club.liberty.asn.au

Guys,

I have very little clearance (<5mm) between my tyres and strut bodies and would like to add an extra 5mm to ensure no contact will occur during hard cornering and tyre flex. I have found these simple spacers on ebay which look like they should do the trick. I have read some other threads on wheel spacers but just want to check whether there are any considerations I should be aware of when planning to install these 5mm spacers.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/201452723279 ... EBIDX%3AIT

Cheers,

So far I have learned that the wheels should sit on the hub lip so the studs don't take all of the force (hub centric) which is something to be aware of with totally flat slide on spacers. I will need to measure how much lip protrudes to see whether it will still sit proud of the spacer. If it sits 5mm+ proud of the spacer I will probably give these a go, if not I will live with the occasional scuff. The hub centric spacers in this profile are very expensive.

What size tyre are you running? You shouldn't really be anywhere near the stru with oem shocks and wheels...

Thickest I would get is 3mm hubcentric slip on spacers. I have used them before and there is still a little space for the wheel to sit on the hub. 5mm there wont be that much thread left and the wheel will prob not sit on the hub.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3MM-SUBARU-HUB-CENTRIC-SPACERS-5X100-4X100-CB-56-1-/331541578303?hash=item4d316b023f:g:OvsAAOSw7NNULuqh

Theoretically the tyre wont move at the top of the rim during cornering.

If there is no evidence of contact, I'd just leave it.

Blacktop I am running 235 tyres.Tony, I just came to a similar conclusion after measuring the hubs today. There is 6mm for the wheel to sit on so with spacers this would be more like 1-2mm and the inner face of the wheel has a taper to help it align and there wouldn't be enough of a lip to reach past this. RX25SE there are signs of contact and they are more like scratches than scuffs but I have had the same setup for 30,000ks so it must only occur under certain conditions. Perhaps when the wheel picks up stones or sticky tarmac rubble from the road. I will give the spacer idea a miss for now.

You'll hear the tyres rub, and distinct black marks and tyre wear on the sidewall/tread corner. 215 should be fine, unless your wheels are like +60

I haven't had any rubbing with the 225's on my stock rims. I carry loads and often have the back wheels up inside the guards.
Where are your rubbing? Cause i originally wanted 235's as well.

Tim I have some newer struts on now with no marks so I will keep an eye on them and see if there is any contact. It isn't an issue as I have run the tyres for 30K+ in a 235 but I was just looking at the option of giving myself more spacer and making the car have a slightly wider stance. I have changed my mind on this for now and won't bother. To do it properly I would need hub centric bolt on spacers and rolled guards. One thing I am avoiding is rolling guards. So far the 235s with Swift springs are sitting very nicely on the front. I haven't done any hard cornering though.

Be aware that it's illegal to use spacers on public roads, and if you have an accident and an insurer finds out about them, they CAN be used to invalidate your policy (as they mean the car is not roadworthy, and thus they have an escape clause, irrespective of whether or not the spacers contributes to the accident).

All this said, flat slip-on spacers are bad - as already indicated, they reduce your wheel's ability to stay hub-centric. You really want proper hub-centric spacers, which generally start at between 10mm and 15mm thickness. Of course, they then push your wheels towards your wheel arches, and that brings its own issues. As does the fact that with stock wheel studs, you're losing precious thread for your wheel nuts to hold onto (I've read before that the stock threads are only 3mm longer than absolutely necessary, and if you add spacers that are wider than this, you now no longer have enough thread to adequately tighten your wheel nuts). You're also adding load to your wheel bearings (because you're pushing the load on them wider), and there can be impacts on steering as well though increased scrub radius, etc.

The easiest/safest/least-risky solution may simply be to select more appropriate wheels/tyres.

Good advice Manaz and puts this issue to bed.