Thom

Hi all,

In order to improve both the rear stability and the look of my S2, I fitted 15 mm spacers at the rear wheels. Now the rear wheel arches look "properly" filled and the rear of the car feels more planted during acceleration and in corners.
Of course the car has been understeering significantly more ever since, that is why I am thinking of fitting wheel spacers at the front now.

Which spacer width would you go for ?

I would find logical to fit 15 mm too, but would just like to get some opinions before making any purchase.

Many thanks in advance.

Luis de Prat

Hi Thom,

Here's a bump for your thread. I was just thinking about you today because I was in Paris. It was 12ºC! Nice to see you on the forums again.

Thom

Hi Luis,

Thanks for the bump. You should have dropped me an e-mail about today, we could certainly have arranged a meet somewhere.
I've always been looking around here, but there's so much to read, never enough time ...

Danno

Sure, 15mm in front is fine. You'll need longer studs and need to grind a 10mm-wide 20-degree bevel on the inside of the spacer to clear the hub-cone, but that's about it.

944J

ok so danno, if his wheels match his hubs to start, then what is max that someone like me with late offset wheels and early hubs can do? also did you see the 968 gt300 car I found? see the post I made on it, pretty cool...

Danno

Depends upon the width of the wheels.

If they're 7" wide late-offset (52.3mm), you'd want to use the 28mm spacer found on the rear of the 930.

If they're 8" wide (1" wider than stock), you'd want a 15-16mm spacer. This will place ALL of the extra width on the inside where you have more room. Then you don't have to worry about rubbing the fenders in corners.

A 9" wide front wheel 52.3mm offset could 16mm spacer (need 2.5" coilovers at this point).

And a 10" wide front wheel with 52.3mm offset is about as big as you can go. With a 16mm spacer and you'd have 1" more rim on the outside and 2" on the inside edges.

Thom

Thanks for the details, Dan.

I think FVD make bolt-on spacers for our cars, and I'm paying them a visit next week, so ...

The spacers at the rear of my car came from the front of an '89 Cup Car that featured 17" Cup 1. It's back on magnesium PDs now.

Serge944

I've asked this before but never really got an answer. Whats the largest spacer you can use and still use the stock studs? 13mm?

Danno

"Whats the largest spacer you can use and still use the stock studs? 13mm?"

I wouldn't go over 4-5mm max. You're getting awfully low on thread engagement at that level. A lot of POC/PCA events require at least 9 complete turns on the lug-nuts.

Oddjob

The PCA Club Racing rule is that the thread engagement must be equal or greater than the diameter of the stud. So if the stud is 12mm diameter(guessing, I dont remember offhand), you need to have at least 12mm sticking out to be engaged by the lug nut.

This is pretty typical for most bolts and nuts: the nut height is approx equal to the diameter of the bolt.

Personally, I would not use a stud that does extend at least flush or stick out of the end of a steel lug nut. Especially if youre using the factory alloy lug nuts (which are softer than steel), I would not use any spacer without getting longer wheels studs that match the thickness of the spacer.

Thom

Well, I eventually fitted FVD 15 mm spacers at the front.
As Danno said, they needed machining. They did not clear the bearing cap nor the hub cone, although the seller (not FVD) had told me they would fit no problem. In the end the whole hubs of the spacers were removed.

Understeer has since disappeared, the steering feels more lively and the car looks great BUT there have been annoying vibrations in the steering wheel and everywhere in the front of the car at any speeds above 80 mph. The intensity of the vibrations increases with the driving speed. Above 120 mph it really is teeth-shattering.
There was absolutely none of those vibrations before I fitted the spacers.
Any idea where those vibrations could come from ?

Increased lever arm has revealed that front wheel bearings are on their way out ?
Spacers not correctly in plane with rotor hubs ?
Machining both spacers ruined their balance (assuming spacers are factory balanced, which I doubt) ?

I was suggested to check wheels balance and make a track alignment but I don't see in what it would improve things as there were no such vibrations before fitting the spacers.

Thanks much in advance for any thought.

Danno

Could be the spacers themselves are not balanced. You can get wheels balanced while installed on the car as well. This will end up balancing the spacer and brake-rotor along with the wheel. Be sure to mark the orientation of the wheel on the studs (mark a stud and the hole it goes into).

Thom

Well, I got in touch with another S2 owner who bought the same set of spacers as me, got them machined exactly the same way as me and there are no vibrations coming from the front of his car. I also received some feedback from other people who have used similar FVD spacers for long and they have never gone through balancing issues.

I took the spacers off my car and the vibrations have reduced to the level before I fitted the spacers, which has been more or less the same since I bought the car some 42,000 miles ago (the wheels were balanced again last August, but there has still been minor vibrations through the steering wheel, just like when I bought the car).

I am leaning towards worn out wheel bearings so next I'll just have to check how tight they are set ...