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[omega3000]

Safe or unsafe ? 

Wheel spacers

[Sir Tigger KC]

Er 'scuse my ignorance, but what are their purpose?   

[Vamps]

I have had good and bad experiences with then, old style ones many years ago and the extended studs snapped, result in losing rear wheel.....

Had more modern ones fitted to a new Mini Cooper in 1990, by the dealer, to take 165 profile tyres and no problems, think I still have the original studs somewhere......

[TheBoy]

I'd always be cautious of wheel spacers. Is it that hard to just buy the right wheels?

I've not clicked on link, but see its egay, so you need to assume it will be the crappiest ones going.

Each of those reasons on their own is enough for me to not recommend them. Combined, well

[Sir Tigger KC]

Er 'scuse my ignorance, but what are their purpose?   

What do they do? 

[TheBoy]

Er 'scuse my ignorance, but what are their purpose?   

What do they do? 

Allow you to fit the wrong wheels to a car.

[Sir Tigger KC]

Er 'scuse my ignorance, but what are their purpose?   

What do they do? 

Allow you to fit the wrong wheels to a car.

Chav it up? 

[omega3000]

Er 'scuse my ignorance, but what are their purpose?   

What do they do? 

Allow you to fit the wrong wheels to a car.

Chav it up? 

Too late .. have you seen my exhaust 

[chrisgixer]

They allow fitting of wheels of the wrong ET.

Using sport stars as an example.
Omega sport stars are ET30. And give a gap between the inside edge of the tyre and the shock upright of roughly 10mm for argument sake.

Vectra sport stars are an ET of 38. This means they sit 8mm further inboard than the omega ones. So will give a gap of 2mm from the tyre to the shock body. They will fit, but the tyre could rub the shock.

In order to get the vectra wheels to sit correctly/the same as the omega ones, an 8mm wheel spacer could be used to move the wheel position outboard.



Or, they are often used to space out the standard wheels for appearance purposes.


The important thing with them is that the wheel bolts used are longer by the same thickness as the spacer, and that the wheel doesn't touch anything throughout its movement in the new position.

[Entwood]

They allow fitting of wheels of the wrong ET.

Using sport stars as an example.
Omega sport stars are ET30. And give a gap between the inside edge of the tyre and the shock upright of roughly 10mm for argument sake.

Vectra sport stars are an ET of 38. This means they sit 8mm further inboard than the omega ones. So will give a gap of 2mm from the tyre to the shock body. They will fit, but the tyre could rub the shock.

In order to get the vectra wheels to sit correctly/the same as the omega ones, an 8mm wheel spacer could be used to move the wheel position outboard.



Or, they are often used to space out the standard wheels for appearance purposes.


The important thing with them is that the wheel bolts used are longer by the same thickness as the spacer, and that the wheel doesn't touch anything throughout its movement in the new position.

I believe, but could be wrong as its many years since I used them, that the "Hubcentric" brand use recessed bolts to bolt the spacer to the original hub, and then the "normal" wheel bolts to bolt the wheel to the spacer, rather then the "other" type whereby the spacer is just sandwiched between the wheel and the hub. We always used this type on the rally cars as the spacer would not "disappear" if the wheel needed changing in the dark in the middle of a forest !!!

[TheBoy]

Some use 2 sets of wheelbolts (usually the I've-really-bought-the-wrong-wheels fat ones) - a smaller set to bolt the spacer semi permenently to hub, and the the normal wheelbolts go through wheel into spacer (these often need shorter wheelbolts.

Additionally, as well as ET, you can get some that adjust the PCD, using similar method to above.

[albitz]

I found a pair of what appeared to be wheel spacers in the boot of my last breaker. Thing is they were only 1mm thickness,which seemed a tad pointless.

[chrisgixer]

Yep. Hub centric then being limited to a minimum thickness to allow for the bolt head.

A spacer, being thinner, doesn't have room. So longer bolts needed.

[omega3000]

Longer bolts needed for these then  spacer 5mm shims

Or will the standard wheel bolts be ok 

[chrisgixer]

Longer bolts needed for these then  spacer 5mm shims

Or will the standard wheel bolts be ok 

Depends if your worried about the wheels falling off.

Personally there is no way I would cut 5mm off the length of my wheel bolts and drive the car. Which is effectively what will happen by not using longer bolts with those spacers. There will 5mm less thread on all 5bolts to hold the wheel in the hub.