Need opinions!
My 2010 TL had 52,000 miles when I added my 20 mm Hubcentric adapters/spacers from Motortech Sports. 4 months later, at 59,000 miles, my front driver side wheel bearing is bad! Could this be coincidence or did the spacers cause premature wear?

I took the front spacers off, I am trying to get them fixed under my extended warranty. Should I remove the backs to? I don't want any "red flags". Going to the acura dealer Monday. Also, how much would they normally charge?

 

Wheel spacers can definitely cause a wheel bearing to fail quicker. It puts more stress on the bearing since it spaces the wheels out and gives them more leverage on the bearing.

 

Yes, remove the rear spacers too if you're trying to get this covered under warranty. It will be pretty easy for them to deny a claim considering the spacers are directly attached to the hubs.

 

becareful tho, a bad bearing can cause a spongy brake pedal because if the bearing goes bad, it causes the rotors to wobble in turn causes your brake pedal to get spongy due or shake due to unstable rotor..


and also this is why i have no intensions on purchasing spacers.. i spoke to a few friends about running spacers 25 all around but they all warned me that it would only do harm to your car... and thus im still tucking my 18x8 sh-awd stock wheels in my lowered car.. lol

 

I just took all 4 spacers off. Do you think I should replace the bearings on both sides or just the bad one?

 

I'd do them both on the same axle at a minimum. You're going to be changing the wear pattern on the other one assuming you're leaving the spacers off and it's possible it has already worn in funny from the spacers.

 

if your going to replace bearings.. do both, fronts or backs, should not repair it independently.

you should sell those spacers to some sucker that wants it..

 

I'll take offers on the spacers, like brand new!

I also need to know if I should do both driver and passenger side!

 

I hope Nexon, Zelaya, and Pimpin can chime in on this since they also ran 20/25 spacers on their 4G's.

 

ant, some people will have problems earlier than others.. but if you run it long enough you will cause the bearings to wear.

its pretty much the laws of physics.

this pic will explain it, posted on

 

Based on the figure, the spacer is between the tire and hub, yet bolt on spacers are at the end, correct? Same difference, I dont know. I think the fact here is that bearings will ultimately wear, regardless. With spacers, I guess they will just wear faster. Driving habits, conditions, etc are always factors to consider. I've known people to carry spacers for thousands of miles with no issues. I guess they're just lucky.

 

essentially both spacer and adapter are the same, just one is thicker with bolts while the other acts as a washer.

yes, bearings do wear over time with stock set up, they are built to withstand many miles if there is no changes to the dynamics, but once you put on spacers, you completely change that whole dynamics of it.. The general theory is that the larger adapter you put the faster your bearings will wear.. i dont think this will happen with spacers smaller than +7, ive only heard it happen with adapters considering that adapters are usually +20 or larger.

some cars with better built suspensions like infiniti or nissan can use adapters for many miles without issues but they usually decrease the lifetime of the bearings..

 

The Acura Dealer replaced the bearing under warranty and everything is fine. I need to decide if I want to leave the spacers off or put them back on and gamble. Can you guys running 20 mm spacers chime in and let me know how long you have had them on and whether or not you have had bearing failure! Not sure what to do!

 

leave them on = can expect failure.

leave them off = will be oem, so no problem.

 

Aftermarket rims with lower-than-OEM (< 55mm) offset numbers also push the wheel/tire combo towards the outside of the car, to the effect similar to adding spacers to the OEM 55mm offset wheels.

I wonder if low offset rims will also harm the wheel bearings ?

 

yes, low offset wheels do cause damage to the bearings.


when the term "low offset" comes to mind, i would think anything below oem standard. (+55).. the lower you are the faster the wear is.

 

The OP is the first I've heard with this issue on our cars. I wish the others that have used spacers would chime in also. I can't see 20mm killing the bearings in 7k miles.

OP, are you the original owner? Any other mods that might have created premature wear?

 

I am not the original owner. I bought the car from an old man with 16k miles. I also had a 2009 Honda Accord that was completely stock and had the same bearing fail at 30k miles. I like having the spacers for the look and I think the car feels more planted and the steering is tightened up. Decisions!

 

Driving style can factor in bearing life as well.

 

So the Accord did or didn't have spacers?

 

I have 23mm spacers on for about 20k miles now.. no problems so far..

 

My Accord did not have any spacers, stock suspension

I had another thought. Do Wheel Cleaners damage bearings? I clean my car almost weekly and spray wheel cleaners on the wheels. Could this effect the bearings? I am starting to think it may have been coincidence!

 

no i dont think cleaners cause damage..

when is the last time you done a brake change? rotors? ever remove the axle bolt?

 

I can agree/see the theory that there will be more forces acting on the raceway of the bearing when a spacer is put on or a difference wheel is used. However these are double groove bearings and we build them to a very tight tolerances, if something fails there could be some other underlining issues.

