Wheel Spacers or extended bolts?
 

I am installing RL calipers on my TSX and I will require to use some spacers as my wheels won't clear.

What brands would you recommend? ebay? ichiba?

I read up on akata wheel spacers and the general consensus is to steer clear of those, I am assuming not all spacers are created equal.

I am also reluctant to get extended bolts because my car is a pain in the ass to install them.

Sounds like a good excuse to start shopping for some new wheels to me.:fuckyea:

Took be a while to get the Mugen GP's and I would like to sport those.........hahaha

First question is how big of a spacer do you need for the wheels to clear the caliper?
With the GP's on and no spacer, how much wheel stud do you have left?

If you have 8-10 turns and you only need a 3 mm spacer, then spacer alone is fine.

If you need 5mm or more or have less than 6 turns on the stud, then you will definitely need either longer studs or or bolt-on spacers with extra studs.

You also need to check the mounting face side of the wheels. Do they have any space on them or are they flush.

With a smaller spacer, the stock wheel studs may stick out past the spacer. So if the wheels are flush, the stock studs will hit the wheels.

I will need at least 10 mm, so I am thinking of getting 15 mm. But its whether to get version 2 spacers or just extended studs and spacers.

You will run into fitment issues with 15 mm bolt on spacers if your wheels don't have voids between the stud holes; the OE studs will hit the mating surface of the wheel to the hub.

Here's a picture of what the backside of your wheel should look like if you want to use 15 mm bolt on spacers.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...e/IMG_6792.jpg
20 mm should clear though.

With 10mm spacers, you are definitely better off to go with the H&R spacers with the extended studs.
I tried to run a 10mm spacer with studs and like the above post, the stock studs would hit the back of the wheel. My wheels were flush, unlike the wheel in the pic, so that was a no go for me.

Ya, I realize that with 15 mm I will most likely have to grind down he studs.

By the way, save yourself headaches and get hub centric wheel spacers.

Like SumAznGuy said, this is important. Don't have your wheels fly off while driving.

Run some new, extended wheel studs, like ARP.

Then a good hub centric spacer as mentioned above, such as H&R (I believe they make a 15mm and a 25mm for your car, which is around where you're looking).

When it comes to safety items, like having your wheels stay attached to your car, stay away from the generic ebay garbage. Spend the money and do it properly.

Oh, and pics when you get it all done :thumbsup:

Extended studs with spacers are the way to go. I have H&R extended studs and spacers all around, got them from this place: Essex Distributors - H&R Springs Pretty pricey, but it does come with studs and spacers in one package.

They're local too, right across from Aria Auto in Richmond. Ordered on a Thursday night and picked them up Tuesday morning.

My personal rule of thumb:

5mm: Slip on
8mm: Count how many turns threaded, slip on
10mm: Extended stud
15mm: Bolt on if there's wheel cavity for OEM studs to stick through, otherwise extended stud
20mm: Same as above
25mm: bolt on for sure

Crucial part, don't cheap out. Go H&R ! Ichiba is ok too

I would only use Ichiba and H&R. Got Ichiba spacers on my car right now and have been using them for past few years without any issues (knock on wood). They are 25mm all around, version 2. As mentioned above, make sure they are hubcentric.

Been running H&R spacers for 14 years now and see no reason to ever run anything else. No vibrations, no seizing, no problems.
Running 12s and 5s on my car with APEX motorsports stud conversion.

As for the spacer itself, I am using cheap generic ebay made in china crap and it has held on fine.
I've also used H&R spacers.
The spacers themselves don't see that much force so there is no need to over pay for the name.
As for the studs, that is different. Definitely pay and get OEM type quality or APR extended studs.

As far as hub centric, there is still a debate about them. I've tracked cars with wheels that were not hub centric. As long as you installed the wheels properly, all the new acorn or wedge style wheel nuts are self centering.
The other debate is the hub centric rings help hold the wheels onto the car. I challenge this thought because if there was that great of a force on the wheels to break all 4 or 5 studs, the wheel itself would break first.

But that is just my opinion.

any truth to spacers contributing to premature wheel bearing wear?

It's not the spacers, it's the extension of the weight of the car being pushed further away from the hub. Lowering the wheel offset via spacers or low offset/wide wheels has the effect but it needs to be fairly extreme before to causes an issue.
So yeah it does have the effect but it's not specifically the spacer that causes the problems if you know what I mean.

If you do extended studs you don't need to care about the brand of the spacer block, just get APR or H&R studs.

If you do bolt on spacers, I would only trust H&R personally. There have been horror stories about Ichiba spacers breaking causing the wheel to fly off mid turn. I wouldn't suggest saving a few bucks and possibly causing thousands of $$ of damage in the long run.

Best way to do it though would be to do extended studs with spacer blocks, that way in the future if you change wheels you can change the size of the spacer block for a lot cheaper, or even take them off completely if you have open ended lugs

There will be more wear on the wheel bearing. Like westopher said, unless you go really extreme, the difference in wear is marginal.

Here is a good YouTube video that explains all:

I run extended studs and 10mm spacers in the rear. You don't want to cheap out on studs, as you would want them to be as good or better than OEM, since they're holding your wheels on.

But if you run bolt-on adapters, you would really want to make sure of this. It's not worth saving money and forfeiting the quality of metal used and potential bad quality design. They need to be perfectly balanced and flat or they will cause vibrations, and cheap studs will strip or break.

I've ran bolt-on adapters in the past, but switched to extended studs and spacers. Feels much safer. If you plan on tracking your car, I'd avoid bolt-ons for sure. You'd only be compounding the issues found in the video above by thrashing the car around.