What are Wheel Spacers?
Wheel spacers are sometimes said to as a risky addition to your car. When you talk to individuals who really use them, the results are usually quite the contrary. They come in handy when your wheel’s offset isn’t optimal for the end package you wish to employ. This option positions your wheels and tires beneath your fender, whether because your axles are too narrow or the offset is ineffective.
Are Wheel Spacers Harmful?
Wheel spacers are only harmful when they are applied incorrectly. Most owners believe that packages that do not have this option have more troubles than those that do. Because the product is tailored to your specific configuration, there is the possibility of better performance and aesthetics that go beyond your fitting requirements.
If you are contemplating this option for your car, you have two basic options: bolt-on or slide-on. Then, when finishing the appearance that you desire, you may take advantage of all of the potential benefits and drawbacks of wheel spacers.
List of Advantages of Wheel Spacers:
1. You can boost your vehicle’s performance.
Wheel spacers are a simple technique to increase the performance of your car when you’re behind the wheel. This option’s design will move the wheel further away from the chassis, resulting in a wider track and a lower center of gravity. That means you’ll have greater grip when you enter a turn, allowing for a faster acceleration response as you exit it. You should place spacers on all four wheels to guarantee that you can enjoy this benefit while driving. This is a primary advantage and pros of using wheel spacers.
2. Wheel spacers can improve the vehicle’s visual appeal.
When you have wheels that extend all the way to the edge of your bodywork, you give the car a better driving stance and improve how it performs on the road. This style gives a more aggressive appearance that visually communicates the ability to handle turns consistently effectively. For over a generation, Porsche has employed this design aspect to incorporate handling and take use of this special benefit. For this to operate, you must maintain the wheel within your body. Pushing the tire outside of the frame might present a new set of issues to deal with.
3. Superior spacers To get an edge, utilize billet aluminum.
If you decide to employ wheel spacers as part of your package, you should choose the finest quality materials possible to guarantee your car performs as it should. That is, you should seek for goods made of billet aluminum. This material is as strong as (if not stronger than) the wheels to which it is attached. They will also feature studs to make the installation procedure easier. Although this increases the difficulty of slow-speed turning, it is an option to consider if your wheel bolt patterns need to be changed for any reason.
4. It is an option that ensures your wheels will fit the car.
The most typical reason for using wheel spacers is to verify that a given set of wheels for a vehicle will fit properly. This option is required if the wheels have the incorrect offset for your package. In the same way that they may cause damage when they are in place, a wrong offset might interfere with your bodywork or suspension components, causing driving troubles. Installing wheel spacers to move the tires away from the bodywork can remedy the problem, as long as you don’t create an interference issue with the fender lip as a consequence.
5. With today’s wheel spacer designs, you have a variety of options.
If you need to add a large amount of clearance to your package, bolt-on wheel spacers are your best option. They will attach to your current hub, after which you will be able to mount the wheel to the product.
The washer style of wheel spacer is exceptionally inexpensive because it does not require any additional mounting hardware to provide you with these benefits. Because it rests between the hub and the wheel, it just takes a few minutes to install if you only require a few millimeters of space.
6. It may permit the installation of a larger brake package on your car.
If you determine that a bigger brake package is required for your car, wheel spacers can provide you with extra inside space to make that happen. Most of the bigger kits require 17-inch or larger rims, which makes fitment difficult with the conventional configuration. This benefit may not be applicable in every case or for every car, but it may be something to consider in some circumstances.
7. The market offers both generic and hub-centric spacers.
If you want to try out the notion of utilizing wheel spacers on your car first, a generic product that works with the many bolt patterns available on your wheels is a smart place to start. You may learn how the car handles and whether or not you like it. If you choose to continue, you can add hub-centric spacers that are particular to your vehicle’s make and model. Then torque them appropriately, inspect them during routine maintenance, and you can typically avoid the most significant drawbacks that are commonly mentioned with this equipment.
List of the Disadvantages of Wheel Spacer
1. The design can occasionally result in heavier steering.
Depending on the amount of the wheel spacers you select for your package, the steering may feel heavier when driving than when they are not. When you use this option, you create a wider track for your car to follow, which means more work is required to traverse bends and turns. That means greater talent is needed in the driver’s seat to stay on the right track.
This disadvantage is frequently determined by the width of the wheel spacer utilized on the vehicle. If you use a half-inch spacer, the impact will be less powerful than if you use a 2-inch spacer. This is significant disadvantage and a con of wheel spacers.
2. There is a chance that your car will suffer more wear and tear.
Wheel spacers can occasionally produce an increased pattern of wear on your vehicle’s hub components and suspension. Because you are building a wider track than the frame was originally meant to sustain, you might put stresses that exceed the manufacturer’s suggested tested tolerances. The increased width is especially troublesome for the axles, hubs, and wheel bearings, all of which are at a higher risk of early failure when compared to systems that do not require spacers.
