spacers

cleon · Post by **cleon** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 2:11 pm

hi all,
what's a safe size of spacer to use without changing stud length?

98kellrs · Post by **98kellrs** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 5:56 pm

I personally wouldn't put any type of spacers in. I think the car is amply wide and low to the ground and if people want to fill the arches out they should invest in some 8 inch wide alloys, not some 50p disc of cheap monkey metal.

I mean not to offend, and I apologise for my unhelpfulness, I just really, really, really, hate those stupid boyracers in their Corsa's with the wheels protruding 3 inches away from the bodywork, and then wonder why their wheels fall off when they go round a corner!

However if you really do want spacers, then the 'best' ones should come with their own bolts to suit the particular application you require, and will range from 3mm, to 30mm. So completely up to you. Hope that was slightly more helpful.

owen080808 · Post by **owen080808** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 9:31 pm

I thought the point of spacers was to correct for using wheels of a different offset, intended for another car so that your wheels protrude the correct amount.
I dont like corsa's either (except maybe a 2.0 turbo swap

) but it would be my guess that the corsa's with wheels looking like they dont fit is because the wheels they have do not have the correct offset, rather than becuase they have been moved out by spacers.

Wheels with a low offset can be used on cars requiring higher offset with spacers but wheels with a large offset cannot be used on a car requring low offset without sticking out too far or some machining.

http://www.raceandroad.com/offset.asp

Take one of yer nuts off (ooer) and look at how much of the thread is discoloured/worn from being tightened into the hub, it would be my method to measure this, then the thickness of the hub itself. subtract the hub thickness from the amount of thread you have to play with and call it a safe spacer thickness because there's still a full hub width of thread to do all your gripping. not hugely scientific but it should work... hope i've explained what i mean, a bit long winded but you get the idea!

hjkort · Post by **hjkort** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 8:06 am

using spacers other than for correcting the offset will mess up the steering set-up of the car.
It will have a great effect on the forces while steering. Castor changes will be somewhat bigger when steering and the wheelbearings will be not loaded the right way. They will wear quicker.

owen080808 · Post by **owen080808** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 11:09 am

yep, so what i was trying to say was that to combat this change in handling, if the car needs 30-34 offset for example but you have alloys which are 26 then a spacer with a thickness of 6mm should bring the offset into acceptable range and make sure that the new wheels dont mess up your handling dynamics.

cleon · Post by **cleon** » Fri Jan 12, 2007 11:47 am

thanks for helpful tips,

my 480 is currently stock with no mods, i dont want it to look like a dickhead mobile but reckon the wheels should probably sit closer to the outer arch than they do, I guess my best bet is to hang on a wait for a wider set of rims to turn up on ebay.
I dont want the handling to suffer. Will fitting wide wheels put too much pressure on the PAS?
Are there any volvo wheels that would suit the job. from newer perfomance models that people know of. I just want some simple 5-7 spokes, something in keeping with the original design.
any body that has any 15inch, wheels from a stock turbo?
give us a shout.