Wheel Spacers for 31 inch tires

[SgtOgre]

Title says it all really. I test fit a 31x10.50 r15 wheel today on my 98 SE and it was too close for comfort. Would of had rubbing at full lock as well as on the strut most likely. They recommended new wheels, they quoted me about 300 for the wheels. I dont think i need them. They also said i could go down to a 30x9.50 r15 and it would be cheaper and it would fit fine. For reference i am going with the General Grabber AT2 tires.

So a few questions:

Should i go with 1" 1.5" or 2"?

Do i need to put them on all 4 tires on only the front?

Do i need to worry about any other parts wearing out faster because of them?

Does anyone have a link to good ones? I am looking to get them cheap, but still need them to last.

Thanks in advance for the help. This tire thing is a pain when you are going 3 inches larger than stock.

[nickelghandi]

It will put more stress on some suspension components such as the CV axles. Greater distance from the moment of force and all that giving more torque on the axles as they flex. If you are lifted already, you may want to reconsider as a lift stresses the CV axles more too. Wheel spacers can also break during off road excursions.
If you are not, a lift would be a better option in my opinion as you will get more height and ground clearance, a more aggressive look, and avoid the wheel spacers.

[Hawairish]

I disagree with the last post. CVs are not suspension components, and wheel spacers have no impact on them. Wheel spacers mount to the wheel hub, which mounts to the steering knuckle via the wheel bearing. But it's the wheel studs that bear the most load. The CV's splined end just drives the wheel hub.

And aside from larger tires, a suspension lift increases stress on the CV because it increases the working angles of the joints. They need to work faster to maintain constant velocity. At a high enough angle, the CV can bind and fail. But a wheel spacer has nothing to do with this.

[302LVR]

Dont know much about lift kits or wheel spacers but thought id share my experience with spacers on this post. I have an 02' Pathfinder 2wd and recently installed bigger oem 18" nissan titan rims on my truck and had to use 1.5" wheel spacers since i couldnt find 1" ones. I even took an extra step towards safety and installed extended studs where the spacers will bolt up to the factory hub. I am not happy with the end result as im experiencing vibration above 55mph. NOTE: I also purchased the regular, NOT Hubcentric spacers for my truck because of the big price difference so maybe this has to do with the vibration in my opinion. Basically i had to use the spacers on these rims since they have less offset than the oem 16" rims it came with(20mm vs 25mm i believe). I also feel as if the truck takes longer to stop when i apply the brakes and occasionally hear a Thud noise whenever i hit a bump on the road so im not sure if its wearing out my balljoints, tie rod ends or other suspension parts with these wheels and spacers but i didnt have that issue when i ran my oem 16" rims. Just thought id add my .02 but if anyone has any other ideas on this matter im all ears and open to any feedback. Thanks.

[Hawairish]

You shouldn't have needed longer wheel studs for the spacers, and this probably wouldn't be any safer. The spacers are usually milled thin enough, and the lug will still have 100% of thread in contact with the wheel stud. You may want to check if your lug nuts are topping out and not holding the spacer to the wheel hub securely.

Also, if the center bore of the spacer is beyond 100mm (and they usually are, to accommodate multiple vehicles), then you want hub rings to fill that gap. This is the best way to ensure the spacers are centered on the wheel hub.

[302LVR]

You shouldn't have needed longer wheel studs for the spacers, and this probably wouldn't be any safer. The spacers are usually milled thin enough, and the lug will still have 100% of thread in contact with the wheel stud. You may want to check if your lug nuts are topping out and not holding the spacer to the wheel hub securely.

Also, if the center bore of the spacer is beyond 100mm (and they usually are, to accommodate multiple vehicles), then you want hub rings to fill that gap. This is the best way to ensure the spacers are centered on the wheel hub.

Thanks for your advice. I actually purchased longer wheel studs since the lug nuts wouldnt show any threads past the head of the lug nut and ive been told you're supposed to see @ least 2-3 threads protruding above lug nut head for proper clamping force. I also didn't use my factory "acorn" style lug nuts that bottom out for that same reason so i purchased the "open end" style lug nuts. The spacers i purchased are indeed over 100mm(can't remember exact size) in order to clear the 4" center bore where the wheel bearings go. I did in fact only need a 1" spacer but could only find 1.5" on ebay and like i stated before i used the NON-hubcentric style because they were 2x the price $130+ compared to $60+. I ended up needing the spacers UP FRONT ONLY since the oem 18" Titan rims use a 3" center bore opening while my pathfinder oem 16" rims have a 4"+ center bore to clear the wheel bearing housing.

