Mick4

15k miles...at the dealership now because the right front wheel bearing needs replacement. I kept hearing a grinding noise with a small degree of vibration when making right turns at speed. Am I the first with this issue?

Anyone believe wheel spacers contributed to the failure?

NWS4Guy

First I have heard, but an improperly installed spaceer can absolutely cause the bearings to fail prematurely. If they are not centered properly or forged right, so that the balance is not perfect, it can put the shel out of balance, causing a lot of excessive force on the bearings with each revolution. With extremely thick spacers, it is moving the mass of the wheel farther from the bearing, increasing side loads on it, potentially shortening it's life, but this would need to be a pretty extreme sized spacer I would think.

Tifosi

You are the first B8-S4/S5 owner that I know of with this problem. And yes, wheel spacers can indeed cause premature wheel bearing issues for the exact reason that Oracle/NWS4Guy has stated.

rktskicar

what size of spacers are they?

Mick4

I've got 15mm front, 20mm rear on the 18" stock wheels. Lines up nicely with the fenders. Just didn't expect this spacing setup to change things to the point where it would cause failure within only 7000 miles of use.

sworksone

I don't disagree with anything that's already been stated, but it does seem like very low miles to have been caused by the spacers. The extra load on the bearings shouldn't be that significant to cause an issue that early. It could also be a manufacturing issue with the particularly bearing given it's not a common failure item on B8's.

Tifosi

What brand of spacers are they and are they concentric/hub-centric spacers or just plain spacers ? Also, you did get the correct bolts to go with this setup too, correct ?

Mick4

The fronts are H&R DR 15mm Trak+ Hubcentric Wheel spacers, purchased through Performance Wheel, with the recommended 40mm length bolts - carefully self installed.

Tifosi

In that case, I would agree that it is probably more of a faulty bearing from the factory, but that may be difficult to prove and it still leaves the door open for the dealership to blame on the spacers, if they chose to make this a non-warranty issue.

Please keep us updated, good luck with the dealership.