Use Of Spacers?

[Ian S]

Apologies if this has been asked before, I did do a through search before posting this however and couldn't find what I was looking for. My brother who has a Corsa SXi with 16' TSW wheels was told, when he took his car for service as the weekend that he desperately needed to fit spacers to his wheels to stop damage to the suspension/wheel bearings as the wheels were being able to move around too much... This got me wondering then whether I need to do the same or not?! I have 17' Team Dynamics RVO's....looking at the fit, this is hard to explain, but the area where the wheel bolts onto the hub of the car fits almost perfectly on my car, whereas the on the Corsa the wheel massively overlaps the hub area. Now I'm not sure of the offset of my wheels, I think they're ET38 or something around that figure...my Dad says after driving the Corsa (I'm not insured to try it out), my car is a lot smoother drive, and I only get slight juddering if I travel at about 95mph or more...(which just to clarify, I did not do on a public road). So I'm thinking I should be ok, but I'm not really knowledgable about the use of spacers and would appreciate some advice. Cheers.

[bert.tsport]

Apologies if this has been asked before, I did do a through search before posting this however and couldn't find what I was looking for. My brother who has a Corsa SXi with 16' TSW wheels was told, when he took his car for service as the weekend that he desperately needed to fit spacers to his wheels to stop damage to the suspension/wheel bearings as the wheels were being able to move around too much... This got me wondering then whether I need to do the same or not?! I have 17' Team Dynamics RVO's....looking at the fit, this is hard to explain, but the area where the wheel bolts onto the hub of the car fits almost perfectly on my car, whereas the on the Corsa the wheel massively overlaps the hub area. Now I'm not sure of the offset of my wheels, I think they're ET38 or something around that figure...my Dad says after driving the Corsa (I'm not insured to try it out), my car is a lot smoother drive, and I only get slight juddering if I travel at about 95mph or more...(which just to clarify, I did not do on a public road). So I'm thinking I should be ok, but I'm not really knowledgable about the use of spacers and would appreciate some advice. Cheers.

you should be ok without spacers. iv got 17" bk racing alloys on my rolla... no spacers required

[saxokiller]

Hello mate,i would not worry about spacers it clearly sounds like the garage in question is talking ****!!!! If the corsa wheel is moving around on the hub then the said wheels dont have the right spigot rings in place?The spigot ring is either a plastic or steel ring which helps the wheel locate itself on the hub so there is no movement while the car is moving.SO SPACERS ARE NOT NEEDED IN THIS CASE!!! As for your alloys mate i would not worry as you have stated the wheel fitted to your car is a 38mm offset this is fine for a corolla and for quite few other corollas Ie AE92,AE102 and so on.As for a lil juddering around 95 + mines the same and a few of my mates have the same trouble too so no worries there either.Hope this helps and puts your mine at rest?!

Max respect Saxokiller AKA Alloy wheel specialist for Ripspeed

[Ian S]

Hi guys, thanks very much for your replies. I think the garage actually meant spigot rings, as this is what came with the wheels, and my Dad has now put these on and says the wheels feel much better! So I think the garage got a bit confused about their spacers and spigot rings! Lol. Do I need to put these on my wheels at all, as I haven't got any of these on my wheels either? As I said though, I have no problems with juddering except at very high speeds. Cheers!

[cfc1]

jack the car up and remove all the wheel nuts/studs.. if you can move the wheel up and down on the hub, then the bore hole in the centre of the wheel is bigger than the mounting point on the hub and spigot rings/centralising rings are needed.

Spigot rings/centralising rings (above)

Wheel spacers (below)

Wheel spacers are required if the wheel/tyre is too close or touching the inner wing/strut, but IMO if you need wheel spacers then the wheels shouldn't be on the car in thr first place.

Too many people get confused with wheels spacers and spigot/centralising rings.

[p11p]

you will definately not need spacers and your wheels should have spigots fitted, spigots just centralise the wheel on the hub of the car

[bert.tsport]

i dont have spiggot rings on my alloys... you dont need them . they just make life easier when fitting the wheel as it keeps it central before tightening the wheel nuts. without them you just have to be careful and tighten the nuts evenly. the nuts have an angle turned on them that matches up with the angle in the wheel and pulls the wheel true to the hub as you tighten them anyway.

hope this helps

[Ian S]

i dont have spiggot rings on my alloys... you dont need them . they just make life easier when fitting the wheel as it keeps it central before tightening the wheel nuts. without them you just have to be careful and tighten the nuts evenly. the nuts have an angle turned on them that matches up with the angle in the wheel and pulls the wheel true to the hub as you tighten them anyway.

hope this helps

Bert, thats great, you're a star, cheers mate!

[bert.tsport]

i dont have spiggot rings on my alloys... you dont need them . they just make life easier when fitting the wheel as it keeps it central before tightening the wheel nuts. without them you just have to be careful and tighten the nuts evenly. the nuts have an angle turned on them that matches up with the angle in the wheel and pulls the wheel true to the hub as you tighten them anyway.

hope this helps

Bert, thats great, you're a star, cheers mate!

no problem