Wheel Spacers, Do they alter Handling ?

[turkish]

Thinking of ordering some Hub centric front and rear wheel spacers, but have been getting different feedback.

Some say wheel spacers will affect the handling, and make it worse, while others say it will improve the handling,

I really want them to help the wheel fill the arches, as it really needs them, but I don't want it to ruin or alter the handling in a negative aspect.

I know plenty have people have fitted them, so any feedback on handling would be great.

Cheers

 

[T. Spark]

I just have 15mm rear spacers, and it has helped alot under hard braking, the backend doesnt want to be so tail happy, same can be said for corners.

I was told tho howeva, that if I whent for 10mm on the front (due to me having thew bolts already) that it would make the handling alot worst?

 

[turkish]

Have you got Hub Centric Spacers on the Rear ? So they told you not to go for any spacers at all on the front ?

I was looking to go for 20 mm rear and 10mm front, might re-think now.

 

[T. Spark]

Yes they are, and tbh I think they have helped with handling a little, I have the Seat Sport strut brace on the front, which meant my back end was very happy to wiggle and come out, with the spacers on it seems to have kerped it a little, aswell as making the car look nicer (only expect you to notice the difference tho! oh and other die hard car nuts!) I wouldnt go for spacers on the front other than for "looks" really, as im guessing it with make my backend crazy again!

 

[inkafone]

Spacers increases the rear track and therefore grip but front wheel drive means understeer so more grip at the back means more understeer - looks better with spacers though.

 

[T. Spark]

So with a seat sport strut brace, that imo increases over steering ten fold, it works out about right

 

[orangesprout]

So with a seat sport strut brace, that imo increases over steering ten fold, it works out about right

i have same set-up

strut brace and 15mm spcers on back - very sharp compared to std handling
(good tyres helps too)

 

[T. Spark]

Out of interest what tyres are you using?

 

[Eternal Rage]

Got 20mm on the rear and 5mm on the front. Min you can get hubcentric is 15mm and anything over 5mm in non hubcentric means the wheel does not locate on the hub...

...will be changing mine to 15mm after recently changing wheels, the rears are illegal and actually stick out beyond the arches but 1/2 mm, oops. Going to try 15mm on the front but i imagine they will stick out to far though.

Wider track in general will help handling as it lowers the centre of gravity under cornering and gives a more stable base under braking.

 

[ibizacupra]

Spacers increases the rear track and therefore grip but front wheel drive means understeer so more grip at the back means more understeer - looks better with spacers though.

Oversteer and instability on std track width at rear... as opposed understeer.

give me stability under braking and uneven roads any day of the week.

 

[depresion]

Fitting spacers to the front will mess up the scrub radious of the car and is generaly not a good idea unless you know why you would want to change the scrub radious and how it will effect the car especialy in the event of a loss of presure in a frotn tyre. Scrub radious is the diferance between the center point of contact for the tyre and the point at which the wheel actualt turns round (lateraly as oposed to longetudanaly which is caster angel). Generaly you will find that the scrub radius on a road car has the point of contact further in than the steering point so that in the event of the tyre deflaiting the steering point will get closer to the concact center point this makes that wheel lighter to turn counteracting some of the increased drag caused by the deflation of the tyre. Fitting spacers moves the contact point out towards or in the worst cases past the point where the contact and steering points are together (known as center point steering) this is a "bad thing" TM as in the event of a tyre deflaiting that side will pull much harder that it would otherwise.

There are some good books on scrub radius, Steering axis inclination (or in old speek King pin inclination) an the effects of changing the offset.

(in case you can't tell I did quite a bit on car suspencion at uni)

 

[orangesprout]

Out of interest what tyres are you using?

TOYO T1R's - very very good

 

[turkish]

Fitting spacers to the front will mess up the scrub radious of the car and is generaly not a good idea unless you know why you would want to change the scrub radious and how it will effect the car especialy in the event of a loss of presure in a frotn tyre. Scrub radious is the diferance between the center point of contact for the tyre and the point at which the wheel actualt turns round (lateraly as oposed to longetudanaly which is caster angel). Generaly you will find that the scrub radius on a road car has the point of contact further in than the steering point so that in the event of the tyre deflaiting the steering point will get closer to the concact center point this makes that wheel lighter to turn counteracting some of the increased drag caused by the deflation of the tyre. Fitting spacers moves the contact point out towards or in the worst cases past the point where the contact and steering points are together (known as center point steering) this is a "bad thing" TM as in the event of a tyre deflaiting that side will pull much harder that it would otherwise.

There are some good books on scrub radius, Steering axis inclination (or in old speek King pin inclination) an the effects of changing the offset.

(in case you can't tell I did quite a bit on car suspencion at uni)

Excellent info, Think I will just stick with the new rear anti roll bar on order, and forget about the wheel spacers.

 

[ibizacupra]

rears are a good idea on ibiza..
fronts are not.

 

[T. Spark]

TOYO T1R's - very very good

Sorry to nick the thread, how are they good? How about i nthe wet, dry? How long do they last!? lol!

To get back on subject, having 15mm spacers on the back wont do it any harm, for me it has help... the end

 

[orangesprout]

Sorry to nick the thread, how are they good? How about i nthe wet, dry? How long do they last!? lol!

To get back on subject, having 15mm spacers on the back wont do it any harm, for me it has help... the end

i agree that a wider back end helps stability when cornering hard.

Tyres.....All round they're very good. Had them on since January and done about 8k on them with hardly any wear . I'm very confident in the wet with these compared to the std Bridgestones i had before. Dry they're very sticky.

Expect to pay £75 a corner but worth it for peace of mind.

 

[kohmikey]

After reading this i might go for rear spacers. Is £90 reasonable for 2no. 15mm spacers?

 

[depresion]

Sounds a little on the high side depending on what you are getting and who makes them. If they include the longer bolts then yes it's a good price, if you shop around you can find places selling 15mm spacers for £56.34 and bolts for about £2 each (depending on length, that was one of the first sites to come up on google) postage won't be all that cheep at a guess as they tend to be quite heavy.

 

[ibizacupra]

consider not all spacers are created equal.
CNC machined ones, knocked out in the far east may not have the right strength material which on hubcentric type is important.
Having seen a CNC'd cheap on shear off the hub spigot section confirmed my decision to only use hubcentrics which are from quality suppliers ~(TUV approved Eibachs)
Plain disk spacers.. are not so critical an application.

£90 is a delivered price with bolts I presume. (which is my price)

 

[Ibiza Evo 2]

I have these : http://www.spurverbreiterung.de/index.php?lan=de the system 4