Wheel spacers

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BigBalledOX

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Sigh. Time to get flamed.

Have these gorgeous 18x8.5" deep dish, five-spoke, chrome wheels. Non-ghetto (no really, they are very clean) and generally sexy. I think they will be boner-inspiring on my Eibach'd blue '02.

The company I purchased them from listed the LS as a vehicle it would fit. I, being a dumb-dumb, failed to verify with LVC on this.

So I finally go to get the wheels and tires mounted and balanced today (more than two months after I bought them) and they just barely rub on the brake caliper. We're talking a millimeter or two being the difference between these rubbing and not.

I can't return them because I've had them too long, and truthfully, they are the best looking chrome wheels I've found anyways, so I really don't want to. I almost went with OEM chrome wheels because I like their clean design that much, but these wheels were just too sexy to pass on.

Anyone have any suggestions for wheel spacers? Clearly it only needs to be maybe 5-10 mm, just enough to give clearance over the brakes. And will I need to get longer studs with spacers that small?

Help as always, is appreciated.
 
Just had the wheels off my LS doing brakes, lugs are plenty long enough to allow about 8mm with the stock rims. It would truely depend on the thickness of your rims center section on how much you could do with spacers on stock lugs. My experience with them is limited, I've never liked the idea of them. I do use them on my truck to keep the edges of my oversized tires from rubbing inside the wheelwell on hard turns, but I used the bare minimum required to achieve clearance to prevent as much stress on the lugs as I could. I also had mine cut and drilled to exactly fit the lugs rather than using one of the "universal" spacers with slots for the lugs like they sell at the local auto parts stores. I simply took one of my spare rotors in, and they used it as the template, cost me $45 for the carbon plate steel and the labor for the set of four.

Another thought is to inspect and see exactly what is rubbing and how badly. It may be just a molding imprefection of the caliper housing causing the rub which may be able to be slightly sanded or ground down.
 
I had bought some wheels for my s-10 blazer a long time ago and had a similar issue with the front. I asked the shop if we could grind a little off the caliper, took like 2 minutes. All they did was smooth them out really. Worked great. I would see if some other minor adjustment could fix the problem before adding spacers.
 
Silver_LS said:
I had bought some wheels for my s-10 blazer a long time ago and had a similar issue with the front. I asked the shop if we could grind a little off the caliper, took like 2 minutes. All they did was smooth them out really. Worked great. I would see if some other minor adjustment could fix the problem before adding spacers.
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Agreed, spacers just seem like something extra to create a weakness. I'd go with any other solution first. The rough texture of the steel the calipers and related hardware are made of would easily allow gaining close to 1mm simply by sanding them smooth. (on a note of modification, could break out a dremel or the likes and smooth the whole caliper so you can put a high gloss finish on it with some high-temp paint)

I only required 1MM on my truck, and it's the torsion bar the very corner of the treads barely rubs, as well as the mudflap/dust cover in the back of the wheelwell when in reverse. I used a 3mm sheet of carbon plate steel so there would be a little extra room for vibration and tire flex. I don't care if it rubs a little under the harshest conditions, just so long as it's not everytime I turn tight to pull or back into my driveway.
 
I would also suggest grinding the caliper. The LS just has plain iron calipers and they have plenty of meat and casting flashing to remove. I am NOT a fan of wheel spacers.
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I have Eibach spacers (15mm rear, 12mm front) on my other car..a M3. Running stock wheels/stock suspension, but I wanted just a hint more of an aggressive stance. The spacers havent caused any issues at all. Work fine.
 
I agree with grinding the calipers first. If that doesn't work, then I would opt for MACHINED spacers. I wouldn't trust the generic ones as far as I can throw them.
 
I'll dig up some pictures at some point, they're tucked away back in storage for the time being. I DESPISE the idea of wheel spacers, so we shall see about grinding down the caliper, otherwise I think I will go with sets from www.wheeladapter.com since they are hubcentric spacers. Not cheap, but a couple hundred bucks beats snapping lugnuts and skidding across four lanes of traffic at 70 MPH on my way to a fiery death.
 
you can't put deep dish and LS in the same sentence, that just ain't happenin'.
 
HyeLifeLS said:
you can't put deep dish and LS in the same sentence, that just ain't happenin'.
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Whatever you say sweetie!

Lincoln Luebbe said:
At least a make and model of the wheels so I can look them up myself!
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Sorry man, pitched the boxes on Saturday when I went to get 'em mounted and balanced. Probably dig 'em out of storage over the weekend to grab a pic for you.
 
So what happened to your big baller dip dish chrome wheels BigBaller? Did you ever got those 6" lipped wheels on your Eibach'd out blue 02 LS?
 
One of us(LS owners), has...I think...20MM spacers, with modified lug bolts...I cant think of who it is though.
 
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