Hi chaps, i have a hawkeye wrx running on the 17" 7 spoke rims, i wanted to put 18"s on and fill the arches but due to the poor and dangerous state of the tyres when i bought it i had to buy 4 tyres immediately. Now the wheels 'hide' inside the arches and i want to bring them out as well as lower the car so does anyone have any dealings/opinions on fitting wheel spacers? I've seen a set for £80 for some 20mm ones from japspeed but i dont want to upset the cars steering/handling. cheers Terry
im not sure about anything mate but id say if you went 18" and the spacers + lowered you will most likely need your arches rolled and need to be on 35mm tyres which in my experience is an uncomfy bone shaking ride.. sure someone will let you know for sure real soon
Cheers Steve, if I put 18"s on I would take the spacers off but the 17"s are staying till I go through these new tyres, still planning on putting some tein springs though..... For now
20mm spacers is quite alot, you may find that rolling your arches won't be enough and they may hit the wing when you hit a big bump in the road. They will also put extra stress on the wheel bearings and they will ware out quicker.
Thanks for your replies chaps, i'm going to do more research into this and not make any rash decisions
Hi mate - I fitted some 20 mm hub centric spacers to my lowered WRX which is running 17"s. They brought the wheels out nicely in to the arches and I didn't have any issues with clearance. It was tight, and I only ever run the car with myself and the Mrs, but at no point did anything touch. My only comment would be to do some R&D. A couple of people told me that spacers can exagerate issues with your wheel bearings if you have any, and I know that they can often cause vibration through the steering wheel at motorway speeds. Paul.
We need to know the offset of the wheels, the usual 17 or 18" x 8" are about a +50, in which case a 10mm space would be nice, you could still run 235/35/18s.
Lee is right, we need to know what offset and size your current wheels are to work out where in the arch the wheels will sit. Also a big wheel spacer company did a report about spacers a while back and there was no proof that they did damage to wheel bearings if a sensible size spacer was used. What the report did show was that when some cars had spacers fitted it improved handling due to the widening of the track. Also when vibration is caused due to fitting spacers it is usually down to not having the correct hubcentric centre bore on the spacer and theres a gap between the spacer and where it sits within the back of the wheel. Alot of people do widen their track by spacers or by lowering the offset of their wheels. If you need any help or advice then give me a call as we have quite a few spacers down at our unit you can try just to make sure you don't waste your money on getting the wrong size. :wink:
Thanks for your comments lads I'm currently in manchester in my van so don't know offset etc, all I know is that the tyres are 215/45/17. Hoping to finish early so will jump in car and come over to speed factory to put my mind straight on what I want some time this afternoon
No problem. Give me a call on 07786 517110 when you are about to set off just so I can make sure I am about as im putting a fabrication unit together so I am between the two sites :wink:
I am now running a 5mm spacer (possibly going to a 10mm) with a +15 offset and Andy Forrest was running the hubcentric spacers at TOTB when coming off the strip and moving to the handling circuit.... they can help 8)
Cheers toffee, I've just got back from the speed factory and it was great to meet Gavin such a nice knowledgable bloke, he checked my car out and is pricing me some forged spaces and eibach springs which should make the car squat more, he showed me round his unit and the car he had in, even his brake bench upstairs which had porsche calipers etc, went through his wheel stock/ exhaust stock and then showed me on his pc how to put pics on the lads forum! Brilliant guy and glad he's on our side when it comes to putting the right things on our cars, only thing that has peed on my chips a bit is that I got a 'masterclass' in how I thought my car was fast..... then had a M5 V10 all over my ass on the way to the M6 which as soon as two lanes opened up I was a sitting duck At one point he was soooo close in my mirror it was like he was sat in the back
BMW's think they are all that on the motorway.. i hate em LOTS get them on a twisty 2nd n 3rd gear road n show em whos boss :twisted: . and if u see somebody walking in the snow they probably drive a BMW and when u see BMW parked up in the snow make sure that he 100% sees the smirk on ur face :lol:
Great to meet you Terry and that is one very clean example of a scoob you have there. Also many thanks for the kind words and I will speak to you later today :wink:
i hated it mate got me stuck on crown point in 1 inch of snow and with no heaters and a window stuck open. i love BMW's i swear.
would or do? 5/10mm spacers still leave enough thread on standard wheel studs? im just using 3mm spacers and already scared :?
