[HanseDavion]

Been a long time lurker here but wanted to share my recent experience with the forum regarding Dinan wheel spacers.

After having them put on the car using the appropriately sized lug bolts from Dinan with about 6 or 7 months of use, the lug bolts suffered a catastrophic failure (will attach picture if I can).

I was very fortunate to have another motorist tell me my rear wheel was wobbling back and forth. I could not feel any vibration while driving. Pulled over to inspect and saw one of the bolt heads was sheared off from the threaded portion. Upon taking it to a mechanic, he found a second bolt had also failed. Simply put, I was driving a disaster waiting to happen.

I contacted Dinan, asking for a refund, as I clearly could not trust to use their spacers with the bolts. After several back and forth emails, Dinan ultimately refused to offer any kind of refund.

Dinan claimed the issue was extremely rare, and the only time they have seen this is when the bolts are over torqued. While I agree with that possibility, Dinan would only consider a refund if I could prove to them that a Dinan certified mechanic installed the spacers and bolts.

But they also said the bolts are torqued to BMW's specifications and there were no special instructions provided nor anything mentioned on their website, meaning there is no special handling or installation procedures that a Dinan-certified mechanic would need to do. That also means any general service to the brakes or tires would need to be performed at a Dinan-certified mechanic, which seems highly questionable to me.

Hope this information is helpful somehow to some here.

[Rich807]

You're lucky by the sounds of it. Could you not feel the wheel about to come off?

Other Questions: Did you or whomever put these on your car use a torque wrench? If so, was it set to a reasonable foot-pound range for wheel studs? How long has it been since that particular wrench was calibrated?

Not trying to p you off but I don't fault Dinan for not giving you a refund for their reasons mentioned. I understand you wanting to get a refund but unless you yourself put the studs on yourself, & know beyond a shadow of a doubt you used a calibrated wrench set to the typical wheel stud torque #, you can't really be too surprised a company wouldn't easily take broken stuff like this back.

FWIW, I have Burger Tuning wheel spacers & studs on my car for pushing 2 years now. Torque them when wheels go on, re-torque them a day/two/three later, good for next 5k miles (when I usually rotate my tires).

[HanseDavion]

Last time the wheels came off for any reason was when I had new tires put on at my local Big O tire shop. I will admit it is entirely possible the fault lies with them.

On the other hand, none of the other wheel bolts suffered a failure, and the new tires were installed several months back. So if it was Big O's fault because they over-torqued, I would believe the issue would have presented itself immediately or shortly after having the tires put on and not several months later like it did here. But again I could be wrong.

Also, if it was truly over-torqued, I would expect the threads to strip well before the bolt simply breaks. Original bolts without the spacers still worked just fine. And it would take a LOT of force when the bolt is supposed to be torqued to 90 lbs. to begin with--unless there may be a true problem with the metal being used in the bolt.

For me, it still comes back to the fact that Dinan would only suggest a possible refund offer if I could prove a Dinan-certified tech installed the spacers and bolts last. Which again I find silly given there is nothing unique about their installation provided they are properly torqued (again, not to Dinan's spec but to BMW's).

[//TMT]

How thick are these spacers? And, did the bolt(s) break at the hub face, or somewhere inside the spacer?

Spacers can put a lot of side force on wheel bolts. It's super-important to torque them evenly and to spec. That said, many retail tire shops just gun'em-down.

[Rich807]

Originally Posted by //TMT

How thick are these spacers? And, did the bolt(s) break at the hub face, or somewhere inside the spacer?

Spacers can put a lot of side force on wheel bolts. It's super-important to torque them evenly and to spec. That said, many retail tire shops just gun'em-down.

This is 1 of MANY reasons why I pretty much refuse to let these tire shops wrench on my car. I almost always take my wheels in loose for new tires, repairs etc., & even then they F stuff up...last month they mounted 1 of my tires backwards, had to go back a 2nd time. I've learned the hard way over the last 30 years.

Typically, at least in my metro area, big tire shops like Big O & Discount, have a bunch of very young 'kids' working in the shop bays, going 100mph (because it's at least in part, commission-based pay). We could sit down over some beers & I could tell hrs of personal WTF stories about stuff that's happened to me or I've personally witnessed at those places. It's entirely plausible more than one employee at Big O was wrenching on your car & with different tools.

[rice_rocket88]

Not trying to be a jerk here.. but one thing to say is that they are spacers, literally a chunk of metal to space the wheel, so why would dinan be responsible for anything? Sure if you can prove they were machined maybe out of spec/tolerance as to cause it to wobble. Are they bolts also dinan? And did they somehow fail in quality? Still proving that it wasn't over torqued, or heck, even if the person who installed it did not put the pieces flat. Was there rust or debris on the hub so that it wasn't perfectly flat?

I have spacers from Burger tuning and ECS. Both are machined aluminum and perfectly machined and probably just mass spit out. I'm sure errors could have occurred, but it would be most most likely error in the install, not the product.

I screwed up myself years ago and was in a rush to pick someone up, so I zapped them on with my impact gun. The wheels started to wobble after 15 miles or so simply because the impact gun didn't torque them enough. I've also installed my wheels and torqued them, but I always go around the block and retorque them and there are certain times that one lug/stud is loose after the trip around the block. (not torqued properly).

[HanseDavion]

15mm spacers.

To be clear, the bolts were from Dinan. Both were ordered direct.

I cannot be certain where exactly the bolts separated because my mechanic had to get what was left of the bolt out of the thread somehow. But from the pieces I have left it appears the bolts separated where the spacer meets the brake rotor.

[HanseDavion]

Originally Posted by rice_rocket88

I screwed up myself years ago and was in a rush to pick someone up, so I zapped them on with my impact gun. The wheels started to wobble after 15 miles or so simply because the impact gun didn't torque them enough. I've also installed my wheels and torqued them, but I always go around the block and retorque them and there are certain times that one lug/stud is loose after the trip around the block. (not torqued properly).

I can totally see that. But again, these had been on the car for several months. Its as if all of a sudden the metal just gave way for no reason.