How would your car know if you had wheels + spacers or wheels with backspacing that added up to the same?

 

I have driven on my 12mm spacers for 6 months now, no problems here.

 

The guy from Tire Rack mentioned unsprung weight not good outside of car. He mentioned turning radius is impacted. Not sure I totally understand your question, however.

 

If you have 12mm spacers and wheels with 20mm offset, you would effectively have an 8mm offset. If you have wheels with an 8mm offset, how would that be any different?

 

I am assuming it's probably not good if you track your car but for everyday driving I don't think you would even notice. My car seems to handle very well with it lowered, spacers, PS2 and a good alignment.

 

Got it DriveWFO. I know Tire Rack sells BBS wheels with offsets that essentially act like spacers so not sure what they mean. If they were truly concerned, they'd lose a lot of business because they wouldn't sell many of the wheels they sell.

I'm gonna do it.

 

Maybe the excessive wear was due to needing an alignment.

 

They have a negative effect. Just thing about it, its adding more unsprung weight to the car, which is always bad...

 

So will any heavier wheels w/o spacers...

 

Unless you're hardcore tracking.. which I can easily say 70+ % of owners do NOT do.. you'll be fine. Even for those that do, it's most likely to hardly affect performance because the general size of spacers needed never exceed 15-20..

Just adjust the car for camber and get a good alignment.

 

depends

Spacers that are used to keep the center of the tire where it belongs should have no affect on the handling EXCEPT that they might add a 1/4 # close to the center of rotation. If that 1/4# is the same weight as if the wheels had the proper offset...no impact, except again, slightly longer wheel bolts with a little more weight. My BBS wheels are some 4-5# lighter than stock, so my 1/4# wheel spacers are of no concern to me.

I do believe that some people don't use quality, concentric spacers and also may not torque the bolts to the proper specs, or worse yet use junk bolts. This can cause failure. Ugly failure.

 

A lot of people slam wheel spacers based on what I believe to be prejudice from the days when wheels spacers were basically crap and usually failed and made the car drive poorly. Modern wheels spacers are usually machined in a very precise manner. For Tire Rack, who sells wheels in various sizes and weights larger/heavier/different offset than stock, to claim that spacers negatively affect the car somehow, is absurd. They will gladly sell you a wheel that adds unsprung weight or affects steering radius. Other arguments that have to do with a compromise to the stock suspension geometry are also invalid from a store that sells lowering springs.

 

The spacers I have are machined aluminum from Rogue, hub centric and very light. Because the spacer is essentially in the center of the hub and not at the edges of the wheel, the unsprung weight is negligible. Just make sure you use longer wheel bolts / locks. I got some 10.9 spec longer bolts and wheel locks from RAD (TUV approved), as one major concern is that people use the same length wheel bolts (which will have essentially 12mm less thread "grip."

One argument about wear and tear would be the additional strain on the suspension components. Because the wheel is further out, there is more leverage against the components under stress. But 12mm is not really all that much when factoring that, even for a 2 ton car. Heavy tracking with a heavy car and 20mm spacers can be problematic, I suppose.

With that said, I have tracked her a couple of times with no probs. Stock wheels, H&R, -1.7 camber front and rear, 12mm rogue spacers Front and 10mm in back with the longer bolts stated above. I've had this setup for over 1.5 yrs. I say go for it.

 

listen to EM_5 aka mike... he only comes out on this board once in a while, so when he does, you know its good...

 

I guess I'll play the role of old Confucius from fortune cookie. :hihi:

 

I came from the Porsche world and lots of people use spacers with OEM wheels. H&R seemed to be the choice there. For some reason though OEM Porsche wheels aren't very well liked by many and there are lots of good quality aftermarket wheels in all kinds of sizes and offsets so really spacers wouldn't be required in those cases. You'd just buy wheels that fit properly. I really like the OEM E60 wheels so at some point I might get good quality spacers. I just got the car so I need to settle into it before making any changes.

 

As long as you not talking about POS spacers from auto zone your going to be fine.

A good spacer is:

Lightweight Machined Aluminum
Hub Centric
Appropriately sized

I think its funny when people think that spacers are okay for the street, but not for racing. I've been racing for 15 years in many different classes/cars, and spacers are used all the time in order to maximize track width. They are used by race teams with massive budgets and access to all different sized wheels all the time.

Spacers or not, with aftermarket wheels you always need to make sure you have adequate threads on your studs/bolts.

H&R makes great hub centric spacers.

Spacers should not me used to make an inappropriately sized wheel fit right or look better. They are not a band aid.

 

hmmmmm.....tirerack included a set of 15 mm spacers for my Breyton Race GTS...

 

those spacers u got with your breytons come from Breyton, not from tirerack... tirerack is just providing what breyton tells them to.
I agree with EM_5 also... if you buy a high quality lightweight spacer, like Rogue or H&R, and dont go too large... i wouldnt go over 15mm on stock rims, and get a high quality extended lug bolt, there is neutral impact... I had 12/15 on my stock rims, and i have 30mm with my Breytons and have nothing but good things to say... if you are just doing average to agressive daily driving, u have nothing to worry about.

 

those spacers u got with your breytons come from Breyton, not from tirerack... tirerack is just providing what

mine are H&R...came with the tire/rim package...and I think that TireRack does their own test fitting

 

Infamouz is right - likely not a prob for most of us.

 

All you guys with 12-15mm on the street are fine. If your going to use bigger than 15mm, you should get longer bolts and studs.

Space'em out, it looks better and there is no down side worth worrying about.

Don't space them further then flush with the fender. That would suck.

 

Don't space them further then flush with the fender. That would suck.

Sweeet

 

Thanks Fellas. Ordered H&Rs 12mm. Man, you learn more here than when I was in school.

 

I've tracked with 10mm spacers on an E36 M3 for 10+ years with no issues since I started using high quality studs. I broke two extended lugs at Watkins Glen before switching. Ugly. My E93 has spacers front & rear - no issues - better F&R track but no track time.

 

I was wondering if it is dangerous to put a 25 or 30mm spacer on a wheel.
I've been contemplating doing this since the offsets on my front wheels are horendous I just don't want to do anything that will mess with my car or even more so, my life.

Thank you!

 

That's a big spacer, but as long as you have a properly-sized, high-quality stud or lug bolt, it's fine. May rub at fenders. May cause premature wheel-bearing wear. Will do neither if all you're doing is compensating for improper offset on the wheel.

 

Thank you so much, what brands for stud or lug-bolts would you recommend?
That's all I'm doing though is compensating for the offset, there is a considerable amount of gap between the front fender and tire

 

Get them where you get your spacers, and stay with the most reputable company you can find. UUC, Rogue, Bimmerworld would be my first choices.

 

So if i were to add spacers on my e46 330ci with the stock wheels would my suspension components and handling be negatively affected?