True or False?

I just hit 50k miles, have had spacers installed for about 10k of that. Just had front L wheel bearing replaced, fear the R one may be ready soon. What do you guys think, should I ditch the spacers or is this coincidence?

PS - I'm on 15mm H&R spacers (20" vossens in summer, stock 19" in winter)

 

I think Wheel bearings are common issues on these g37s

 

Can' comment on your specific experience but spacers do place more load and different load angles on wheel bearings.

 

how did you figure you wheel bearings went bad?

i had issues with the wheel bearings but that was my fault cuz i curbed my car really hard. i took my G to west end and we were just talking about random stuff. i asked darrin about spacers and its relationship with brakes, rotors, and wheel bearings. and he said that as long as you install properly it shoudl be fine. he tracks frequently and is on spacers as well. i believe the man!

 

Torque = radius x Force

With spacers, you are effectively increasing the distance of the lever arm thus increasing the radius. So there is more torque applied to the bearings.

In other words, yes, spacers does cause more stress to the bearings. Whether the bearings go bad or not depends on how well they were designed and built.

 

Hmmm, this is interesting. Glad I'll be getting rid of the spacers soon.

 

Couldnt the same be said for low offset wheels?

 

Technically low offset wheels will also cause additional stress on the wheel hub/bearings. But spacers are a lot worse but because you are increasing the distance between the bearing and where the wheels are mounted.

For low offset wheels, the plane of the hub mounting surface is toward the back or brake side of the wheel's centerline. But the distance between the hub and the mating of the wheel is the same as stock.

 

Interesting. I had spacers on my G35 for years and have had spacers on my G37 for at least 3 years now and no issues whatsoever *knocks on wood.

 

I had spacers on my Z and I too had to replace one hub bearing assembly.

 

Nah...wheel bearings in Nissans in general are very well known to go bad. The spacer itself definitely wouldn't have that much of an impact to cause it to go bad. That's just like saying everybody with heavier then stock aftermarket wheels ...their wheel bearings are going to go bad because they're wheels are heavier then stock.

THIS IS FALSE!

 

I'm going to have to disagree. From a physics point of view, spacers definitely put more force on the bearings. Increased wheel weight will have no effect on the bearings. You have to remember that the wheels are supporting the weight of the car body, not the other way around.

 

I have to call poor reading skills. The poster was using the wheel weight as an analogy, meaning that neither spacers or wheels cause wheel bearing failure. He clearly knew that heavy wheels are not an issue.

Where the wheels are mounted compared to the bearings is not the issue as far as extra loading is concerned. It is the distance from the center of the wheel to the center of the bearings that matters....wide wheels with different offset can have an identical effect.

The fact is that thousands of drivers of all makes use wheel spacers for millions of miles globally without problems. The loading difference is not excessive as the 4x4 racers will tell you. Many of them use spacers and hub adapters with no issues. While some will call it self-serving, but H&R state that their spacers will not cause premature wear of your wheel bearing wear. I've used wheel spacers on many of my cars for 30 years and the only wheel bearing I ever replaced was after I hit a curb really hard while autocrossing.

But if wheel spacers scare you , by all means don't use them. Better safe than sorry....kinda like why not to get a drop or an intake.


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I just hate newbies coming in forums and acting like they know everything. I read what it said. I was explaining why heavy wheels had no effect and why it's an invalid analogy. I can read just fine. Maybe you should learn to read my posts more carefully before making a useless comment.

Let's only talk about the "thousands of people" with spacer without problems. How about all the thousands of people with spacer problems. A quick search on google or this forum and you will find countless people having different problems such as vibrations, stuck bolts, broken studs, and worn out bearings.