Wheel spacers: awesome or brilliant? šŸ˜€

Technical Area Steering & Suspension
1

ok, so yeah iā€™ve seen some comments regarding folx who have done WS wrong.
i also saw a modified mx5 the other day which had hardly any clearance between tyre & arch.
i donā€™t know if itā€™s related.
they look so cool when done right! :blush:
anyone with mk1s got some positive experiences of doing this?
what size wheel & WS did you go for? :thinking:
any recommendations and links?

1 Like
2

Iā€™ve not fitted spacers, so my knowledge is limited but as youā€™ve got no replies Iā€™ll get the ball rolling and experts may join in.
Spacers wonā€™t fill the wheel arches, all they will do is push the wheels out further.
As I understand it, any more than a small spacer will place extra load on the wheel bearings and also require longer studs or bolts.
To fill the wheel arches, you can either lower the body down to the wheels with shorter springs or increase the overall diameter of wheels and tyres.
If you space the wheels out enough for the tyres to be visible from above with steering straight, that becomes illegal, so wheel spats are necessary.

1 Like
3

Wheel spacers are a bad idea

Ask yourself how many manufacturers fit themā€¦

3 Likes
4

yeah thatā€™s what i suspected about the arches, just a coincidence on the one i saw.
thanks for the other info. yep, i was told about the legality issue. :+1:

5

Forget them, not a good idea and Iā€™d ask why?

Ask about fitting some chrome, Iā€™m an expert on that :grinning:

2 Likes
6

Spacers are absolutely fine as long as you follow a couple of simple rulesā€¦

  1. Always make sure the wheel nuts still have sufficient threads to ensure a strong fixing. Essentially this means lengthening your studs by around the same amount as the spacer size.

  2. Make sure the spacers are of the hubcentric type.

Spacers can be used to widen the track ie push wheels out further, or they can be used in conjunction with a chosen wheel design that doesnā€™t have the regular offset.

Bear in mind that spacers add unsprung weight which is never a good thing, but the effect is unlikely in practice to be noticeable to most drivers.

4 Likes
7

Just a quick one then,
whatā€™s the difference between a correctly fitted hub centric spacer and fitting an after market wheelset with a different width and offset? Surely the oem et 55mm offset on a 7ā€ rim can be improved upon in terms of stance and filling the arch, be it with spacers or new wheels?
Thanks for input kev.

1 Like
8

Totally agree with plip1953

1 Like
9

In practical terms the biggest challenge (in my experience) is ensuring that the wheel studs protrude sufficiently to provide a secure fixing. So on that basis the fitting of a different offset wheel would be preferable. But a new set of wheels is more costly than a set of spacers, so spacers do have a potential role to play. Up to 5mm and you probably wonā€™t need to increase stud size, but I personally would not fit anything wider without either increasing stud length or where the spacers incorporate their own set of wheel studs.

1 Like
10

I fitted 25mm ones on my mk 2.5. Came with their own studs & no trimming of the OE ones needed either. The wheels donā€™t stick out further than the arches so no problems legally there but purely in my opinion look so much better. I donā€™t really fancy the idea of narrower ones reducing the available thread holding the wheel on & visually less than 20mm or so wouldnā€™t make much difference so not worth bothering with really.

I wouldnā€™t have thought that there would be a huge risk here in overloading the wheel bearings as the car only weights about as much as a toaster anyway. I have never heard of any premature failures either.

3 Likes
11

ok, why arenā€™t they a good idea? :grinning:

12

As some of the other posts really, donā€™t let them stick out beyond the wing, so just a small amount. If lowered it will look better. then depending on how far you space you may need the arches rolling.
Not a good idea, maybe the wrong statement, some useful info above.

1 Like
13

DSCF3254 (1)
My old car at Oulton Park 2015 Spring Rally. Mines the red one, that had 15x9 with 0 offset so massively wider track! Had to modify the arches for that. Latest car is mk3.5 Sport Tech, I have 25mm spacers all round with standard wheels. Used hubcentric spacers and love the look :+1:

20200630_151126
20200630_1511262016Ɨ1512 972 KB

Both cars lowered on Meister coilovers too. Iā€™ve had other mx5ā€™s mk1ā€™s mainly, with low offset wheels or spacers too. Never had a problem over almost 20 year span. For me, and itā€™s your car, do what you want to it, if you like a ā€˜lookā€™ then do it. Properly fitted, comply with legislation and off you go! Each to their own! :grin:
Barrie

4 Likes
14

i know what you meant, just having a larf. :blush: as various folx have pointed out, WS can be a very bad idea if done without arches & correct studs. so what is the best chrome to fit? :thinking:

15

very tasty cars! :yum: especially the silver mk3 imho.
the mk2 i saw had 25mms and they looked amazing.

1 Like
16

Another one of mine with wider. Lower offset wheels :grinning: the 1800GT
Barrie

2 Likes
17

yep, this is what i was saying to someone the other day. choosing the right mm is everything for
the particular look you want. iā€™d make sure i had the right studs. :+1:

18

:yum: like the wheels, seats & double exhausts. :+1:

1 Like