Defjamz

After lurking on the site for the past month or so, I decided to pull the trigger on 20mm spacers for my TL-SHAWD with stock 18's. I debated getting new wheels entirely, but I couldn't make up my mind on which wheels to get, so I decided to spruce up the look on the stock 18's for now. Thanks to Lenny at Motorsport Technology for building out the spacers for me.
I had a hard time finding a shop that would install them for me, so I decided to man up and get some tools (floor jack, torque wrench, etc.) and do it myself. I won't go into installation details as that has been don one AZ before, but here are some photos..

Here are the before photos..

And the 'after' photos..
The first shot looks like the car was raised, but the suspension settled down after a while. Overall, I think the 20mm worked perfectly to bring the stock wheels out a bit. I much happier with the look of the car, and the ride feels the same as before the spacers.

Hope you guys find this useful. Thanks to everyone who posted their insights on spacers on AZ. It was extremely helpful!

A few shots of her all cleaned up after a wash and wax..

EkSoni

iTrader: (2)

Looks good!

Packagingpro

Any Vibration Issues? Did you use any Anti-Seize or Loctite?

potmilkz

dude you need to use some loctitie or anti-seize on those.. if you didnt.. you installed them incorrectly

Defjamz

I used anti seize. No worries bro.

Packagingpro

any vibration issues?

Defjamz

No vibrations so far. I drove about 15 miles yesterday, and did my 26 mile commute via freeway this morning. Everything pretty much feels the same as before the spacers. Motorsport Tech does a great job of building out the spacers to the car's spec (center bore), so I wasn't expecting any vibration, but am definitely looking for it. I retorqued the nuts on the spacers as recommended as well. I will report back if I do notice any funny business with the spacers.
I do love the new look though! Amazing what pushing out the wheels 20mm will do for the appearance. Sportier while retaining the 'factory' look.

Packagingpro

Defjamz,
I have 22mm ordered from the same company. Any rubbing or clearance issues? Will I be OK with the stock wheels and suspension? 245/40/19's

potmilkz

remember to torque 92lbs

Defjamz

On stock wheels and suspension, you should be fine with 22mm spacers. I actually took 3 of my co-workers out to lunch today in my car, and had no rubbing whatsoever.

Just be sure to clean the hub/mounting surface with sandpaper and a rag. Then sparingly apply a little anti-seize on the lugs and the center bore of both the hub and the spacers. Torque to specs (94 ft/lbs according to the my manual), and then retorque after driving 5-30 miles.

23109VC

i've seen people run 20mm, 22mm, or combos.. like 20mm front / 25mm rear...

I"m lowered on H&R springs and am about to order spacers. I want the wheels to be flush, but not stick out.. any suggestions on the ideal spacer setup? i have OEM 19" HPT wheels , lowered on H&Rs.

TeamAcura

You should be fine with 20mm spacers. That will essentially give you a +35 et. You can even go 25mm all around and acheive a +30 offset with no poke. Nice and flush. Your car will have a very nice stance with either since you're lowered with springs.

potmilkz

id rock 25 all around.. but then again, my fronts fenders are flared and im shaved in the rear

HeartTLs

iTrader: (5)

I went with 21mm (don't ask why) and I think it looks good, but the rear could do with 25mm. That said I'm lowered on TEINS SS w/ dampening always set to 00/00, occasionally I get the front tires depending on which way, hard and fast I'm turning to marginally touch the fenders.

AntSauce

iTrader: (2)

So you apply antiseize on the spacer? How about blue loctite on the stock lugs?

jnguyen87

so you have 20mm front AND rear? What suspension do you have?

LoX

That looks clean and flush now...nice work!

Steven Bell

iTrader: (2)

They look good-I love mine.....

23109VC

what do you guys think about 20 front and 25 rear?? I'm on OEM 19" wheels...

I tried to measure how far sunk in my wheels are and it seems really obvious that the front and rear are NOT equally sunk un... the rears need to come out more than the fronts... about 5mm worth.. which is why I was thiking do 25 rear and 20 front.

