The reason spacers cure the shakes is because it moves the bucket completely out of the affected area. I prefer to fix the car professionally, with the bucket swap and not add useless crap to the car. The bucket DOES NOT NEED TO BE MOVED WITH AXLE SPACERS WHEN YOU LOWER THE CAR, PERIOD! And any company that says so is ripping you off. The spacers cure by moving.

To me they are a band-aid, a gimmick. As bad a turbonator for your intake, or a magnet for your fuel line.

A car lowered with spacers and a car lowered without spacers, both with new buckets, driven under exact conditions, will pit at the exact same time.

Spacers will in NO WAY shape of form prevent axle buckets from pitting or prolong their life in any way.

Qoute from the other stickied thread about axle spacers, by rsxtype-s:

"i installed my megan halfshaft spacers in october of 2010, and my vibrations started back up 3 days ago. Guess its times to swap the cups :| "

 

SpitfireS, dwaw me a pic

Axle rollers ride in one spot in the bucket, causing a soft spot, but not pitting that spot at that time.

If you lower the car AFTER this process has started, you will move the axle .5MM on the edge of the metalurgic breakdown. This will push out the soft spot from the side, like you would scoop ice cream out of a container.

So lowering a car can accelerate a bucket into wear, but it is NOT THE CAUSE.

">DI"

Look at the DI above in quotes. The D is the soft spot. The I is the metal of the bucket. If I push on the center of the D with the >arrow, it will take a while to push that soft spot out. But if I move the >arrow to the top of the D, it will walk it out quickly. Hence why lowering APPEARS to cause pitted buckets. Lowering is not the cause, its the accelerator. Spacers do not ELIMINATE this from happening. They only cover up what happened on a STOCK car.

Ok I hope I got my point across

 

How much are new buckets? If I am right were they not over 180.00 a piece I was just curious, I also went out got '05 S2k axles with 63K on them.. Would you advise opening them up and checking or installing? I am def going to open up my current axles on the car.. Ill have pics and a write up on this. : )

Thank you for the information.

 

The vibration from pitting is so annoying! I ended up getting new axles because my car had one oem and one am axle, so swapping buckets was not an option. New axles are pricey is all I have to say

 

So does anybody have a diy on swapping the buckets? I'm not mechanically inclined so this wouldn't be a simple fix for me.

 

Since I already bought the newer low mileage axles, I swapped them in. I didn't realize how easy it was.

1. Remove Center cap

2. Loosen Axle nut ( 36MM )

3. Jack car up

4. Remove all (14mm) 12 nuts and bolts that hold the axle to the differential

5. Remove (17mm) 2 on each side upper control arm bolts

6. Axles comes out!


Note: be careful of ABS sensor and not to hurt them!

Anyhow vibration is gone, i am keep both cups I have, in case these wear I will have an extra set of cups, and bearings.

 

How much are new axles

 

365$ for a set from Gator axle for Oem remans or replacements. i dont remember what he called them.

 

SWAP THE BUCKETS! Only costs you $10 for a new can of grease....you don't have to change the grease but I did since I was in there and it wasn't very thick like I wanted. Easy repair and MLC helped me alot with it!

 

I can assure you the swap left to right is an easy repair. It can even be done without pulling the axles out of the car.

I did it almost 2 years ago, and no vibration has returned (though it is slight on deceleration).

You may have to do it yourself, as just about every mechanic I inquired with (I was moving cross country at the time) said it was the stupidest idea they ever heard.