i ordered H&R 20mm spacers for the rear of my car after measuring and concluding that 20mm would be perfect. i install em today and take it for a spin. after 5 miles of hearing rubbing i get out and find my driver side rear tire's wall shredded into pieces but the passenger side is just fine. i do a quick measuring and realize the driver side rear sits out 5mm more than passenger side causing the severe shredding by hitting the inside fender. the passenger is pefectly normal. i dont get it ???????? why is driver side sticking out more? both spacers are 20mm too

 

try re aligning your rear beam...that will center both sides

 

where can i do this? how much ? any alignment shop ? i am VERY scared to drive the car, there is a nice groove on the tire wall with shredded tire hanging loose.

 

1. you need to realign the beam, as noted above. Check the 4th gen forum, I've seen a thread about it there. There's also on in 5th gen someplace...I'll browse for it later.

2. look where the rear bumper joins the wheel well. On the 5th gen there's a "lip" or "tab" sticking into the wheel well....might be same on 4th gen. I dremeled this down to get rid of rubbing.

 

here you go. Should be the same for 4th gens...

You have to re-center the rear beam. Basically due to the linkage on the rear beam, our solid axle pivots upwards and to the right side under compression.

Now the bushings and such were designed for a car at stock ride height. When you lower the car, you start to deform and constrict the bushings since the suspension angle is changing in relation to the chassis. In the FSM you will find segments on how to re-align the beam. Take a peak next time when the car is on a flat surface and you will see the bushings are bent sideways

What you have to do:
1. measure your rear vehicle ride height
2. jack up the car and place jack stands
3. unbolt the bottom bolts holding your rear shocks to the beam
4. loosen the bolt going through the bushing on your beam (there is one on each side, two total)
5. jack up the beam until it is at the ride height you measured earlier
6. tighten the two bolts you loosened
7. tighten the rear suspension bolts back on
8. lower and drive around

you'll find the rear end of the car will feel awesome because the bushings are not binding anymore and the car won't rub either

 

ok if i do that, its not gonna make the other side stick out right? i think i caused this the other day when i took off the bottom bolt holding the shock and twisted the coilover to lower the car.

 

it should center the beam so neither side sticks out. Mine adjusted about 7mm to the center when I did it.

 

Josh, quick question...

When doing this re-align, I'm assuming it is not necessary to remove the wheels. In fact it may be necessary to keep the wheels on so that you know how much to jack the rear beam back up, correct?

I can't fathom any other (easy, non-mathematical) way of determining how high to jack up the rear beam to ride height without the wheels on...

 

i am going to give it a try myself before i take it to a shop but i am not grasping the idea here.

how would that push the wheel back in. by measuring ride height, what exactly are we measuring. center beam to the ground, suspension travel or fender to ground?

btw, the bolt that holds the shock, do we completly take it out or just LOOSEN it? i know if we take it out, the rear beam sags down.

 

with the car on the ground, measure the distance from the middle of the wheel centercap to the fender directly above it.

then jack up the car on the side jack points and put jackstands on each side.

take off the rear wheels, unbolt the struts at the bottom, loosen the beam assembly bolts as stated above.

Then put your jack directly under the middle of the axle and jack it up until the distance from the rear hub centercap to the fender is the same as what you measured earlier in the process.

then tighten the assembly bolts up again, let the jack down, and reinstall struts bolts and wheels...

 

see my post above this for the first question. distance from center cap to top of fender is the best measurement to determine ride height.

you take the lower shock bolts completely out. the beam will sag...that's why you jack it up.

 

thanks irish !

the beam assembly bolt is the same bolt as the one holding the shock on bottom right? hopefully this is gonna work out. thanks !

 

no, the beam assembly bolts are the ones in the rocker assembly towad the middle of the beam, where they go through the big bushings.

Send a PM to Larrio, I think he has pics.

 

interesting...!

 

here are pics of the two bushings on a 5th gen. They might be a little different on the 4th gen.

Loosen the bolt on the LEFT here:


Loosen the bolt on the RIGHT here:


There is a third bolt (on the right in the first pic), but you don't need to loosen that one. Just the two that go through the rubber bushings.

 

I dont know about you guys but when I jack up the axle the whole car tends to come up at the same time.

