Hey Guys/Gals,

I have the stock 18" "Aruba" wheels on the car, and wanted some of you wheel/suspension enthusiast to chime in on this.

The below pics are the car how it sits, yes I have crazy curb/ pothole damage its the wonderful city of Chicago for you.

My question is do you personally think I should space the wheels out just a tad bit, or what? I don't want it to look like a monster truck with its tires past the fender, but as you can see where the sideskirt is the wheel is poking a little already. So too much and I might be looking ridic. The Ruler is for reference, and apologies for the cell phone pics.


Any Idea what they would run for non-china made spacers? or Save the money, buy Jeremy's Staggered set?

Appreciate your guys opinions

- Dave

 

Hey Dave

I've got the same issue, I'm thinking of doing the 10MM or maybe 15MM to just widen the stance a touch, I looked and the spacers for decent ones were around 30-50.00 a pair I think.

 

Buy some good H&R spacers! around $200 for 4. I'm not sure the offset on those wheels. But max I would go is ~40mm offset. At 38mm offset here, I've had to do some inner fender work to eliminate rubbing. The spacers will make the car look so good!

 

At stock height they are fine. I wouldn't bother, because you will need longer studs, too.

 

I don't think I would bother with spacers on a stock height car either...

 

Thanks guys for your honest suggestions,

So what I'm hearing is, Buy some springs, add some spacers, but according to Jeremy, thats not possible unless I get longer studs?

If it is possible, Go H&R for both ? I found a guy here who can get the lowering springs for $200 and Spacers for $200. Good Deal?

 

You are somewhat correct. Most imports have lug bolts and not studs, so spacing every other car you would want to is easy.

Anything spacing under 20mm will require longer studs and our studs are pretty short at 44mm. It is easy to find 55mm studs for 10 or dare I see 15mm spacers. The rule is that you need 7 full turns to be safe and you will get that using factory wheels with 55mm studs and 15mm spacers - just barely.

20mm and thicker spacers can be adapter style (like most of mine) where the spacer bolts to the car and the spacer has studs pressed into it to attach the wheel.

I have 20mm adapter-style on the rear of my car now and 5mm on the front with factory studs and get 7 turns in front.

Part 2: Why does it make sense on a lowered car? Two things, negative camber will increase on the rear of our cars making the distance from the top of the rim increase with every millimeter you go down when lowering. Also that distance is accentuated as you get close to or begin tucking tire/rim. To offset this - as Allen affectionately calls "the sunken battleship look" or as I remember fondly from the early 1990's the "minitruck tucked look" - you space the wheels out to look more flush with the fenders. Problem then becomes that you need to roll the fender lip metal to do this for clearance (the negative camber when suspension was compressed at factory ride height made this unnecessary by providing clearance via camber differences real time).

All of this sounds too involved fro 99.9% of the population and 90% of casual auto enthusiasts, so I say again don't bother.

 

Thanks Jeremy for clearing it up,

"20mm and thicker spacers can be adapter style (like most of mine) where the spacer bolts to the car and the spacer has studs pressed into it to attach the wheel."

So can I buy these adaptor style spacers and make it work? With no damage to the awd system? I got a guy to roll the fenders, wouldnt want to do it phone book style on this.

Sidewalkman, What ya thinking about this project now? I had to get these wheels fixed up twice and one needed full replacement because the crack was too big to fill.

 

I recently lowered my X with H&R springs. I definitely like the lowered look compared to factory, but now I notice the overhang of the fenders over the wheels.

The pics above from fabfive are important. As I measure that way, I think I'd need 35mm spacers to bring the wheel out flush with the fender lip. And then my fender would rub on the tire, but not by a lot. What exactly is fender rolling? Can it crack your paint or clear coat? ...I don't know much about body work.

And, what's your lug nut situation look like with 35mm spacers?

Exexpat wrote this "I have 20mm adapter-style on the rear of my car now and 5mm on the front with factory studs and get 7 turns in front."

Did you actually put 5mm spacers on your front wheels? 5mm? Really? Does anyone see your car and notice that? ...Mechanical advantage in the turns?

 

Fender rolling can definitely crack paint. Your best bet is to use an Eastwood roller, a heat gun and a laser thermometer. Heat your paint to about 125 degrees, then roll fenders for 5 minutes, reheat to 125 degrees and keep going until the metal is pinched. This doesn't guarantee the paint won't crack, but will help.

The 5mm spacers in front were to eliminate the wheels I had at the time (Jaguar 18x8.5 Cygnus) from hitting the inner fender wall at full crank. It was barely hitting and I needed the wheels out maybe 2-3mm. I only had 5mm spacers handy in my 5x108 collection - used them on my old C70 to clear aftermarket Porsche retrofit calipers.

Eventually I went to 25mm rear and 20mm front spacers on the Cygnus wheels to make them nearly even with the fenders.

 

Thanks exexpat, I hear you about the heat gun and rolling the fender out. Thanks for the info. What do you mean when you say to roll the metal out until it is "pinched"? I'd like to go 30mm spacers in the rear and 20mm front.

I lowered the ***** with H&R springs this year, and I like that, but the wheels do appear tucked in now.

It's a good look, the wheels just out to the fender lip. Did you roll your own fenders?


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Yep. Just rolled a little more today to get the 20's to tuck an inch or so on both sides in the back. Good friend of mine owns the roller and thermometer.