Btw, just found this thread on here and i'll be reading thru it soon to see if this helps my issue. I DO think my front wheel bearings may be a bit loose since my tire has a bit of play when jacked up in the air and i move the tire from side to side with my hands.... torquing-the-front-wheel-bearing-lock-ring-t577463.html

[Hawairish]

It does sound like you've taken the necessary precautions. The wheel studs don't protrude too far past the mounting surface of the wheel spacer, right? The OE wheels do have a small recess space, maybe for about 3/16" (mine do, anyway), but I doubt it's an issue.

If you still need the hub rings, they're pretty cheap on eBay or Amazon, btw.

And yes, a loose wheel bearing can cause some play. I had to deal with that the other week. Just be sure to try wiggling the wheel hub with the wheel off, just to be sure it's the problem. Good luck!

[302LVR]

It does sound like you've taken the necessary precautions. The wheel studs don't protrude too far past the mounting surface of the wheel spacer, right? The OE wheels do have a small recess space, maybe for about 3/16" (mine do, anyway), but I doubt it's an issue.

If you still need the hub rings, they're pretty cheap on eBay or Amazon, btw.

And yes, a loose wheel bearing can cause some play. I had to deal with that the other week. Just be sure to try wiggling the wheel hub with the wheel off, just to be sure it's the problem. Good luck!

Thanks! The wheel hub doesnt really wiggle around or show any signs of play when i move it only when the tire is mounted on and tightened. I asked my dad to check it for me as a second opinion and he says its fine. The small amount of play it has probably isn't the bearing so i'm thinking maybe its the Balljoints, what do you think since they've never been replaced? As far as for the studs protruding, they're not interfering with the mounting surface between the spacer and rim but the rim also has that recess area to clear the studs in case it does. I'm gonna take the truck to the mechanic so he can put it on the lift and see what he thinks also and i'm definitely gonna look into those hub rings since i hadnt done so before. Thanks for the help and advice once more.

[Hawairish]

I don't think it's the balljoint honestly, but that's easy to rule out. Just be sure you're grabbing the bottom of the wheel hub to check for ball joint play...you won't have much leverage if you grab the top of the wheel hub because you only have one balljoint, and it's at the bottom of the steering knuckle. At that point, it also wouldn't hurt to torque-check the 3 nuts that secure the balljoint to the LCA, then retry a wiggle.

Only other things in the chain are the strut bolts and strut mounting. A slightly loose strut bolt can cause a small pop at times when driving, but usually doesn't have noticeable free play unless it's just straight-out loose. That's why if the wheel hub feels loose when I grab the top or sides and push/pull away from the vehicle, I tend to think wheel bearing. If you push/pull the sides, you want to keep an eye on the tie rod ends to see if there's play there.

[302LVR]

UPDATE: Removed both front hubs to inspect bearinsg for wear and everything looked good. I cleaned all bearings and re-packed with new grease for safety but the wear seemed normal. After assembling everything back i did tighten the bearing locknuts a bit more since the last time around they didnt seem tight enough to my liking. After taking the truck on a good 30-40 mile round trip it felt better with less vibration than before but still have a bit of vibration after 60-70mph. Before mounting the tires i checked for balljoint(up/down) play on the hub like suggested above but had no play. Once more its only after i mount the tires that i have a bit of play on the passenger side from side to side or left to right. It seems to point towards the outer tie rod as i noticed that my driver side is very stiff and barely moves yet the passenger side has a bit more wiggle or play. This coincides with the fact that my passenger side tire wiggles more from left to right when its off the ground. Also makes sense that im feeling the vibration on passenger side when i go above 60mph. Let me know what you guys think once more. Thanks!

[atraudes]

Are you sure your tires don't just need to be balanced? If you're only feeling it in your steering wheel that very well could be the case. I only suggest this because I have a vibration in my steering wheel as well around 60-70 and that's what my research indicated. I still need to make the appointment to get that taken care of...

Also, you shouldn't leave the spindle nut torqued down at all. The FSM states that you should torque it down something like 58-72 ft-lb (though firmly is plenty), then spin the wheel in either direction a few times to seat the bearings, back the spindle nut off, then tighten it down only until it touches the bearing (maybe a 1/8 turn more). Leaving it tightened down and driving on it will put undue stress on the bearings and wear them down a lot faster. Mind you when you get done you shouldn't have any play in the hub.

Just remembered, I wrote up a howto on front bearings!

Hope that helps!

[Hawairish]

Atraudes brings up good points...tire balancing is always a factor, and some tires are just a pain to balance. I had problems with my Duratracs. Know what fixed them? New tires!

