Wheel Spacers?

Lev · Postby **Lev** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 1:34 am

Does anyone know if they are illegal or a really bad idea, or is there a better way to do it?

Pulled my rims off tonight and noticed ET40 stamped on the inside, so I'm assuming 5mm spacers are required to return back to where their supposed to be.

I want to do it properly. I've heard of the wheel bolts busting because of the spacers, scary, don't know if its true though.

Any advice please :roll:

JBT · Postby **JBT** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 6:48 am

I guess if you use a 5mm spacer there will be 5mm less stud thread for the wheel nut to grip and the wheel mass is being taken further outboard on the stud which may cause it to fail - not a good idea. Legal or not, I wouldn't have them.

Lev · Postby **Lev** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 8:49 am

Doh! I'm going the wrong way, if I want 45mm offset I need to have the wheel machined or replace the wheels. Bigger offset should reduce the track - not the other way around. Must be getting old. :oops:

This is good however as these wheel spacers sound dodgy.

Sheck · Postby **Sheck** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 9:01 am

ET40 stamped on the inside, so I'm assuming 5mm spacers are required to return back to where their supposed to be.

I dont get it? do you mean you want to return them to 45mm offset??
Cause a 5mm spacer will make the wheels a 35mm offset, this will look better but its far from stock?
Sorry if this didnt help but the wording has got me a little confused.

I'm running spacers on the front of mine, a pair of 5 or 6mm spacers on each side actually but i'll be taking one of them off today from each side. It's just a little too dodge running 10-12mm spacing on each side, but a 300zx we got from japan was running this set up for god knows how long they were on for. Didnt look like there was any damage done to the studs or wheels, but a stress fracture would be hard to find unless you got an x-ray machine.

If i was to run more than 5mm spacer i would definately get a bolt on set which would start at 20mm or so but there are soo many people running 5mm spacers you wouldnt think that they all fail.
I say use at your own risk, not much help i know but at least theres a little bit of info to help..

Dave

Correction turned out to be 2x3mm so a total of 6mm on each side - i was way off hahahah :mrgreen:

Sheck · Postby **Sheck** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 9:02 am

hahaha oops beat me too it

Garry · Postby **Garry** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 11:39 pm

I'm pretty sure the are illegal in NSW. If you dont use the bolt on ones you also loose the ability to locate the wheel correctly on the central locating spigot thingo creating an out of round condition causing wheel shimmy.

ralphie · Postby **ralphie** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 11:44 pm

illegal on road

adamjp · Postby **adamjp** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 1:50 pm

Wheel spacers WILL cause the rim to lose contact with the hub collar. This is bad as the weight of the car will then be supported by the studs. The wheel studs are only to hold the rim against the hub, the hub centric wheels used in cars today hold the weight of the car on the hub collar.

This is why you buy hub centric adapter rings when you get aftermarket rims. They cost $5-6 each and are usually made of high density plastic.

Apart from wheel shimmy, without rim to collar contact, you will end up with a wheel that has the car's weight supported only by 4 fairly thin steel bolts under stress in a direction that they were never designed to operate. They stand a better chance of shearing or stretching. This comes under the category of BAD.

The wheel spacer phenomenon comes from the stupid Japanese racing style called drift racing. You must have flares to be a rice boy, therefore the rims must fill your guards. But if you actually put 10" rims on the car, the diff will snap when you start to burn rubber, so you space your 7" rims out so they fill the guards and you don't snap the diff, axles, etc. But you get a shimmy and run the risk of having a wheel come off - great.

Sheck · Postby **Sheck** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 7:34 pm

get your hand off it mate, spacers have been round longer that drift, the drift people your abusing actually have proper wheels (10-12" wide), its ricers, wannabe's and others that do it for the reasons you so delicately put it.
If you havent really tried it (drift) and know how much skill is actually involved to do it, then dont knock it so much. If you dont like it fair enough, but stop cr*ping on about how bad it is. :evil:

Most people i know of use spacers so their new rims can clear their brakes. (wrong spoke design, or wrong offset).

Yes they arent good for the resons people have said.
But many people use them any way, your choice.

Dave

irwin83r · Postby **irwin83r** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 10:58 pm

where can u get hub centric adapter rings?

Babalouie · Postby **Babalouie** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 11:04 pm

irwin83r wrote:where can u get hub centric adapter rings?

Any good wheel/tyre shop. Mullins Wheels make the plastic ones that are on my car now.

rain902 · Postby **rain902** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 12:23 am

from CAMS manual 2005

schedule E wheels and tyres

6-12
wheel spacers
any spacer/track extender fixed between the wheel and its corresponding hub must be either affixed to the wheel or hub, or located to prevent its movement relative to the hub or wheel.

adamjp · Postby **adamjp** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 7:16 pm

Firstly, Dave - calm down. I never knocked the skill involved in drift. I think of it similar to WWF 'wrestling' or a fistfight in footy. Very showy, good entertainment, but not what is normally considered the pure form of the sport. My opinion may differ from yours, but please do not consider that I underestimate the skill required to keep a car on the road (around corners) when the two back wheels are usually driving hard in a direction different to the one you want to go in.

You are right, rice boys and wannabes are the main users of spacers, in fact I know I stated that?

You must have flares to be a rice boy, therefore...

As it happens, I was waiting at the local takeaway on Sunday night and picked up a recent copy of Import Performance to flick through. It had an article on wheel spacers, trying to help people understand what happens when you put them on your car. They were talking BIG spacers 1" (25mm) kinds of sizes. Not once did they mention the hub collar, or anything to do with supporting the weight of the car. In their opinion the main reason that you put spacers on was to fit deep dish rims and still clear the inside of the wheel from your suspension, not the brake system. Apparently deep dish it is THE look from Japan, accentuated by fitment of smaller tyres than the rim is designed for so the tyre sort-of leans inward from the rim edge.

Interestingly, elsewhere in the magazine was an advert for spacers that made a point of the fact that they were better than most as they were available with a hub collar.