I got 5/16" spacers up front, and two of these spacers ( 10/16") on each side out back to increase handleing, and stop the "forklift look" of the stock cavalier- front tires out wider. I do not recomend running spacers. It has cost me nothing but trouble. I have put in ET lug nuts, and extended studs on all four corners. I have had to replace stripped studs from the wrong lug nuts ( ET's) , and recently- I'll just put it like this, within the past week, My wheels have almost fallen off three times. Today I had too stop twice on my mourning commute to tighten my lug nuts ( now the chamfer on the stock bronze lugs I'm running up front is messed up) as I felt the tire wobbleing!!!
Bassically, I am going to have to put it all back to stock to even make my car functional: twenty stock studs, twenty new lug nuts, and maybe a left front bearing due to overtightening of the drive axle shaft nut. ( chilton's says this is 192 ft lbs and on a different page 185 ft lbs). My torque wrench only goes to 140 so I tightened it an extra 1/4 turn to try and hit the mark, I guess it was off?
Bassically my car was tight. Actually at first this spacer mod did give me better handleing through corners, but with all of this hoopla, it is not worth it. Everthing is about $2.00 each, so with 10 studs, and 10 lug nuts = $40.00 at each wheel( total = $160.00). Imagine paying this a few times. It sucks having the smallest components on your car not working right, when you have high dollar mods.
In hindsight I wish I would've just stayed stock.
When I just got my car aligned, the guy told me ET style lug nuts are wrong for my car and that I need acorn type lug nuts? Maybe this was the problem?

All I know is that I am going to have to break bread just to fix something so simple, ( oh and I do the labor myself).

If you run spacers what have you done? does it work?

the front should have the wider track...

the drive wheels usually do....

Quote:

and stop the "forklift look" of the stock cavalier

you added spacers to get rid of a certain look?

but wanted to improve on handling?





put it this way... think about doing pushups.... which has more stability? your hands both by your sternum? or you hands about shoulder width.


98% of the time you always widen the stance on the side where the most weight, or drive wheels are.

only times this might not hold true are 4wd cars...


considering what you did, i would invest in a suspension book, and learn about track and wheel bases and more before just buying stuff to defeat a "look"

theres a reason things are designed a certain way, and doing stuff for looks can easily DE-engineer a car.

Using wheel spacers is rarely a good idea.

I've replaced my lugs before and they can be had for about $1.00 a piece at discount or autozone. Go to a junkyard near you and grab 20 lug nuts for like $5.00 or whatever. That only sets you back 20-30 for the entire process.

I did it partly for the look and really to increase cornering stability. Like I said the first day I installed the spacers my cornering improved ( less understeer), but my brother who is way more mechanical than me, gave the same warning. Don't mess with factory steering engineering, and your're right I effectively de- engineered the car and caused a very risky drive home today. But I made it.


By the way zach that is a tight picture, and I'll try autozone.

I now have front/ rear upper strut braces, and f/r addco sway bars, so I am not as concerned with trying to gain budget handleing, as I was when I did this a few months back. This is just pretty much to warn others.

if anything mess with different wheel offsets before using spacers....

just be glad you didn't blow your bearings too.




Semper Fi SAINT. May you rest in peace.

that is a really big spacer


see ya!

Oh Jackalope, I did blow my front bearings and just put two in today ($179.00 ) @ Autozone. The spacers messed all of these components up. Now it feels a lot better stock. The timken bearings came wiith standard studs already pressed in so the job went pretty quick. I had to buy some wheel lug nuts too ( $20.00) @ Kragen. At this time I will wait on changing out the rears ( so There is still two spacers on each side)_ because I feel they wheel be good for a while since they are not the drive wheels, but I will eventually return these to stock as well.

It is interesting how the spacers in widening the track width did increase cornering stability at higher speeds( i.e. when your tires would normally break traction on a high speed turn into a corner, with the spacers it felt like I gained an extra second or two before the tires would break loose and understeer would occur), but now stock my acceleration is crisper- though I feel a little more sway. Maybe this was due to the spacers and extended length studs extra rotational weight on the drive wheels.

For me the bottom line is all of the drama is over ( at least for now).

Once again my advise,, spacers are not worth the headache, I've probably put about $400.00 into what I would eventually have to return to stock. On the bright side, with 92k miles I probably needed new bearings anyway.

Keep an eye on those Timken's, I have broken 5-6 in the past year.