What's your take on wheel spacers?

ALN

Club Member
I am looking at fitting 17x10 ET 20 Japan Racing JR alloys at the rears and 17x8.5 ET 20 at the front.
This means that I would have to fit 50mm spacers at the rear and 30mm spacers at the front.

I've heard that using spacers can affect scrub position and wheel bearing wear (to be honest I don't do many miles a year). On the positive side it will increase the track width and lower the roll centre.

I would like to get your take and experiences on using wheel spacers that are up to 50mm in width.

Thanks, Lionel
 

Ian

Club Member
Wheel spacers as wide as 50mm are a very bad idea, not something I would consider running, ever.

So much extra load on all the suspension parts and from my experience over the years not something many outside of the stance scene crowd consider safe. No one who I respect the opinion of in matters relating to chassis, suspension and engineering has ever had anything good to say about large spacers.


Interesting to hear some educated opinions on this.
 

jonbills

Membership Secretary
Site Administrator
my 17" x7 wheels have a large spacer, prob not 50mm though, but maybe. the wheel offset is the same amount, so I think that net its the same as having a 17 x 7 ET 0 without a spacer.
 

Mark N

Club Member
I would have thought any wear or geometry issues would be due to the increased track width (created by either spacers or lower offset wheels).
 

ALN

Club Member
my 17" x7 wheels have a large spacer, prob not 50mm though, but maybe. the wheel offset is the same amount, so I think that net its the same as having a 17 x 7 ET 0 without a spacer.
Makes sense, I've currently got 15x7J ET0 and they fit fine
 

ALN

Club Member
So, been thinking and looking at Rays Volk TE37V which is 17x9.5J ET -15, is not too far off the setup I am looking at. In fact I based the calculations for the spacer for the Japan Racing JR9 of the geometry of this wheel.
Why would this wheel (TE37V) be better than running a spacer? The Volk design effectively incorporates the "spacer" in the machining of the wheel.
 

toopy

Club Member
So, been thinking and looking at Rays Volk TE37V which is 17x9.5J ET -15, is not too far off the setup I am looking at. In fact I based the calculations for the spacer for the Japan Racing JR9 of the geometry of this wheel.
Why would this wheel (TE37V) be better than running a spacer? The Volk design effectively incorporates the "spacer" in the machining of the wheel.

Because fitting any spacer over approx 5mm would/should also require correspondingly longer wheel studs, also there's spacers and there's spacers!

Anything machined to fit perfectly over the centre bore with actual holes not slots is way better.
This https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5mm-WHEE...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
and not this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-X-10MM...449176?hash=item2f10827998:g:BF4AAOSwNE5YW5H2
 

ALN

Club Member
Because fitting any spacer over approx 5mm would/should also require correspondingly longer wheel studs, also there's spacers and there's spacers!

Anything machined to fit perfectly over the centre bore with actual holes not slots is way better.
This https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5mm-WHEEL-SPACERS-73-1-mm-PCD-4x114-3-For-Datsun-240Z-260Z-280Z/402217691802?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
and not this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-X-10MM...449176?hash=item2f10827998:g:BF4AAOSwNE5YW5H2

Thanks Toopy,

That makes a lot of sense - I was looking to use these:
https://www.superforma.co.uk/4x114-3-wheel-spacer-pair-cb-73-1-m12x1-25-nut.html
 

Paul_S

Club Member
I used a set like that (for a short time) on my 370Z. They have advantages and disadvantages.

On the positive side they are simple to fit and are probably better if you're going for wide spacers (because of the long studs toopy mentioned).

On the negative side, with narrow spacers you might find your hub studs fowl the wheels (not a problem if your wheels have recesses between the holes) and you can't check the torque of the nuts holding them to the hub without removing the wheels.
 

Mark N

Club Member
I've used both slip-on and bolt-on spacers on a few of my vehicles (including two S30's, GTR and 360) to fine tune offsets.
I have not had any issues with them apart from having to machine the back of one set to fit the front hubs of an S30.
I don't see them being any different than a low offset wheel if they are hub-centric and the correct spigot ring is used in the wheel if required.
 

ALN

Club Member
Thanks for the feedback guys, I think that I'm confident enough now to give it a go.
 
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