spacers for stock 19in wheels - sizes

[barqy]

How about the ride comfort?
do you feel any different?
in science overview, adding some spacer to the wheel will make the suspension softer. because of longer arm.
but do you really notice the different?
I'm considering add some spacer, for cosmetic purpose and softer ride.

I have installed 20mm spacers to front and 25mm to the rear and this set up is perfect for the OEM 19s
The wheels are just flush with the guards.

The V-project spacers weight in at 25mm 1.925kg for two front spacers and 2.106 for the two 25mm rears.
I used kitchen scale to weight these. Basically total weight of a little over 4kg.

The quality of the spacers are good and the studs are also good quality as well. I have gone through a lot of spacers with my Miata.

I will get some photos up as well when I get a chance.

 

[drw50]

@ Syd-Akira yes please post pics when you have a chance!

 

[Syd-Akira]

How about the ride comfort?
do you feel any different?
in science overview, adding some spacer to the wheel will make the suspension softer. because of longer arm.
but do you really notice the different?
I'm considering add some spacer, for cosmetic purpose and softer ride.

TBH I did not feel any difference. I would welcome softer ride but expect the difference to be too small to notice.
However I have a passenger and one kid in the back seat most of the time I'm driving this car.. Would you be able to notice the difference with just a driver?
I was more concerned with lane assist feature after installing the spacers but they caused no issues on a long high way drive.

 

[Skorpio]

How about the ride comfort?
do you feel any different?
in science overview, adding some spacer to the wheel will make the suspension softer. because of longer arm.
but do you really notice the different?
I'm considering add some spacer, for cosmetic purpose and softer ride.

No.
No.
No.

One con I have noticed- on rainy days or on dirt ridden roads I have noticed more dirt on the plastic quarter moldings than before flushing the wheels. I simply wiped them clean and went about my business.

 

[MikeM.]

How about the ride comfort?
do you feel any different?
in science overview, adding some spacer to the wheel will make the suspension softer. because of longer arm.

Good point. I did the math a few months ago and, if memory serves me, I recall an inch spacer makes the front about 5% softer, the rear, about 1/3 that. This is due to the longer arm length in the rear. So, a 1/4" spacer would not be felt, and inch spacer could be noticed by sensitive drivers.

 

[MikeM.]

One con I have noticed- on rainy days or on dirt ridden roads I have noticed more dirt on the plastic quarter moldings than before flushing the wheels. I simply wiped them clean and went about my business.

That makes sense and is why body fender flares typically "flare" slightly wider than the track of the tires.

 

[MikeM.]

One of the reasons for re torquing is due to different metals contracting and expanding together along with different loads on the area. Re torquing ensures all surfaces and applied loads "settles" in the affected area (hub). Here's a quick Google search explaining it-www.kaltire.com/why-re-torque-the-importance-of-retorquing/

It's good safety practice to check lug nut torque after 50-100 miles but the reason the article you linked to provides is misleading.

A properly installed and torqued wheel should never need to be re-torqued due to normal temperature changes or normal driving forces acting upon the wheel. However, small amounts of road debris can come between the mating surfaces which can pulverize with driving. This can cause catastrophic reduction of lug torque. Another way the torque can change is if the wheels, hubs and lug nuts are all very dry (they can bind) when the lug nuts are torqued. This is why I always wipe down the mating surfaces with my shop rag that is slightly oily with a little WD-40. Not oily enough to make the surfaces look wet with oil but enough to make them look a little shiny, clean and dust free. This is especially important on the seating surfaces on the wheel and wheel hub but it's good practice to also wipe down the lug nut seating surfaces.

One disadvantage of wheel spacers is they double the amount of mating surfaces which increases the chances of catastrophic loss of torque due to debris or binding of the mating surfaces. It also reduces the amount of brake heat transfer to the wheels making brake fade and/or disc warping more likely. If the wheel spacers are properly engineered and manufactured, and if they are properly installed, this is not much of a concern. Still, that's a lot of "ifs".

 

[Mondo]

And some people are afraid of commercial flight because of all the ifs... it's all relative. I bet the sale of spacers to the rate of accidents due to them is similarly astronomical and mainly due to people improperly installing them.

 

[shortnugly]

I have installed 20mm spacers to front and 25mm to the rear and this set up is perfect for the OEM 19s
The wheels are just flush with the guards.

The V-project spacers weight in at 25mm 1.925kg for two front spacers and 2.106 for the two 25mm rears.
I used kitchen scale to weight these. Basically total weight of a little over 4kg.

The quality of the spacers are good and the studs are also good quality as well. I have gone through a lot of spacers with my Miata.

I will get some photos up as well when I get a chance.

Mondo,
If the stock 19" and 17" wheels have +50 Offset and 25mm Rear / 20mm Front spacers will "flush" the wheels....... then...... +45 Offset wheels should flush with 20mm Rear / 15mm Front spacers should have the same results.... Yes?

