are rim spacers a must have? because as some of u know my right-rear wheel is making some sort of noise and this guy told me maybe its cuz i dont have rim spacers...but i dont have them on all 4 rims so i dont think it's that...but he says u should have them anyways...???

 

not spacers...centering rings...and no, most wheels are lug centric, not hub centric. Spacers bump your wheels out and will cause mad *** rubbing and extreme loads on the suspension... it's like BC Auto's black widebody BMW they have...that's got H&R wheel spacers. That's not the cause of your noise.

 

First.....you have to find out WHERE it is rubing. Put the car up on a hoist, and take a look on the inside (side) surface of the tire. Do you see rubbing on the tire? if yes, see what it is hitting......it might be as easy as moving or gently bending a brake line or something else out of the way. If the tire is hitting the the wheel well on the INSIDE (usually near the top of the well), a spacer can help.

If it is hitting on the outside, there are a few options......

1. Get different rims with a different offset. or change the tire size. (depends on what size you can use)

2. "roll" the fender. (this can eventually lead to rusting of the wheel well)

3. get the backside of the rims mounting surface machined......that whay you are technically changing the offset.

Check to see what it is first.

 

Alan, his "rubbing" is on one wheel only... nothin else, and he raised the car, and still the same. The rear brake lines go in such a way that it's very hard to imagine this being the problem. But to be sure... do as PULOVR said - hoist it and check.

 

i went to a few places, they all came along for a test drive, lifted the car checked everything...and it looks ok, its not rubbing anywhere 99.9% (even raised the car by half a inch)....we came to the conclusion that its either a bearing issue OR something to do with the tire/rim it's self...

tonight im gonna rotate the 2 back tires and see if the noise is coming from the oposite side then its a rim/tire issue...if its coming from the same side then its a bearing issue...but im hoping it wont be coming from any side at all once i rotate the wheels....

 

I remember a friend a while back that had a simular problem.......the thing he didn't realize was, everytime he lifted the car, the wheel would move AWAY from the spot it was rubbing on......then, when he put the car back on the ground and went to test drive it again, the wheel would rub. It drove him nut's until I took a look at it.......found the problem by using a lift that you drove onto. It was rubbing on the inner top of the rear fender.

He didn't realize that everytime he lifted the car with a hoist, the wheel would no longer touch......that is why I suggested what I did. I've seen weirder things happen.