Thursday, January 03, 2008 - 11:53 am, by: Patrick Robinson(Islandsoarer)
OK, I was given the gift of some 17 inch chrome rims. Got rid of my 18 inch deep dishes because they were all fooked up..eg... paint chipping, lips dented, welded and that sort of stuff. I love the 17 inch chrome look but now the aggressive stance has been lost in the rear. A friend of mine had a pair of spacers that he said he wasn't using and he gave them to me. Now my question is; with putting these spacers in the rear, would this affect ride quality any and what are the pros and cons of adding them. I already saw in other forums that they are illegal in some parts but here in the Bahamas, practically anything goes with vehicles. So legality is no issue.
Thursday, January 03, 2008 - 05:19 pm, by: Steven Anderson(Cusscuss)
ok, first things first.
There are 2 main different types of spacers.
1) Free Floating spacers These are like a giant washer, the move point at which the wheel attaches to the hub outwards of course, very cheap and usually in thin varieties, 5-10mm.
2) Bolt on spacers These are generally much thicker, around 20mm. They are a seperate plate with 5 holes for bolting onto the existing studs and 5 new studs coming out from the plate. They generally have to be made for the specific car as they have to be machined to the correct hub size.
1) Can be very bad. They are illegal most places for good reason. The hub is supposed to take most of the force that happens to a wheel when you drive, pushing the wheel further out can transfer that load off the hub and onto the studs. The studs are not designed for that kind of force, they are there to hold the wheel on and keep it from spinning, not to take the weight of the car. Wheel studs can snap off when this kind of force is put on them. (this is also why everyone needs to be careful when choosing new non oem wheels as different cars have different hub sizes)
2) Generally ok. Forces end up where they should be as the spacer is machined to fit the load onto the hub. You could end up in the same situation tho if you had a set of bolt on spacers from another car with a larger hub size but same PCD.
What car does your friend drive? Our cars have a 60mm centre bore (hub size) with 5x114.3 PCD, so as long as the spacer matches up to the PCD and the hub (only ever use hubcentric spacers) you should be good to go.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008 - 02:15 pm, by: David Henderson(Hendo)
Don't do it at all if you don't have too. I had some ultra dodgy washer type ones behind my 18s, they f**k up the offset of the wheel and made my car tramline like a mother biatch.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008 - 05:32 am, by: Patrick Robinson(Islandsoarer)
Aight then. I won't use them. I don't have money to burn right now for doing unneccessary repairs. I'll just wait until I get some more cash and buy some other dishes.
The pressed studs, they're a mess. There's a one-piece spacer aren't they? By the looks of them they are. That and they're not hubcentric (don't look like it anyway).
Friday, January 25, 2008 - 08:58 am, by: Andrew Ferres(Peewee)
Yah, wheels falling off because of spacers and nonhubcentric centres is 100% bullshit.
Have a look at those studs. 2 (or maybe 3, can't see from that angle) of the studs have not snapped. Why haven't they snapped? Because the nut had either fallen off, or had become very loose.
The 2 studs that I can see have definitely snapped were probably the only thing that was holding the rim on. 2 studs is not enough to satisfactorily hold a wheel on and even 3 would be pushing it.
Friday, January 25, 2008 - 07:20 pm, by: Kyle Wathen(Cspot)
Andrew Ferres wrote on Friday, January 25, 2008 - 08:58 am:
Moral of the story - make sure your wheel nuts are tight!
I was actually reading an Automotive engineering magazine today while I was getting my auto serviced and they had an article written by NCOP explaining why ALL spacers (unless factory fitted) are illegal.
Basically it was something about the spacer preventing the nut from going down to the correct depth for it to be securely locked on the thread. Hence why you see peoples wheels fall off as the spacer prevents the nut from being properly locked on the thread, which in turn means theres a greater chance it will work loose.
Andrew Ferres DieHard WA '90 C-F Celsior V8, '84 Soarer V8, '91 Supra V8
Previous
