Just installed 10 front 18 rear adaptec hub centric spacers (with the lip) on my oem turbo twists on brand new, balanced tires and I’m getting a steering wheel vibration that’s mostly noticeable above 60mph.

I did some research and did the following: took off the spacers and scrubbed the grime/rust off my hubs, reinstalled and torqued the wheels to the hub while the car was on stands. I have extended lugs that came with the spacers.

One thing I can note is the rear driver side hub seems to be slightly expanded, in that i had to apply some force to get the spacer on there, but I believe this vibration would be the result of something going on in the front.

Control arm? Wheel hub? But wouldn’t I feel these things even without spacers? Any advice is appreciated!

 

If you only feel it with the spacers installed... It's the spacers.

 

Just went through this with a new set of tires.
Drove me crazy. Could be spacers or could be tires. If you had it aligned, could be that.
Remove spacers and see if condition remains. Vibration in steering wheel, front tires. Vibration in seat, rear tires.
You would be amazed to know how many tires are poorly balanced when new. I am talking about the actual tire not the act of balancing the tire to the rim. That's whole nother story. A good shop with inventory will Rim Match each tire to find the best match and balancing because of this very reason.
Lastly, find a shop with a Hunter 9700 Road force balancer. This machine will measure all aspects of your rim and tire independently. A good technician will rotate the tire on the rim to find the best rim/tire balance.
I went through to 2 Stealer balances, 2 Indy balances, 2 alignments and then 1 competent technician using the Hunter machine to reveal I had 3 bad tires that where considered out of spec.
Another problem is that most tire shops don't even know how to correctly balance a tire.

 

I swear I didn't notice this for the few days I drove the car with new tires without spacers, but maybe I'm going crazy. Is it possible that the spacers are exacerbating some other weak point in the suspension that I didn't really feel before they were on?

 

I thought I was crazy when I had this problem. I was even being told I was grazy by the techs. But I know my car. I bought it new and it always drove perfect. Then I put new tires on and the problem started. As little as it was (and it was not bad) I knew the difference. Then the problem was found and fixed.
All our cars drive different, only you know your car. If the problem wasn't there and now it is, then it's highly coincidental that it's something else or it's the changes you made.
Remove the spacers and take for a drive. If the problem is still there or even diminished some, I would be chasing a tire problem. Believe me this has happened to me more than once.

 

If removing the spacers ends the vibration completely - it's the spacers. They will not make anything that much worse unless there is a problem with them in the first place. If removing them fixes the problem, I would bet close examination will reveal a defect of some kind - look closely.

 

I removed the front spacers, checked my wheels to make sure I didn't sling a weight or something, and went for a drive, noticeably less vibration, if there's any at all I wouldn't have called attention to it if I wasn't so hyperfocused on this right now.

Swapped on another set of rims to the front that I've never had issues with, with the spacers, and experienced the same wobble. Maybe this is a suspension thing that's being exacerbated by the spacers? I do have a squeak coming from the front of the car under normal driving conditions. How can I check on the control arm/tie rod condition? I'm yanking the wheels from the side and top and bottom but it doesn't seem like theres much play...

 

I had the same problem with front spacers. I ended up just giving up on them after trying many different things and inspecting all suspension components. Totally smooth all the time now.