Wheel Spacer issue, please read!!!

[P85er]

Hi Fellow Model S owners,

Ive been a member of this forum for almost a year now but mostly a reader and haven't contributed nor posted any thread before.

Today i feel that i need to post this for all owners running spacers on their model S, 21” rims in particular as this is what i have.

I own a 2013 P85 running 21” wheel non-staggered. Bought a set of 19mm spacers to fit in May 2018. Spacers where installed and torqued properly mid Jun 2018.


View attachment 334918 View attachment 334919
Today early morning ive noticed a weird noise, metalic scrapping, from the rear left wheel so i pulled over and inspected the car but found nothing to report. On my second drive i noticed the sound had become more pronounced, so again i pulled over and tried to shake the wheel and thats when a lug nut fall on the ground. Lucky enough i was less than 10 minutes away from a tire shop, took off both rear wheels to find out that the spacer studs are snapped

View attachment 334895 View attachment 334896

View attachment 334897

As you can clearly see the rear left spacer has one stud broken and resting within the lug nut. Right side had 3 studs broken as we removed the lug nuts.

Now this is my daily car that i drive atleast 150-200km a day with my family inside. I cant imaging what wouldve happened if i lost more studs and wheel came off. I am glade that i noticed it early enough to prevent and harmful damage.

I have sent the manufacturer an email, and i will not disclose their name yet as i will give them the chance to justify/explain the reason for such issue to happen. But the main purpose of this thread is for all owners with spacers to check their setup thoroughly and periodically as this is extremely dangerous.

I had the same issue. Except my spacers are only 5/16" thick and they use the factory studs. My driving habits are as follows, I love taking turns fast.
I'm not big on fast launching but I love sticking a turn. Tossing 4200 lbs on my rear wheels are causing my studs to just fail. My fix was to buy longer harden Ford truck Dorman M14-1.5 x 2.5"long studs. These are tuff as hell. O'rielly has them for $2 ea. and so does AutoZone. Good luck

 

[jerry33]

Hi Fellow Model S owners,

Ive been a member of this forum for almost a year now but mostly a reader and haven't contributed nor posted any thread before.

Today i feel that i need to post this for all owners running spacers on their model S, 21” rims in particular as this is what i have.

I own a 2013 P85 running 21” wheel non-staggered. Bought a set of 19mm spacers to fit in May 2018. Spacers where installed and torqued properly mid Jun 2018.


View attachment 334918 View attachment 334919
Today early morning ive noticed a weird noise, metalic scrapping, from the rear left wheel so i pulled over and inspected the car but found nothing to report. On my second drive i noticed the sound had become more pronounced, so again i pulled over and tried to shake the wheel and thats when a lug nut fall on the ground. Lucky enough i was less than 10 minutes away from a tire shop, took off both rear wheels to find out that the spacer studs are snapped

View attachment 334895 View attachment 334896

View attachment 334897

As you can clearly see the rear left spacer has one stud broken and resting within the lug nut. Right side had 3 studs broken as we removed the lug nuts.

Now this is my daily car that i drive atleast 150-200km a day with my family inside. I cant imaging what wouldve happened if i lost more studs and wheel came off. I am glade that i noticed it early enough to prevent and harmful damage.

I have sent the manufacturer an email, and i will not disclose their name yet as i will give them the chance to justify/explain the reason for such issue to happen. But the main purpose of this thread is for all owners with spacers to check their setup thoroughly and periodically as this is extremely dangerous.

Spacers are basically deadly. I've seen way too many rollovers (in ICE cars) when the spacer bolts failed--hardened or not. There is no way that there won't be movement between the spacers and the hub and wheel.

 

[serendipitous]

Spacers are basically deadly. I've seen way too many rollovers (in ICE cars) when the spacer bolts failed--hardened or not. There is no way that there won't be movement between the spacers and the hub and wheel.

The issue is when your spacers make your wheels no longer hub-centric, which shifts loads to the lugs that they aren't meant to take. A properly hub-centric (on both sides!) spacer that is flush with the wheel and hub surfaces ensures that the load is born by the hubs/axles as intended, and there's very little stress on the lugs themselves. When your lugs are preventing the wheel from sitting firmly against the spacer (as in OP), you are putting WAY more load on the spacer's lugs - they're bound to fail no matter what they're made of.