Few more spacer questions.

I'm thinking of running a 5mm spacer on my car w/ ARP extended studs and just wondering if there are any ill effects that come w/ running spacers. The car will see street/autox/track time would I be better off w/o spacers? Will I run into problems like broken studs or premature wheel bearing failure?

I would appreciate any info from those of you who have actually run spacers for extended periods of time. I'd like to hang onto my current wheels just not sure if it's worth the hassle of messing w/ spacers. Thanks for the info guys

 

i been running spacers on my car for the past 3.5 years. no problems yet. every time i have the wheels off i just check the spacers for cracks or any other odd wear marks, and i havent seen any of that yet either.

 

Spacer is a good thing. It increases track width hence increases grip. But your suspension would feel softer because you are changing the motion ratio of the suspension. Stiffer springs might be needed to balance out the effect.

The drawback is that it would put more stress on the wheel bearing, and steering would feel a bit slower because the scrub radius is increased.

Note that the thickness of the spacers is not the only factor. You have to take into account the wheel offset too. With a low offset wheel (say +35mm), it would have the same advantage/drawback as a 40mm wheel with a 5mm spacer.

I've ran my car with 42mm offset wheel with 10mm spacer (making it an effective 32mm offset) for quite a few track events. I have not yet encountered the wheel bearing problem (granted my car has very little miles with such setup).

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Wai &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The drawback is that it would put more stress on the wheel bearing, and steering would feel a bit slower because the scrub radius is increased.
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<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Wai &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The drawback is that... steering would feel a bit slower because the scrub radius is increased.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I have thought of using spacers as well in the search for that little extra grip, but the reduced steering response may alone be enough to keep me from using them. As with all things there are trade-offs and a gain in one area often means sacrifices in another. That's what makes all of this so interesting...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Wai &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

The drawback is that it would put more stress on the wheel bearing, and steering would feel a bit slower because the scrub radius is increased.

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I believe this is actually a common problem in VW cars since lots of those guys like to run widebody setups with deep dish wheels. Bearings and hubs get ruined.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RTW Ryan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I believe this is actually a common problem in VW cars since lots of those guys like to run widebody setups with deep dish wheels. Bearings and hubs get ruined. </TD></TR></TABLE>

And don't forget that the VWs are heavy cars so it puts alot more stress then our light weight Rs...


Modified by Bbasso at 4:52 PM 3/3/2005

 

Thanks for the info guys, very helpful in making my decision (though I still can't decide ).

 

are you looking at the h&r 5mm? for some reason i thought that they said they did not need extended studs?