And yes, do not leave the bearing nut torqued. The first torque is to seat the bearing, but you need to back the nut off and give it a second "tightening" to just keep it there. The stationary screw is what keeps the nut from backing off any further.

I'm a little surprised you can't feel any play with the tire off, but it could just be the leverage gained by having the tire on.

How are the bushings on your steering rack?

[302LVR]

Took the truck to have the tires re-balanced and the balancing on them was fine. They even showed me the process as it was being done. One tire was fine but one tire did take a weight for .50 or .050 from what i remember. The guys at the tire place still told me that wasnt enough of a big difference to cause the vibration on the highway. In the end i asked them to please torque down my wheel spacers with their pneumatic impact gun since the one i have at home is battery operated. I took it for a test drive on the highway hitting 70,80 and 85mph @times and the vibration definitely went down a lot, almost completely eliminated. The end result i believe is that the spacers are causing the vibration since they're not hubcentric like i mentioned before. I will ultimately just end up putting my oem 16" rims with new tires and sell these 18" Armada stock wheels with BFGs on them. It sucks because the truck looked way nicer but yet it feels like a bucket with that vibration when my truck drove silky smooth all the time before with the oem wheels. I prefer having a smooth and safe ride over looking good on the highway. lol. Once again thanks for all the help and advice guys.

[302LVR]

Now on to my next concern or future project i'd like to look into. Has anyone done a Rear disc brake conversion on an 96-04 Pathfinder?? If so, please send me the link if available or info on what components are compatible with this truck and how complicated it is. Thanks once more.

[Hawairish]

Well, if the vibration is much better, why not stick it out? I mean, how often are you at those speeds?

But yeah, that's the problem with some spacers that don't have the centering lip built-in...the lugs become the only way to center things up, and it doesn't take much to be off-center.

To go off-topic for a moment...

The brake conversion has been done on a Frontier, but not an R50 that I'm aware of. I have all the parts in my garage for it. Just another project I haven't gotten around to. The process and parts would be no different (except for the e-brake part):
http://www.clubfrontier.org/forums/f102 ... post826736. http://nissannut.com/projects/H233b_disc_brakes/

Edit: Just found this gem, probably the most comprehensive write-up, but for an Xterra: http://www.xterranation.org/showthread. ... Brake-Swap

[302LVR]

^^^I'm gonna drive it around for a bit longer to see how it rides. Thing is with that vibration at those speeds i know it will eventually cause other suspension parts to fail faster than usual. On top of that my truck only has 127K miles which i believe is pretty low and I enjoy random road trips with the family sometimes since i know my truck wont break down on me or anything like that since i'm very religious with its maintenance. Worse come to worse i'll just slap my oem 16" rims back on with new tires. As far as for the rear disc conversion goes, it looks pretty involved and time consuming but i'll look into it with more detail soon. I kinda find it absurd that 88-95 Pathfinders came with Rear disc brakes yet have a less powerful engine yet our R50 variants which are way newer and bring more power from factory, have drum brakes in the rear! Thanks to everyone for the help and suggestions once more.

[overwest]

I've got a set of spacers I just put up for sale if you are looking.

[New England wade]

I had a question hawairish are you running manual locking hubs? I have an 04 pathfinder too with 33 spline axles and I can't find manual hubs anywhere!!! I lifted it 2.5" and don't want my cv's wearing out during normal driving any help would be appreciated

[Hawairish]

I do.

Any hubs for an R50 will fit, but clearance might depend on your wheels. I run Rugged Ridge on OE wheels on my 04, my buddy runs Warns on aftermarket steelies on his 02.

http://www.nissanpathfinders.net/forum/ ... -04-wheels

[302LVR]

I've got a set of spacers I just put up for sale if you are looking.

Link? Info? Thanks.

[302LVR]

Btw. here are some pics of what i've done so far and how the truck looks.
[URL=https://forum-attachments.sfo2.di ... .jpg[/img][/url]
[URL=https://forum-attachments.sfo2.di ... .jpg[/img][/url]
[url][/url]

[overwest]

I've got a set of spacers I just put up for sale if you are looking.

Link? Info? Thanks.

topic607135.html

[302LVR]

topic607135.html[/quote]

Got it! Unfortunately those are too wide for me but thanks for the heads up.

[overwest]

topic607135.html

Got it! Unfortunately those are too wide for me but thanks for the heads up. [/quote]

No problemo, thanks for checking! Shoot me a message if you change your mind.

[302LVR]

^^^Will do!