Wheel spacers on a 2nd gen prerunner double cab 2x4 problematic?

Hey everyone, so I go to get my oil changed and tires rotated at my mechanic and they tell me and show me that my u-joint was cracked and that, that was causing my car to vibrate when i would accelerate. Now that I believe and i understand since i got it replaced on Wednesday and have had no vibration while accelerating. What i don't really believe is what caused it, They said that since i had 1.5" spacers on each wheel it would center the weight of the truck more in the center and that over time it caused the damage to the u-joint. I had a few options which were to either get a 4x4 rear axle to replace my 2x4 axle because it was bigger or to take off the spacers and get new tires since the tires i had were 33s of which without the spacers i could not fit. I ended up getting new tires but keeping the old ones to sell :'(. Is that true that the wheel spacers could cause damage to my u-joint because the weight was more centered?

 

I've heard of wheel spacers causing problems but to a driveshaft/u-joint.

Also, the prerunner has the same rear axle as the 4x4s.

 

Nope. Different heights will cause vibrations from lifts, spacers don't lift your vehicle so they won't be causing that. I suggest you find a mechanic who knows what he's talking about.

The longitudinal distribution of weight which is the only weight related aspect that would possibly affect ride height and consequently lift of your vehicle is not changed by spacers either. This guy is spouting off some very erroneous stuff that is not even close to reality.

Go to someone with perfect (or near perfect) feedback online. Better yet, start reading how to fix and diagnose things on here and you'll be one step (or 1000 steps) ahead of guys that don't have any idea what's really going on with your truck.

 

Wheel spacers are either used for two reasons, pushing the wheels farther out because you like the look, or pushing them out because you don't have enough room to fit the size of wheels and tires you want, ie, bad backspacing, too big of tire, too wide of wheel. Lifting the rear anywhere over 1.75in usually results in some sort of new vibration because the drive shaft is misaligned. You can get shims for both the carrier bearing and or the axle. Both will slightly realign one another to help rebalance the transfer of power rearward and help alleviate vibrations. If you plan on getting wheels spacers, understand you are adding another weak point to the drive train. Make sure to not over tighten them, but tighten them to spec.