How to install wheel spacers?

A few millimeters are enough to have a visible effect: a wider track gives the car a different look. It's more powerful, sturdy and stable. Find out everything you need to know about track widening below! Track Widening is more than just a change in appearance - it changes the quality of driving.

The Impact of Wheel Spacers on Driving Performance

The installation of wheel spacers has a significant effect on driving performance. The main difference is the increase in track width, which has a very positive effect on driving stability. High speed cornering should become easier. This means more safety, especially in dangerous moments. If you change the track to add more powerful brakes, this is also a significant increase in driving safety.

There is also a certain negative effect of spacers on handling - they reduce the so-called unsprung mass, which can lead to faster wear of suspension components. In most cases, this means accelerated wear of the hub bearing.

Choosing the Right Wheel Spacers

Choosing the right wheel spacers requires knowledge of a few important parameters. First, you need to decide on the width of the spacer. In cases where the rim needs to be spread to make room for the brake, it's easy to see how much spacing is needed. The same goes for less typical rims. In the case of visual adjustment, the change is limited by the fact that the wheels do not protrude beyond the contour of the vehicle and do not touch the wheel arches. For distances up to 6 millimeters, you can use them in a straight version without flanges.

For greater widths, they should have a flange, as the hub flange will be completely covered by the spacer. In both cases, it's usually necessary to use longer wheel bolts - not too long, as protruding bolts can cause serious damage. If you have decided to change the bolt spacing with spacers bolted to the hub, remember that the bolts securing the spacer are completely hidden. In this case, the wheel can be tightened with the factory bolts.

It's also important to check that the spacers are made of a high-quality, durable material. The standard material is aluminum, or its various alloys with various additives.

Also remember that the spacers should not be larger in diameter than the hub - in fact, they should be slightly smaller. When centering the rim, this difference may be necessary.

The Installation of Wheel Spacers

Step 1 Removing the Wheels

The wheels that we're going to do, we're going to take off all the lug nuts. You're going to grab your socket wrench, use your ratchet or your air gun, whatever you have. If you're going to use an air gun, make sure you wear eye protection.

Step 2: Use thread locker on your original studs

Something that's an absolute must is you need to use thread locker on your original studs. You can be generous with this, it's not very expensive, and it's definitely worth the amount of safety it adds. The last thing you want is the lug nuts holding your spacers to the truck coming loose just because you didn't put a little locker on them.

Step 3 Put Spacers in Hub Centric

We got our hub center here, we got our spacer. We're going to knock it in there. And this is the adapter that makes it so that it fits right around this.

Step 4 Slide the wheel spacer onto your original studs.

Step 5 Tighten the lug nuts

So now what we're going to do is we're going to torque these lug nuts down to the same specification that your manufacturer recommends for torque on the wheels. If your manufacturer recommends 100 for torque on your wheels, 100, 125, like a vehicle, 125, whatever the application may be, that's what you torque these down to. They need to be torqued. It's going to help keep that from spinning once it's in the locked position.

Step 6 Reinstall Your Wheel

Grab your wheel, bring it up to your lug, give it a nice little lift. Grab a couple of those lug nuts. Once we get them all started, we're going to lower them down, bring the vehicle down, and torque them down.  Use your socket wrench, your airgun, and of course your safety glasses to bottom out these lug nuts.

Step 7 Make sure you torque your lug nuts

You'll use the same socket you used to remove and install the lug nuts. Torque your lug nuts to the manufacturer's specifications. You will be going in a crisscross pattern, try to make a nice pretty star. The reason for going in a crisscross pattern or making a star pattern is just so the wheel will hopefully sit perfectly straight up against the spacer there. If you just start going around in a circle, a lot of times what can happen is it can come off a little bit. You think you've got it tight, and the torque wrench might even tell you that it's tight with a click, but then you go down the road and you hit a bump and everything comes loose. I'd hate for something bad to happen to them.

Visit MOSTPLUS for quality auto parts shipped to your door, the place for DIY auto repair.