tech should NOT have left them on without discussing it with me. I was in the waiting room for Christ sake!!!

I’ll let you guys know what happens from here...

 

[abuck99]

Honestly the spacers should come with a mounting note/warning about getting the orientation right. Seems like a no brainer if at first it doesnt fit, to rotate it until it does, but obviously we’ve seen two incidents in two weeks where the front spacers were destroyed (and occupants/others) put in danger by lack of installation awareness.