 

how could that be? where are you putting the jack?

i just realized that my passenger side BARELY rubs the inside lip of the fender when suspension is compressed. its not clearing by 0.5mm. i know this because i could smell burnt rubber from very very close to the tire but no marks or shreds. i am going to have the beam centered by a shop tomorrow. hopefully that will push both sides in a bit to clear. i will still most likely go down to 15mm just for safety issues. last thing i want is to pop a tire on the freeway. the way the rear wheels sit now looks perfect, too bad there is always unexpected problems that arise.

 

exactly in the same spot pictured above, never really checked the relation of the tire to the wheelwell. Gotta check whenever I jacked up the car from the rear again.

 

i took it to 5 alignment shops today and they all said that its a solid rear beam axle and can not be aligned. im just gonna go down to 10mm.

 

Why dont you bring these instructions with you and ask them how much to do it??

 

I am doing this when I pull my rear GCs, my beam has always been uneven since dropped on different setups. Thanks for the pics Irish.

 

How come you don't just do it yourself? Or find a local orger?

 

i asked the shops to follow instructions. you know mechanics, they think they know it all and when you tell em what to do, they immediatly kick you out of their shops. on top of that NOBODY even makes 10mm spacers for us besides ichiba thats out of order. guess i have to machine shop the spacers down to 10mm. i am going to attempt to do the alignment right now but i doubt that will do anything because it is the inside fender LIP shredding the tire, even if i align it, it will still shred it.

anybody have an experience folding the inside fender lip back or perhaps cutting it? if i can fold it up 2mm or cut it 2mm, my problem is solved. im thinkin about a hammer but its a big risk.

 

Use a baseball bat and roll that rim up then. Just get someone to help you and wedge the bat on the tire and in between the tire and lip and roll the car forward and or backwards.

 

Grind off the little tab between the bumper and the fender.

 

i cant do that. i cant even shove a pencil in between the tire and fender, let alone a bat. only option is to cut it off.

 

Luke, it comes up because the shocks are still attached. When you do this, you undo the lower strut bolt...the axle will go up without lifting the car.

 

I think you're thinking the word "alignment" wrong.

This is not an alignment that adjusts the "toe" of the wheels (which is probably what the shops thought you meant).

This is an adjusment that will "center" the beam on the car. When you lower it, the bushings bind and "kick it to the side" a little bit. The process I posted above will "unbind" the bushings and allow the beam to sit in the center of the car again.

Seriously, doing this is CHILD'S PLAY. It took me about 15 minutes to do. Even if you dont' know what you're doing it should take less than an hour, and only basic tools are needed.

 

ok thanks, i will try to do it myself however i still think it will rub. i measured it carefully today and it seems like the beem is centered. only reason i am getting shredding on the driver side vs passenger side is cuz driver side is 1/4" lower and doesnt clear as well. is it possible for both sides to go INWARD a bit if i adjust the beem? thanks for all the help. willing to do anything to keep 20mm spacers cuz they look bomb.

 

i forgot about that step..

 

no...in that case it won't help. Sounds like you just need to roll the inner fenders if you want to keep those huge spacers.

you sure H&R doesn't make a 10mm spacer you could use?

 

yea they dont. i bought eibach.

so basically its not possible for both sides to go in more. if one side goes in, it will push the other side out, correct? cuz if thats true then i will be wasting my time doing this.

 

yes...it's a solid beam. If one end moves in, the other moves out.

 

do you guys know if the 350z hub and maxima are the same?

 

Yes, they are the same.

 

hmmmmmm then my 10mm eibach spacer is defective. great !

 

RWD hub and our hubs are prob NOT the same...

 

hmm, even eibach said it should fit but it doesnt. lol ! it sits 2mm away form rotor

 

1. Dude, roll your fenders. Even if you get the rear beam centered, you're probably still gonna get a lot of rubbing with your drop.

2. You can roll your fenders yourself with the baseball bat method. But there are likely tons of shops near you that will roll fenders for a reasonable price. You can do it yourself if you remove the spacer and put on stock rims; that ought to give you enough clearance.

3. If you cut the inside of the lip (as opposed to rolling it = bending it up), you will lose structural strength in the sheet metal. Meaning if something bumps your rear fender/quarter panel area if may dent more easily.

4. H&R spacers FTW.

5. Let me know if you successfully center your beam. I don't know if any 4th gen owners have tried it yet.