I have a set of Enkei Raijin 18 x 7.5 +45 Offset wheels. I like how your flush came out and shooting for the same outcome.

Now I'm struggling with size of tires that would provide a wider tread / contact patch but now that the wheels stick out farther, what's too wide?

Thinking of 245/55 18 or 255/50 18.

Your thoughts?

 

[Syd-Akira]

Some before and after shots...

I think this will do for now. Still not satisfied with the wheel width to car ratio. I will wait until time to replace tires and get wider wheels and tires.

 

[Mondo]

I always get that + and - confused... think your right; use this site to make sure

http://www.rimsntires.com/specspro.jsp

good for tire widths too. I was going to max out the tire width with 255s but I think it would stick out to much with the spacers so next tires will probably be 245s in width (trying to keep same height for speedo).

 

[shortnugly]

Mondo,
If the stock 19" and 17" wheels have +50 Offset and 25mm Rear / 20mm Front spacers will "flush" the wheels....... then...... +45 Offset wheels should flush with 20mm Rear / 15mm Front spacers should have the same results.... Yes?

I have a set of Enkei Raijin 18 x 7.5 +45 Offset wheels. I like how your flush came out and shooting for the same outcome.

Now I'm struggling with size of tires that would provide a wider tread / contact patch but now that the wheels stick out farther, what's too wide?

Thinking of 245/55 18 or 255/50 18.

Your thoughts?

245 vs 255 with spacers ?

 

[Mondo]

If your not going to lower your CX than I don't think there'd be any harm with 255... except the sides of your car may get a lot dirtier in the wet I was kind of hoping someone had already done it but didn't get a response when I asked on another thread.

 

[jdmoto]

Just thought I'd show some pics of my stock wheels with spacers to make it more flush to the fender. I think 20mm on the front & 25mm on the back are just about right with the stock tires. The pics look like their in a little but the rims are really pretty flush (3rd one is best).
I got them on Ebay for $88.

https://www.ebay.com (commissions earned)

I want to lower the car more than put new rims and tires on a brand new car so this will do for a while.

Mondo,

Did the stock studs stick out past the 20mm spacer? If so did you have to shave them? Thanks

 

[Mondo]

The stock wheels have holes cast in between the lug holes (on the backside. The stock studs go into those holes. No problems

 

[CX5_QC]

Wanted to oull the trigger in some spacers for my cx-5bit the v-project spacers are no longer available on ebay or amazon. Does anyone have another suggestion ? I dont want to pay too mich for spacers but then again i want decent quality.

Thanks!

 

[davesxx01]

I believe these work perfectly. They are listed for a CX-7 but the CX-5 has the same hub specs.
https://www.ichibausa.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=WS-5511467B

 

[drw50]

*Wow, that's too bad. Use to see V Projects for sale all the time on Ebay, hopefully they come back in stock. I bought them in October, great quality spacers at third or fourth of the cost of H&R lol.* The stock wheels fit nice and snug onto each spacer center ring. There is no detriment in stock ride quality when driving on either highways or local roads which was a relief to me. I was worried there might be vibrations or something. I torqued the spacer bolts to 100 ft lb and checking after 400 miles and the bolts didn't budge at all.* I got 25mm and 20mm for the back and front respectively. I recommend putting on some anti-seize onto the back of the spacers so, years down the road, it should still be easy to remove them off the hub.

 

[Ride92]

The lugs did move slightly on the the torque wrench (yes, I'm talking about the spacer lugs and wheels), so I suggest being "anal", or proper, when it comes to lugnut torque on spacers and wheels. It's the only thing holding the vehicle to the ground [emoji106]

Skorpio, are these the V-project spacers? I have been looking but I didn't see any that are painted like you have with just the outer ring being black? Where did you get them? and how much?

Since I have the GT I really want black spacers. I have a question, I've never run wheel spacers before but I have been liking the wider looking stance with my winter wheels which are 17X7 ET35 so a 15mm difference in offset from stock. I've found some 20mm black ones on ebay for $36 shipped per pair. The 25mm ones seem to jump about to about $50 or so. Is going 20mm at all four corners going to look bad? Does anyone have pics of that setup?

Also since my winter wheels have a larger offset I'll be needing to take the spacers off every fall to install my winter setup, is there any negative effect that is going to have on the spacers? Like I shouldn't be installing and removing them all the time?

 

[MikeM.]

Also since my winter wheels have a larger offset I'll be needing to take the spacers off every fall to install my winter setup, is there any negative effect that is going to have on the spacers? Like I shouldn't be installing and removing them all the time?

That would like double the amount of lug nuts I needed to remove/install every fall and spring! I like quick wheel changes like they do in F1 racing with one big central lug nut. Of course that's not practical for a daily driver due to the nearly 500 Ft/lbs required but do I want 10 lug nuts per wheel? I would pass on that!