3. All four tires must have wheel spacers installed.
If you merely place wheel spacers in the back of your car and leave the front alone, you will only get greater grip in the back. When a result, as you approached a turn, your automobile would desire to understeer, with the front drifting towards the outside, which might impair the overall balance of the vehicle. Having them in the front would have a similar effect, causing the back to become loose and perhaps fishtail as you try to accelerate out of the curve.
4. It is feasible to extend the breadth of your wheel beyond the confines of your frame.
If your wheel spacers are excessively wide, the edge of your tire may extend beyond the frame of your car. This may not be a problem for some packages, but it will increase the overall dimensions of the car and have an influence on your driving style. To guarantee that the car continues to perform as expected, you will need to be aware of tight lanes, rubbing difficulties with the fender, and more stress exerted on your important key points.
5. More components on a vehicle equals more failure points.
When you add wheel spacers to your car, you increase the likelihood of a failure occurring while driving. Even if you choose this choice with the best of intentions, there is no way around this drawback. To lessen the chances of an event occurring, take the time to properly tighten and torque all of the bolts and nuts on your spacer, and then check every 50 to 100 miles to verify no unexpected loosening happened.
Proper seating is a continuous problem that must be addressed in conjunction with wheel spacers. Toyota recommended that anybody utilizing them on their cars complete a torque check after the first installation, torque, and re-torque every 25,000 miles. Loose spacers provide a tremendous amount of strain to your wheel studs.
6. Some choices may allow you to lower the number of threads on your lug nuts.
When you employ a washer-type wheel spacer to enhance clearance, you are pushing the wheel out more than usual. As a result, your lug nuts will have less threads for latching and locking the wheel to your car. Every millimeter of thickness added by a washer is a millimeter of length that cannot be used on the outside of the rim. When there are fewer threads, your lug nuts are more likely to fall loose.
As a general guideline, if you utilize spacers thicker than 5 millimeters, you should use longer bolts for your wheels.
7. Low-cost wheel spacers are often composed of cast aluminum and can pose a safety hazard.
Because cast aluminum is less structurally consistent, you should invest in billet aluminum spacers and their strength. When producers cast the metal, the crystalline structure becomes less consistent, which means there is less power in the support that it can supply. Precision manufacturing is challenging as a result of this issue. It is not uncommon to find thickness discrepancies between two cast goods. Some may even be out-of-round, causing yet another set of issues with your car.
Some users have observed that the cast aluminum spacers fit rather loosely around the hub, and that the lug nuts can make contact with the edge of the spacer material first, rather than fitting entirely through the spacer hole. This problem may result in an insufficient tightening of the lug nut. The lug nut may loosen and eventually fall off while driving, resulting in lug nut loss while driving and a safety problem.
8. It may cause your tire mounting holes to get out of round.
If you try to utilize cheaper wheel spacers to achieve a rapid boost in performance, you must inspect the product’s manufacturing quality before finishing the task. Even if your product is slightly out of round, this flaw may cause the entire spacer to slide up and down somewhat during usage. This constant motion will eventually cause all of the wheel mounting holes to go out of round. As a result, your OEM wheel studs are subjected to increased strain.
9. The companies who service your tires and rims may not guarantee their work.
When negotiating with a firm like Discount Tires to have new items installed, you may discover that the company will not install any tires or wheels if your vehicle currently has spacers placed. If you come in to buy these goods and insist on having them installed on your car that day, the staff may refuse to assist you or remove your spacers and store them in the rear of your vehicle. This is a concern about the liability of their job since the torque on the wheel spacer might be mistakenly altered during the work. Their policy prohibits them from turning wheels or spacers that are already in place, whether hub-centric or not.
10. Using wheel spacers might conceal other car concerns.
Wheel spacers are frequently used to fix a vehicle offset. If done purposefully, this method can make the car a lot simpler to operate. When you utilize this option on a regular basis with your car, it may also hide some of the alignment concerns that may arise, especially if you are working with an older vehicle. If you have a substantial amount of offset that you are still attempting to correct, it may be a better alternative to have the car aligned instead.
11. There is a possibility that the spacers will fracture.
Although the likelihood of this disadvantage is low, it is possible that one of the wheel spacers will shatter when driving the car. The most typical cause of this problem is an installation error or the use of wrong bolts, but because it is an add-on item, there is not always control over the quality that you may use. The great majority of drivers will never face this problem.
12. Vibrations may cause problems for you.
When you utilize generic wheel spacers for your car, you may experience more vibration when driving. This problem may be so severe in certain automobiles that it seems like you’re driving with cables or chains on your tires. Hub-centric spacers can help you avoid this issue to some extent, although it may still exist in some models. Make use of the ring and lip to capture your wheel hub as much as possible to mitigate this disadvantage.
