Spacer options

[Zip]

All,

Seriously considering spacers. I see a lot of options around, lots of different prices, lots of different widths, long bolts, short bolts etc.

I need to know that I will not cause any rubbing (front or rear) when the car is fully loaded up with family and luggage.

Seems a lot of you space out the rears, but not the fronts. Any reason? What do they REALLY do to geometry, suspension wear etc etc?

Anyway, I would like your opinions and recommendations please, as I have no experience at all with these.

Thanks,
Zip

[Adrian E]

I've been considering this too from a looks perspective and have my own views on the relative merits which may help your decision making a bit.

If you buy smaller spacers there isn't space to bolt the spacer to the hub and then the wheel to the spacer using the original bolts. From memory it's 20 or 25mm a side before you can use the original bolts.

If you're going for the thinner options just to space the factory wheels out to fill the arches better (which is what I'd like to achieve) then you will need longer bolts to compensate for the spacer width, plus some security bolts to suit as well.

The rear of the D2 does look like the wheel is a bit too tucked under the arch and you could easily space them out - I've seen pics of before and after posted on here and the car just looks more planted. Downside is you can kerb the wheel that bit easier.

I think people don't bother with the fronts as you don't see it when you're following the car and there's potentially more components getting additional strain on them if you tried to go big on the spacers. Also steering lock could start to be altered and geometry.

I would personally only go for a quality hub centric spacer (one that sits in the spigot inside the wheel) as it gives you extra security that everything is being held in place correctly. I like the H&R Trak Plus style but they don't come cheap, which is why I don't have any! If the thinnest rear spacers which use the stock bolts will clear the wheel arch with a good load in them then that's what I'd go for - I've never measured it to see how far you could go but the H&R site gives instructions

[Adrian E]

Just doing some quick googling and came across this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aluminium-Wh.../dp/B002T43354

That's a 20mm spacer for each side so you keep your stock bolts so IF it will fit and clear your inner arch lip is definitely worth a look at that price.

I will e-mail euro car parts as i can't find these on their main web site - there's a discount code on AudiSRS that gets a decent chunk off so be interesting to see if they can do better than the Amazon price.

I'll see if I can check mine tomorrow when I'm at the tyre place as this may have suddenly been added to my birthday list for next month

[David's8]

I have just tried some 8mm spacers on the rear (ex CtL) with 18" Avus and these required 40mm non -stock bolts. Normal bolts are 28mm so with 8mm spacer and 40mm bolts there was 4mm "extra" bolt length but there was no issue with the that amonunt of extra length interfering with the hub. 8mm made a difference to the look. 10mm would be better but i suspect that 15/20mm is best as the 18" Avus need a bit of help to fill the hole. However, i have now removed them due to intense vibration around 70-80mph. It would seem that being non-hub centric, they are extremely sensitive to being slightly off centre). I shall perservere and see if they can be mounted more accurately.

[Adrian E]

If you bolt the spacer to the hub with the 5 wheel bolts, how much sideways movement do you get on the spacer bolt holes when they're not fully done up? If the answer is any at all then I suspect the only option to get a completely vibration free fit is to balance the wheels on the car, but don't know any places that can do that - you do hear of people having it done though.

Personally once you've found the correct spacing I would definitely be looking for one with the spigot ring fitting

[Adrian E]

Be interested to hear views from Amar and co that had/have spacers on 20s as to whether 20mm spacers will give clearance issues or not?

Those H&R ones I linked above I can get for £86.17 delivered

[ainarssems]

I am not a big fan of spacers. If You want wheels to stand out more do it the proper way and get wider wheels and/or different offset.

At the moment I have Merc wheels which are 0.5" wider and offset of 37 instead of 48 on standard 18" Avus. This gives total result of wheels being 17mm more out on the outside and 5mm more out on the inside.

If you have to have the look of FE 20" you could get D3 wheels. D2 20" FE wheels are 8.5J ET 45 and D3 are 9J ET46 so they would stand 5mm more out on outside and 7mm more in on the inside. The difference is not much but effect could be increased with wider tyres like 275.

[David's8]

Originally Posted by Adrian E

If you bolt the spacer to the hub with the 5 wheel bolts, how much sideways movement do you get on the spacer bolt holes when they're not fully done up? If the answer is any at all then I suspect the only option to get a completely vibration free fit is to balance the wheels on the car, but don't know any places that can do that - you do hear of people having it done though.

Personally once you've found the correct spacing I would definitely be looking for one with the spigot ring fitting

The spacers were able to move fractionally on the loosely done up bolts but it was so slight and I thought that, being aluminium, the eccentric mass wouldnt cause a problem...... it obviously did.

[Goran]

My new S8 had 25mm spacers on the rears with 20" FE wheels, there was no rubbing problem.
One thing I would be careful about is, if wheels bolt into spacers and spacers bolt into hub, is it as safe to have the wheels bolted into aluminium? I thought the hubs are steel?
Mechanically I would prefer long steel bolts to bolt to hub, steel-to-steel.
Looks wise, the wheels do look much better with 25mm spacers.

Also consider this - if you put 20mm+ spacers, avoid taking the Eurotunnel train, you will have a hard time avoiding wheel damage.

[Zip]

Would anyone recommend any particular manufacturer over others? Bit worried about the wheel wobble comments in this thread.

Thanks,
Zip