I am going to custom order mine so I can get whatever size I want.

for those of you who went with 20 or 21 or 22... how do you think the fronts look at that size? do you think you could have / shoudl have gone larger / smaller ? what would you recommend NOW that you have doen it?

as for the rear - any input on size recommendation?

what do you think about 20/25? will it stick out TOO much? I want it flush...

as to the OP photos - it looks like your car is at the OEM ride height?? if you lower it.. like my car is.. your wheels will camber in and the tops will sink in more... so that will make the weels seem more sunken in than they are now... when my car was at OEM height, it never seemed to bother me as much..now that I"m dropped, i notice it way more.. so i'm thinign 20mm in the rear is not enough on a lwoere car.

thoughts?

AntSauce

iTrader: (2)

I'll be doing the 20/25 pretty soon (this weekend or next). We'll see how it goes.

Defjamz

I was told that Loctite isn't necessary if you torque and re-torque properly.

Stock suspension. I think it looks really flush with 20mm all around with the stock suspension. If you drop it, going to 25mm might work better as others have noted.
I just put some new tires on (Nitto Motivo - awesome tire BTW), and they are wider than the stock Michelins of the same size (245/45/18). So they actually poke out of the wheel wells more.

illi adik

Looks good, man!

I installed 20mm hubcentric spacers on my TL as well. Love the look, but I'm getting a decent amount of vibration above 70mph or so. What should I look for, or do, to remedy this issue?

Cheech23

looks clean!

jim_c

That looks very cool.
Loctite and anti-seize are two totally different things.
Although I love the idea, will you not get all kinds of crap off the road thrown onto the sides of your car?

Defjamz

Could be a couple of things;
1) Nuts on spacers and/or wheels not tightened to spec
2) studs going through spacers are hitting the back of the wheel, not allowing a flush fit (there is a thread on this subject on AZ)
3) Wheels/Tires need to be balanced
4) Possible need for an alignment

Defjamz

I haven't really noticed any more debris on the side of my car with the spacers installed vs. before. The contact patch of the tire is still primarily 'under' the wheel wells and mud guards.

illi adik

Thanks for the input. What is the figure for what they should be tightened to? My buddys shop did it so I'll check that first.

Also, I read that the proper lugnut tightening with spacers should be in a star pattern?

Packagingpro

Are you able to pull off the rotors and turn them with these spacers installed?

jim_c

Looks like the spacers are fastened with special nuts which would mean the spacers are in fact bolted to the hubs and the rotors are held in between. Then the wheels are attached to the new studs in the spacers. so to remove the rotors you would have to undo all five nuts. Correct me if that's wrong.
When installing, it would be imperative to get all surfaces clean and smooth and in alignment.
Looks good though!

suspekt360

How much do the spacers weigh? I really don't want to slow the car down by adding mass to the wheel assembly.

Are they like 1 pound per corner?

potmilkz

last thing you need to worry about is weight.. id be more concerned about vibrations..

Defjamz

So it's obviously been a while (~1.5 years) since I've had my spacers installed. To date, I still have not experienced any vibration issues or rubbing. Sometimes I forget that I even installed them, until I happen to notice another 4G TL with stock wheels that look a little 'sucked-in'. Long story short, if you follow the proper prep and torque recommendations, spacers are pretty great way of enhancing the factory look of the TL (or any car for that matter).

23109VC

thanks for the follow up! I"ve had 20/25 mm spacers on my car for over a year with no vibration or other problems.

i recently considered doing a camber kit in the rear. if I put in a camber kit, which reduces the negative camber.. wouldn't that effectively make my tires appear to stick out more at the top..negating the "flush" look?

just wondering if anyone who ran spacers.. later installed a camber kit, and then needed to get smaller spacers?

hornedfrog

are you running longer studs?

potmilkz

the title of this thread is misleading as he is not running spacers. he is running adapters..

and when you run adapters.. you do not need extended studs.. you use your existing studs to mount the adapter then the adapter itself has studs for you to mount your wheel

Schu

So thats what +20mm looks like. That is helpful.

Btw, anti-seize and loctite do diametrically different things

andrewcjduong

How much did these run you?

Defjamz

I ordered the custom spacers from Motorsport Tech for $285.


I actually just took them off today, as I finally got a new set of wheels with more aggressive offset than stock, thus no longer requiring the spacers/adapters. I'll be selling them on Acurazine soon, but PM if you're interested.

potmilkz

i would buy those 25mm off you.. if you are willing to separate.. but since you have it as a package, i dont think you will

Defjamz

I only had 20mm adapters/spacers on my car. I think someone else had 25mm's for the rears on their car.