Wheel spacers installed with impact wrench

[Baso]

I put on 1 inch billet hubcentric spacers yesterday all around. Had a shop do it because I lack the right tools, but the worker there ended up using an impact wrench to tighten the lug nuts on the spacers and wheels. At first I thought it was ok since it tightened well but a bit of googling led me to learn it was bad to overtighten. Should I take it back after the 50-100 miles period and retighten them appropriately? Problem is I went to two different shops and specifically asked for the job to be done with a torque wrench but it seems no shop carries it in my country, tighty is how they operate here... Would you recommend doing the job myself with the factory wrench and jack? I'm concerned about the lug nuts not going off with the factory wrench because of the torque that was applied to them though.

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[OVRKILL]

Terrible! You'd be better off buying a cheap torque wrench than paying them to destroy your wheel studs. I've seen studs sheared from that behavior.. not to mention the safety issue.

 

[Wile-E Coyote]

I owned a tire store for 8 years and worked in one previous to that since I was a child. I can get your lug nuts to within 5 lbs of their torque using my impact gun, its not that hard to be honest. Furthermore torque sticks are VERY popular they are essentially a socket extension that will impact things to the proper torque specs. I personally use a 500 dollar snapon torque wrench on everything but if it broke or i couldnt use it i would feel confident in my impact gun to get your wheels and or spacers tightened correctly. Over tightening to the degree that you described here is very unlikely to cause any damage, any kind of distortion would only occur after HEAVY PROLONGED impact use, like hammering on it hard, it just isnt likely to happen.

TLDR: You dont need to worry that much about over tightening, id be more worried about them not being tight enough.

P.S. Tightening a spacer to 90lbs is the same as tightening your wheel to 90lbs, aka, not enough. Your spacer may be specced to handle only 90lbs but it requires 150 to be tightened correctly to the vehicle. The torque spec is derived from the thread pitch and diameter of the studs, not what is attached to them.

 

[EFI]

Lug nuts have almost nothing to do with the torque required, it's all in the stud itself. So regardless of what nuts there are you have to base your torque setting of the stud. If the stud is the same 14mm size as OEM, then it takes the same torque as OEM. If those nuts cannot handle that torque, then you should not be installing parts that are not made up to standards for this car. Simple as that.

And a vendor is simply a 3rd party seller of an item they have very little info or knowledge about. All the do is re-sell stuff online, so I wouldn't really go by their expertise. I would trust Ford multi billion dollar R&D over some random online retailer.

P.S. Tightening a spacer to 90lbs is the same as tightening your wheel to 90lbs, aka, not enough. Your spacer may be specced to handle only 90lbs but it requires 150 to be tightened correctly to the vehicle. The torque spec is derived from the thread pitch and diameter of the studs, not what is attached to them.

This 1000%

 

[EFI]

So because they also install these parts (besides sell them) that makes them experts in how they are built? And no, Ford does not built spacers, but this isn't a discussion about spacers in particular, it's a discussion on studs. And Ford did make those studs, and came up with a torque value for those for a reason.

But again, you go ahead and take the advice of a youtuber who sells and installs parts, while I will take the advice of those who manufactured and designed those parts from scratch.

And btw, I would much rather end up with the problem that you posted pictures of eg. a torn lug nut, rather than end up with the problem of a wheel falling off while going 140mph from insufficient torque on the studs. I guarantee you the damage from that will be much more extensive than anything you posted in those pictures.

 

[Wile-E Coyote]

The spacers may be rated for 90lbs only and that's fine but to have them properly attached to your vehicle they need to be 150 as I said previously and I install them too. This is just one of the many reasons why spacers suck and cheap spacers suck even more.

 

[Sheenapple]

Bottom line:

I’ve had 1” spacers on my 2015 gt pp for 4 years now. About 70k miles and 4-5 sets of tires (I forget). Torqued 150 ft pounds from day one, have pulled them off and inspected them regularly with no issues. Let the results speak for themselves. Google thread torque tension if you want to know the facts, it’s a good read.

I’m against spacers, but the car looks stupid with the wheels under the fender. Especially the fronts.

YMMV

 

[Wile-E Coyote]

Eibach is the epitome of poor. You wont be laughing when your wheel comes off from being under torqued. Spacers are garbage and the only reason to run them is that you're too poor to buy the proper sized wheels.

 

[Wile-E Coyote]

I'm actually trying to save your life but ok.

 

[Sheenapple]

No, but I got them from https://www.titanwheelaccessories.com/

 

[Sheenapple]

Eibach is the epitome of poor. You wont be laughing when your wheel comes off from being under torqued. Spacers are garbage and the only reason to run them is that you're too poor to buy the proper sized wheels.

Wil-e is actually not trolling, if you look up eibach spacers you will see some of the horror stories. That was a major reason I did not buy them. I looked at garageline spacers but they had issues with stocking them and the deal fell through.

High price does not always equal quality, if you’re seriously considering spacers from eibach for the s550 platform, look elsewhere.

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