PSA: Spacer Shop steering shaft extension experience

[Kasbien]

Hi everyone,

If you're tall like me (6'3) and driving a Yaris (2nd Gen) then you've probably never found a comfortable seating/steering reach position. I spent a great deal of time researching this issue and ultimately ended up spending the coin on a Spacer Shop steering shaft extension rather than selling the car in leu of something more comfortable for tall people. This is a great inexpensive car with a number of redeeming qualities to it!

The rest of this post serves as a "buyer beware" for anyone considering purchasing their product for our cars. My tale has both positives and negatives to it as I tried to make the best of the situation. I was determined to make this product work in order to better enjoy my car.

Pros
- Top-shelf materials and machining.
- Great design and very stout product.
- Allows tall people to move their seat back and still comfortable reach the steering wheels.

Cons
- Their steel extension shaft has two fatal flaws to it: the taper is incorrect and does not properly mate with your steering wheel and the spines on said shaft are not indexed properly causing your steering wheel to appear slightly "off-center."
- I did not require purchasing any additional wiring extensions (as per their guide) because I don't have a cruise control stalk on my steering column, but I still ended up having to extend the wires for my horn and airbag.
- Giacomo, who I assume runs the show at Spacer Shop, drove me absolutely nuts. Not an ounce of empathy or good customer service in his body. A very drawn out and process. (see screenshots of our conversation)

The Tale
I purchased the kit through 949Racing of California, who is a registered dealer of Spacer Shop products. Originally they sent me a unit for an MR2/Supra, and after clearing up some confusion they were able to send me out the right one and a return shipping label. When I ran into the initial problem of tapers not mating, I contacted Spacer Shop directly and opted to re-machine it if they sent me a revised drawing (I am a machinist by trade). Shipping and customer service interactions pushed back this whole project longer than I wanted, so I figured it would be faster if I corrected it myself and be done with it. After correcting the taper, I ran into the other issues of needing to extend wires and the shaft not being indexed properly to the splines in the steering wheel. Quite the piss-off for the money spent. I conveyed this to Spacer Shop and requested a partial refund for the troubles I went through in order to fix their mistakes. He tried haggling with me in exchange for sending him photos of the finished product installed in my vehicle. Unbelievable.

TLDR;
Unless you can garuntee that Spacer Shop has remedied all of these issues for a 2nd generation Yaris, do not buy their product.

Product Link (as of 11/4/2022)
https://www.spacershop.com/en/prodot...yota-iq-yaris/






Conversation with Spacer Shop

[sh0rtlife]

so how much total extension did you get...pictures dont tell the whole store a si know wheels dont "bottom out' on most spacers...looks like about 1 inch looking at the spacer but installed it looks like 3+

theres a dozen other ways to acomplisht this (quick release wheel).....my concern has always been if i stretch the wheel..hows entry/exit on a 5dr.

thankfullly im long armed so its not terrible...its not great but liveable

wifes kinda wanting an aftermarket wheel on there anyway...which helps that "depth" issue some

[Kasbien]

Originally Posted by sh0rtlife

so how much total extension did you get...pictures dont tell the whole store a si know wheels dont "bottom out' on most spacers...looks like about 1 inch looking at the spacer but installed it looks like 3+

theres a dozen other ways to acomplisht this (quick release wheel).....my concern has always been if i stretch the wheel..hows entry/exit on a 5dr.

thankfullly im long armed so its not terrible...its not great but liveable

wifes kinda wanting an aftermarket wheel on there anyway...which helps that "depth" issue some

The purpose of this route is to retain the stock steering wheel and air bag setup, which is what I wanted. If you don't care for either of those then by all means buy an aftermarket wheel and hub.

The Spacer Shop extension is comprised of two pieces, totalling 5cm/2" of extension. It makes a big difference. But this is only if you're able to modify the kit to work that should work right out of the box. I am highlighting that for others.

[sh0rtlife]

i didnt mean to offend i was simply curious

how was the entry/exit with he extension? 3dr or 5dr?

shame it didnt work out of the box and sounds like it stil isnt "right"

[Kasbien]

No offense taken. It's just hard to perceive/convey tone over text.

No issues with getting in/out of my 4-door sedan.