I'm putting 18" OEM 5 spoke wheels on my 2003 LS430. I've got 25mm spacers on the back and I'm about to mount 15mm spacers on the front. I've read that I need to replace my OEM front studs with extended studs and ditch the studs that come installed on the spacers. But the 18" OEM wheels have a cavity on the back side that will allow original studs to fit. Is there any feed back on this set up for the front? I imagine the style/type of wheel being mounted matters, but as far as I can tell it looks like everything will button up just fine.

 

If your wheels have the cavity it should clear, I had to run 25mm all around cuz mine didn't.

 

What wheels are you running? How does the 25mm look on the front?

 

I have work wheels. 19x8.5 et 55 but I need the 25mm spacers to clear the brakes and OEM lug bolts

 

Thanks. As I mentioned, I've ready a lot of threads with guys using longer lug bolts with 15mm spacers in front. But I'm guessing that's due to the wheel style they're using or that their spacers didn't come with lug bolts attached. I'm using a little bit of blue loctite when attaching spacers to OEM bolts but no loctite on spacer bolts to the wheels. Torquing everything to 76lbs.

 

I fitted 19" Mustang wheels to my 430 and required 10mm spacers on the front which I designed to be pressed into the wheel , here in Queensland Australia it is illegal to add anything not factory to the hub .
Point is with 10mm spacers I definitely needed longer studs so at 15mm you will as well .

 

You should be fine with the bolt ons if they worked in the rear.
to your point it mostly has to do with the wheel cavities

 

Got it. That’s what I wanted to know. So I’ve got bolt ons, both front and back. I took it for a test drive yesterday and all seems good. The ride is stiffer on the 18’s vs 17’s but that’s to be expected. I need to adjust tire pressure too.

There seems to be more space above the tires in the wheel well up front vs the back. It’s slight, I’d say <1”. Is that normal? I can post some photos when I get a chance.

 

If you're on original struts etc could just be age... things start to sag as they get older 😅

 

Ah, yes. That would make sense. From what I can tell, the front right strut was replaced some time ago, but the front left and both rear are original. I measured and the rear sits 1" lower than the front. Car currently at 108k miles.

I've also been noticing a low/muted rattle from the inside of the car...front and back, could it be the struts or mounts? I hear it especially on smooth roads at low speeds, it's very subtle but always there. I recently replaced the front lower control arms, front lower ball joints and front sway bar end links. They were all very noisy. Since replacing those, the noise mentioned above is more evident. Bad struts? FYI, I have standard struts, no air.