dontwakemeup

Last year I installed "FK" hubcentric wheel spacers (20 MM) at a local tire shop. The spacers are aluminum, German, made to fit the car, and the type where their own bolts fasten into the hub, then the original wheel studs connect into the spacer. I think I have a major safety problem... I took my car to the same shop to rotate my wheels (front to back), when I came to pick it up, they claimed rust had caused a problem with a stud...and it would have to be replaced (bogus). On closer inspection I could see aluminum in the stud's threads....sure enough I went back to the bay and the threads in two of the spacer holes were stripped, one really bad. This indicates to me that they used the air gun which over tightened, instead of using a torque wrench. So I asked them to remove the spacers all together....BUT the allen type bolts keeping the spacers attached to the hub aren't giving at all..they couldn't loosen them. I tried myself at home and encountered the same problem. They had even attempted with so much pressure that the allen socket had started to change shape (round out a bit). So now I'm very concerned as you can imagine. I think the tire shop is liable for all costs in extracting the spacers since they installed? Would you agree? I think they'd actually have to drill into each spacer bolt with a special tool to back them out?? Ugh. I just couldn't find any information on someone else who might have experienced this before. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

raymond g-

did you provide them with torque info for the aluminum with your rotation
instructions? am presuming that it would be much less than OEM torque#s.

Moviela

Why would the installer be liable for rust or corrsion on your wheels? They did not cause the rust.

bumpnzx3

i had it happen to my 17" wheels on my focus. the shopped repaired the problem free of charge as a good gesture. however- their fix won't exactly work in this case. they used the hot wrench the cut the stud off from the back side- then press a new stud in.

dontwakemeup

Yeah there wasn't any rust like what they originally claimed...and no I didn't tell them to use less torque since I too didn't know there would have been a problem. They have a policy of at least 80 lbs and I was just ignorant (nothing on the box or any other information came with the spacers/bolts indicating a non-OEM torque min/max). I wonder if there is product that would help un-seize the bolts, perhaps temperature, or a tool that can put more leverage into those allen heads. Anyway, thanks for your feedback.

W Cole

Temperature, heat it with a torch and it should come off.

TemjinX2

yeah i was wondering why there would be rust on aluminium spacers. sounds like they screwed up and try to make up a excuse to pass the buck to you. The guy who did it was probably careless. Something similar happened to me when they use a air gun on my wheel lock.

go back to the shop and make them fix it. They are liable for it because the car was being serviced by them when it happened.

next time tell them about the aluminium spacers and tell them to make sure they use a torque wrench. i always assume they would be careless and just give them the info anyways if there's anything that requires special attention.

Glyn M Ruck

+1