I had spacers on my previous car(Jetta) for 4.5 years approx. 70K miles and no issues. I had 10mm on front, and 25mm on the back.

 

Heat is tough on bearings as well. Do any constant heavy braking that really heats up the bearings?

 

I just ordered spacers from motorsport tech and per my tracking number - I will see them on my porch waiting for me when I get home from work...

I ordered 20mm front / 25mm rear. I plan to put them on this weekend and am hopoing I don't run into issues! I had spacers on prior cars - a Volvo S60R I had 20mm spacers, and on my boxster I had 7/15 - never had an issue with either car...at least not with the spacers...

I will post before/after pics of my spacer install. i hope it looks good..i'll be curious if I notice any difference in ride / steering...

 

Had issues with my steering rack before i got aftermarket wheels. I had to pay for that fix. A year after that I had issues again with the 15mm Spacer and lightweight rims. The dealership covered it under the warranty.

Spacers IMHO don't cause damage since the steering rack is a hydraulic ram and it is it's job to take stress like that. Depending on what spacer you run you may or may not see additional wear. I have hub centric spacers that put pressure on the hub not the lugs. I've autocrossed with the spacers, my car is a daily driver and if you keep an eye on them and check on them now and again you should be fine. Unless you're doing a lot of slow parking lot maneuvers and turning the steering without the car having any movement this really shouldn't put a lot of stress.

Both your wheel bearings and steering rack may see a lot of stress if your alignment is off. Spacers will exacerbate any alignment issues and you should get your car realigned. I had a lot of torque steer before the final issue. Get your car aligned, make sure the scrub radius is more or less centered so you're not fighting the power of the car and your steering rack will be fine.

 

UPDATE

I've had my spacers on my TL SH-AWD for about 2 months? i don't do that mch driving.. probably 10k / year...

anyway, this past weekend I went out of twon with car.. abotu 4-5 hours of driving total.. on the freeway I started noticing what sounds like a bad wheel bearing.

comign from front driver's side. sounds very similar to packingpro's issue.

my car is lowered on H&Rs. 20/25.

I have no vibration in steering wheel, tires are good.. I don't think this is a wheel out of balance or an alignment issue. Last weekend I rotated my tires.. I moved the backs to front / front to back.. dont' know if that coudl have had any impact on this or not. I also checked torque on teh spacers at that time and the spacers were on nice and tight...

i may have to pull them off and get it repaired under warranty.

if it turns out to be a bad bearing for sure - it's either that our bearings are weak / or defecive - OR that these spacers are wearing them out.. FAST. my spacers were not on very long at all... so to break a bearing this quickly is frustrating..

i love the way the car looks wiht the wheels not all sunken in... but I have run spacers before w/out issues on other cars.

has anyone had bearing issues who did NOT have spacers? is this a weak link on our cars even when they are stock?

are there other parts we coudl use that are sturdier? like an MDX bearing? some other heavier duty one that might hold up better?

anyone care to chime in with input? aside from "we told you so"

 

like i have explained to you.. those thick spacers will cause wear on your bearings alot faster than you think..

you have 3 options.

1.. take them off, and put on your stock wheels.. have sunken wheel look.

2.. get different wheels to not have sunken look, wider wheels.

3. leave them on and keep damaging your bearings.


you think having it with oem set up with cause these issues?? the answer is no.. its simply fact that once you put the spacers on, these issues came up.

 

Wouldn't a wider wheel with a lower offset create the same strain since the load VS contact patch are being moved in a similar fashion to just applying spacers?

 

Crap! Now that's another part I have to get removed! Smh.

 

good question! I was going to ask the same thing. so if I were to go out and buy 20x10 Vossens... Would I have the same problem... because the wheels are physically wider and woudl stick out more than my OEM wheels... woudl I be putting the exact same level of stress on the bearings.. as I am with spacers?

there are tons of people running wider wheels and I haven't read anyone saying they caused bearing failure.

another point to make is that there are quite a few people here who are runing spacers similar to mine or bigger - and have had ZERO bearing failures.

it is possible packingpro and I just had defective bearings..and so the spacers helped them die sooner? and a new one being installed could run for years and years with the spacer reintalled???

how many people here are running spacers and have NOT had a problem? that would be an interesting poll.. please post what type of spacers you are running.. wheel size, any suspension mods you have, and how long you've had the setups..and if you've had or NOT had any bearing issues.

anyone here have bearing problems that did NOT have spacers?

 

there are only a handful of people running spacers just fyi.

Torque = radius x Force

Wheel spacers can definitely cause a wheel bearing to fail quicker. It puts more stress on the bearing since it spaces the wheels out and gives them more leverage on the bearing. 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.

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.

it is better to ditch the spacers, this is not old news.. people have been running into bearing issues with spacers for years.

 

I guess I need to save up for some Vossens...

 

Spacers for sale! Who wants them? Lol

 

imo, also a bad idea.. save a bit more, get some forged wheels