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vibration after adding hubcentric spacer

k3v0

Ready to race!
Location
south philly
Car(s)
2009 GTI
got new tires saturday and they were mounted and balanced with the wheel. no problems on the highway after balancing, the new wheel/tire combo felt great.

After that i installed 8mm hubcentric spacers on the back and now my shit is vibrating at 80mph. i cleaned off the mounting surface on the hub and back of the wheel. i got ball seat lugs since i'm using them with stock wheels. i also got 35 mm lugs.

did i miss something? do i just need to clean the hub and wheel surface more?
 

A41.8QTM

That's what she said
Location
Virginia Beach, VA
Car(s)
2008 GTI
I bet I know what it is...same issue here and I just figured it out today. The rear hubs have a cap over the axle bolt. That cap isn't allowing the spacer to sit flush and makes your wheel slightly cock-eyed. I was getting the vibration around 60-70mph. Tonight I pulled the wheel, popped the cap off and used a Dremel to grind down the corner where it was contacting the inside of the spacer. It was 95% better but the spacer still didn't sit 100% flush until I bolted the wheel up and torqued it. My spacers are 10mm 42DD FYI. I don't know how important those caps are. I'd rather leave them off so the spacer sits like it should 100%.
 
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thewhiteone

Ready to race!
Location
Tampa
before installing the wheel, place spacer on wheel to ensure snug fit, could be wrong type of spacer. i experienced this when i had spacers specific for OEM wheels and not for my aftermarket wheels. spacer wasnt snug with too much wiggle room therefore wobble at speed.
 

A41.8QTM

That's what she said
Location
Virginia Beach, VA
Car(s)
2008 GTI
That could be it too. You need to have that protrusion for the wheel to center on.

What exact spacers do you have OP?

Vibrations can occur if the spacer is not WHEEL centric (has the lip on the spacer)....most spacers (for our cars) are all hubcentric

If you got these...you'll probably have vibrations:
http://www.ecstuning.com/Volkswagen-Golf_V--2.0T/Wheels/Spacers/HR/ES5106/

These won't give you vibrations:
http://www.ecstuning.com/Volkswagen-Golf_V--2.0T/Wheels/Spacers/HR/ES2537950/
 

k3v0

Ready to race!
Location
south philly
Car(s)
2009 GTI
i have h&r 8mm hubcentrics on the rear and h&r nonhubcentric on the front. Last night i took the rears off, cleaned them and put everything back on. same problem. Today i am going to check the fronts. leaning towards the fronts being the problem since they aren't hubcentric, and there was little change after making sure the rears fit properly. 5mm didn't seem too much to not be hubcentric... but here i am.
 

A41.8QTM

That's what she said
Location
Virginia Beach, VA
Car(s)
2008 GTI
That there is your problem. Why did you not get hubcentrics up front?
 

k3v0

Ready to race!
Location
south philly
Car(s)
2009 GTI
only need 5mm and they don't make hubcentric 5mms. also it doesn't feel like the front is the problem. more center console shake than steering wheel shake
 

A41.8QTM

That's what she said
Location
Virginia Beach, VA
Car(s)
2008 GTI
the 10mm spacers I have from 42DD don't have dust caps.

I have 10.5mm spacers from ecs and they have built in dust cap which is why you have to remove the existing dustcaps....
 
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k3v0

Ready to race!
Location
south philly
Car(s)
2009 GTI
long story short it was the 5mm non wheelcentric ones that were being annoying. will try test fitting the 8mm ones up front to see how i like them.
 
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