Wheel Spacer Install (Ichiba)
 

Ichiba USA wheel spacer install DIY

So Micah and I finally got around to installing my Ichiba wheel spacers today. 15mm front and 20mm rear. I decided to take a few pictures during the process and I’ll tell ya how we did it. Note, I don’t think I got pictures of everything, but I’ll try my best to describe it!



Some before shots of the crazy sunken in Enkei’s I got. 18x7.5 with a +48mm offset… yikes!!!

https://www.scionlife.com/tech/image.../thumbs/01.jpg https://www.scionlife.com/tech/image.../thumbs/02.jpg



First jack the car up and take off your wheels. Don’t forget your emergency brake!-

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Next, take off your front caliper and set it on a bucket or something (stretching the rubber hose is bad!) There are 2 bolts on the backside of the caliper that need to come off. IIRC they’re 18mm bolts. I do remember them being a complete pain in the butt to un-torque though!

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Next it’s time to remove the rotor. Take a large mallet and bash the rotor towards the center of the car to get it to come loose. We used a 5lb plastic mallet w/ little bean bag stuff in the center. You’ll be left with something that looks a little like this-

https://www.scionlife.com/tech/image.../thumbs/06.jpg



Take some penetrating fluid to the studs so they that can be taken out more easily. We used PB Blaster. After you let the fluid soak for a little bit, it’s time to take the studs out. If you look at the above picture, the area where the brake dust shield ends is where you want to line the studs up one by one to take them out. Unfortunately I didn’t grab a picture, but there’s a little half circle cut out of the dust shield towards the front of the car that the studs can come out through. Once you look at it, you’ll see what I’m talking about. We put the car in gear to keep the hub from spinning while removing the studs. To remove, a couple good blows with a hammer will knock them out. Just in case anyone is confused, you’re going to be knocking the studs in towards the center of the car.

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Go find a loaner 12x1.5 open ended lug nut to use for a bit. xB’s just happen to be good loaner vehicles for this task……

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Stick the new longer studs included with the Ichiba spacers through the holes where the stock studs once were. Now thread the lug nut onto the stud and tighten it down until the new stud is completely seated. Look on the back side of the hub at the back end of the stud. Lots of tightening is needed to get these studs seated correctly guys….. Please note that in the first picture below, look at the lugnut we used. You want to thread it the opposite way that it is seen in the picture. Instead of having the beveled end towards the hub, turn it around and have the flat end towards the hub. We killed this lugnut by not doing this.

https://www.scionlife.com/tech/image.../thumbs/10.jpg https://www.scionlife.com/tech/image.../thumbs/11.jpg



Now that all the studs are seated it’s time to reinstall the rotor and put on the new spacer. After the new studs are done, put the rotor back on. Put the spacer on next. You do NOT want to do what we did. Again, rotor reinstalled first, then spacer… NOT the other way around like we did (we were tired from working in the sun all day!) a picture of us trying to redeem ourselves by removing the spacer we installed incorrectly…

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Now it’s time for the rear. Here’s what you start with after you get the caliper off (again 2 18mm bolts on the backside of the caliper)-

https://www.scionlife.com/tech/image.../thumbs/13.jpg



Alright, I failed you on this section of the DIY…. So you’re going to have to semi-wing it here because I have no pictures. Bash the rotor like you did the front to get to come loose. Parking brake needs to be off to do this…. Now that the rotor is off, you’re going to see that the parking brake assembly prevents you from knocking the studs out. We need to improvise. Look on the backside of the hub. First unclip the electrical connector looking thingy from the hub. Next, find 4 12mm bolts that hold the hub on. Take them off. The hub assembly should pull towards you now and be able to be removed completely. Now it’s time to take the studs out. Hold the hub up against something and bash the studs out with a hammer.

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Now it’s time to seat the new studs. Use a vicegrip + ratchet + lugnut to partially seat the new studs like so-

https://www.scionlife.com/tech/image.../thumbs/15.jpg

Now that the studs are somewhat seated, and it has become rather difficult to tighten the lugnut more… it’s time to do a little reassembly work. First take off the lugnut. Stick the hub + partially seated studs back into the brake assembly, and fasten it in by rebolting those 4 12mm bolts. Reclip the electrical connector too. Now put the rotor back on and engage the parking brake. Voila! The hub can’t spin anymore! Stick your lug nut onto the studs and tighten it up against the rotor until the stud fully seats. We’re almost done!

Now that the studs are seated and the rotor is reinstalled, merely put the spacer on and bolt your wheels down.



The finished product-
https://www.scionlife.com/tech/image.../thumbs/16.jpg https://www.scionlife.com/tech/image.../thumbs/17.jpg https://www.scionlife.com/tech/image.../thumbs/18.jpg


All in all, this was our first time doing this, and I won’t lie, it took us like 5 hours to do. 4 hours to do the first side, and then 1 hour to do the second side.

Note: when your calipers aren’t against a rotor, don’t press the brakes. All it does is cause you to have to compress the calipers which is nothing but time wasted.


Any questions? I’d be glad to help you out as much as I can :)

Did the spacers knock some negative camber into your alignment? From the pictures it looks like so.

Yea seriously.

nice write up! car looks great

Wow I had no Idea buckets are that strong! ____ if I new that, I shouldn't have bought jack stands! lol

looks good mang!

those buckets are crazy strong :P

but yeah, after all this I did end up getting some rubbing on bumps. Pulled over to a gas station and found the culprit.... my connectors for my front bra! They stuck down towards the wheel. I unscrewed them and voila, no more rubbing :)

Nice DIY! :clap:

how much were the spacers total and where did you order from, looks hot by the way man.

they were about $200 shipped.

Ichiba is a sponsor here on scionlife, i got them through him.

what spacers would you use with stock wheels in terms of 15mm or 20mm?

Really... that's a tough choice. I have full lock to lock turning without any rubbing at all, but when i go over medium to large dips and bumps it rubs against the fenderliner. Considering that the stock wheels have even less of an offset (aka they stick out more), i would run a 10mm instead of a 15mm spacer up front. Here lies the problem, no company so far makes a 10mm spacer for the tC. the rear i would use a 15mm. Consider that I'm slammed on stech's, so you may actually be able to run 15's up front \just fine.

I'm planning on dropping with Hotchkis springs. so thanks I think I'll go 15mm hope it does not give me any problems.

sorry im a noob when it comes to this but what is the purpose of spacers?

good stuff.
i used a sledgehammer to pound out the stock lug bolts. took me 1 hour to remove the bolts (i did just the rears), and 3 hours putting in the new ones. lol

In most situations they're used for appearance, to bring the wheels out further, such that they're more flush with the outside of car.

so that makes your wheels ?? +33 now? looks good but i have 17x8 +32 :D

who else makes spacers for our cars? i was thinking of going with 10mm all around?

wish i knew my offsets.

spacer can reduce the life time of the suspension, am i right? espeacially when you have lowered car..