Wheel spacers

[Lukejjwhite]

Hi I'm thinking of getting some 15mm spacers all round once car is lowerd have the springs ready just need time to fit. Has anyone got pictures of any fitted or has done it is 15mm going to be enough to sit flush with arch Any ideas please 

[samplify]

Following

[ahmed-abrar]

I'm also thinking about spacers on the rear wheels only, 15 or 20mm, again with lower Eibach springs(thanks SAMPLIFY)

Any ideas??

 

[J Henderson]

Personally, I would only trust spacers from a renowned brand such as Eibach or H&R.

There are 2 types of spacers available. The "slip-on" ones that also require extended wheel studs to be fitted.

Or, the "bolt-on" type that are fastened to the hub using the OEM studs and have their own set of studs to attach the wheel to.

For spacing out OEM wheels, the bolt-on type is more desirable IMO, since they car remains unmodified and can be returned to stock if you remove them.

With this type of spacer though, your wheels need to have cavities machined into them to accommodate the original studs and nuts that attach the spacers. I think most Lexus wheels have them.

Or, you could just cut down the OEM studs to make them shorter so they'll be compatible with any wheel, but that defeats the purpose of having this type of spacer...

15mm F / 20mm R looks good on a lowered car with OEM wheels.

[ahmed-abrar]

6 minutes ago, J Henderson said:

Personally, I would only trust spacers from a renowned brand such as Eibach or H&R.

There are 2 types of spacers available. The "slip-on" ones that also require extended wheel studs to be fitted.

Or, the "bolt-on" type that are fastened to the hub using the OEM studs and have their own set of studs to attach the wheel to.

For spacing out OEM wheels, the bolt-on type is more desirable IMO, since they car remains unmodified and can be returned to stock if you remove them.

With this type of spacer though, your wheels need to have cavities machined into them to accommodate the original studs and nuts that attach the spacers. I think most Lexus wheels have them.

Or, you could just cut down the OEM studs to make them shorter so they'll be compatible with any wheel, but that defeats the purpose of having this type of spacer...

15mm F / 20mm R looks good on a lowered car with OEM wheels.

i've got standard wheels so the bolt on type are the ones for me, any idea where to get them from, thanks

[ahmed-abrar]

4 minutes ago, ahmed-abrar said:

i've got standard wheels so the bolt on type are the ones for me, any idea where to get them from, thanks

i've just realised you mention the brands, Eibach is the one I'm gonna source

[J Henderson]

23 minutes ago, ahmed-abrar said:

any idea where to get them from, thanks

I got some Eibach ones from amazon a few years back. Eurocarparts also sell H&R stuff.

[ahmed-abrar]

would fitting spacers affect suspension tracking angles etc?

[ahmed-abrar]

just ordered a set from AUTODOC for about £155 , 1 set each of 15 & 20 mm though i was only planning to upgrade the rear track so i will see how it goes when they arrive & my previous question 

[H3XME]

@Lukejjwhite @samplify @ahmed-abrar

You've gotta be "careful" with spacers.. Asking what 15mm spacers will look like on your car means nothing. 

What we need to know is: 

1. Your current wheel spec - width & offset
2. Suspension setup - are you stock, are you lowered, if so, how much lower?
3. Your goal - do you want to be flush with the arches? Bit less than flush? Do you want slight poke?
4. Your tyres - 255/40R18 on 18x9J rim will look very different to 225/40R18 on the same width rim.

Fitment is a witchcraft and it takes a long time and a lot of math to figure out and execute well. Depends how particular you want to be. There is stance OCD or "just slap some spacers on" kinda approach.

I'll be happy to help with this if I know the above details. I know that I couldn't use 15mm spacers because the stock wheel studs were hitting the back of my wheels, so 20mm was the minimum. I ended up with 22mm spacing - 15mm hub centric + 7mm slip ons.

 

[ahmed-abrar]

finally had the 15mm spacers fitted & it's looking good, 20mm ones would have been ok also but using the 15mm ones the wheels line up nicely with the edge of the rear factory mudflaps

[LenT]

12 hours ago, ahmed-abrar said:

finally had the 15mm spacers fitted & it's looking good, 20mm ones would have been ok also but using the 15mm ones the wheels line up nicely with the edge of the rear factory mudflaps

Excuse my ignorance, but have you checked the clearance with the car fully loaded?

[H3XME]

6 hours ago, LenT said:

Excuse my ignorance, but have you checked the clearance with the car fully loaded?

Haha this reminds me of when my dad got 10mm spacers for the rear of his E92 330i and the wheels would scrape quite badly against the arches when going over bumps and dips. Safe to say they didn’t stay on the car for long. 
 

i never had this issue on my car but it was on coilovers that I had set to the stiffest setting for this exact reason.

[LenT]

5 hours ago, H3XME said:

Haha this reminds me of when my dad got 10mm spacers for the rear of his E92 330i and the wheels would scrape quite badly against the arches when going over bumps and dips. Safe to say they didn’t stay on the car for long. .

I asked because of my experience with a Lotus Elan many years ago!

I went to a large local tyre retailer for a new set and the ‘expert’ recommended new, sporty Avons that were slightly wider than those already fitted.  He assured me that they were safe to fit and they had done so on other, similar cars.

The handling - already pretty good - was improved even further.  I was very impressed….until a few weeks later and I had occasion to look under the car to check the exhaust system

I happened to notice that a deep groove had appeared on the inner walls of both rear tyres!  Although the wheels had spun freely when the suspension was dropped, once back on the road and loaded, the tyre was rubbing against metal caps that topped both suspension legs.

A few more miles and both inner walls would have ruptured!

It was a lesson that made me rather more cautious about making changes.

[steve2006]

Did the “expert” replace the tyres FOC with the correct ones?

[LenT]

1 hour ago, steve2006 said:

Did the “expert” replace the tyres FOC with the correct ones?

Well it was some years ago Steve!

But as I recall, the OE tyres - Pirelli, I think - were fitted at a heavily discounted price as compensation. So in effect I got a refund and new Pirellis.

The fitter said they’d never encountered this problem before!  But then they’d probably never tried to fit these new Avons to an Elan before!

[ahmed-abrar]

On 11/10/2022 at 12:36 AM, LenT said:

Excuse my ignorance, but have you checked the clearance with the car fully loaded?

never had the car loaded but even with the eibach springs i have had fitted the clearance is good