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[camel335M]

So I've been looking in to buying some spacers for my E90 335 and stopped by a local tire/rim shop to get some ideas/pricing. The guy at the shop strongly recommended that I never put spacers on my car as it destroys the ride, gives a ton of vibration and is all around unsafe as the threads on the bolts are often not right and they loosen which gives a high probability of your wheel being damaged or even falling off...I know all of you are super knowledgeable, so is any of this remotely true? Please let me know as I really wanna mod them this week....Thanks !

[Saintor]

No issue with my spacers for 5 years.

At resale however, annotate your "owner's manual" that your car has such longer lenght than the standard. Liability issue.

[gtaccord]

No issues as long as you buy quality spacers and install correctly

[camel335M]

thanks for the replies so far, would love some more feedback. ..the guy also said most shops cant even work on them (like change tires, brakes, etc...) if spacers are installed on a car...what?

[Chrisruf911]

A good quality spacer and the appropriate strength and length bolts are safe. I think I mentioned in another thread 930 Porsches came factory with them. If you are super concerned look at Pelican Parts forums or Rennlist and see how many owners of older 911s run 2 or even 3 inch spacers to fill out the fenders on modified flares. A lot of these cars are tracked.

[Nitrousbird]

Under 12mm can get sketchy, work for some and not for others. Good spacer 12mm+ w/ matching bolts = good to go. These are hub centric spacers, not lug centric.

[Reckless335]

I'm running 12.5mm spacers up front and 15mm spacers in the rear. As said above. make sure you get quality hubcentric spacers, not just any ol' generic type. Make sure the spacer is properly seated on the hub before installing the wheel.

[camel335M]

Thanks for all the info, really appreciate it...from what I gather I should be 100% fine going with at least 15mm in the back (actually thinking 17mm) with no damage or liability as long as they are hubcentric...I will probably be purchasing tomorrow. ..if anyone has anything else to add please do, thanks again !

[Reckless335]

Yeah, I still have room in the back with my 15s, I should have gone 18s, then again I MIGHT be able to get away with 20s back there, IDK. If I found a set of 18s for cheap I'd definitely try them out.

[Route 16]

tell us what brand you're going with and you'll get a yes or no

[camel335M]

Originally Posted by Route 16

tell us what brand you're going with and you'll get a yes or no

honestly the ones I was going to go with based on my research were the 17mm hubcentrics...I've read great things about their quality and fitment, they're actually pretty inexpensive too...

[AzureHaze]

Zero issues for 3+ years running BMS' spacers on multiple OEM and aftermarket wheels. My local America's Tires and indy tire shop both had no issues touching them either.

[Underground6t9]

spacers do put more stress on axle because you have your wheels out further. That being said I have never had issues with spacers or adapters. Just get the right hardware. I would rather do Adapters vs. spacers. Most adapters are hub centric.

[Welcome to NBA Jam]

Originally Posted by camel335M

So I've been looking in to buying some spacers for my E90 335 and stopped by a local tire/rim shop to get some ideas/pricing. The guy at the shop strongly recommended that I never put spacers on my car as it destroys the ride, gives a ton of vibration and is all around unsafe as the threads on the bolts are often not right and they loosen which gives a high probability of your wheel being damaged or even falling off...I know all of you are super knowledgeable, so is any of this remotely true? Please let me know as I really wanna mod them this week....Thanks !

The answer that they gave you is the "I assume that you're not a car person, you have no idea how to do this right." It's disappointing that they gave you such a poor answer.

1. It does not destroy the ride. It does nothing to the ride

2. It will cause vibrations if you purchase a low quality spacer, the wrong spacer that does not fit your car appropriately, or install it wrong

3. The bolts are "often not right" is not only factually incorrect, but can be pretty easily solved by purchasing the right bolts with the spacer

4. It cannot damage the rim, and will only damage your tire if you get too wide of a spacer

5. Your wheel will not fall off as long as you torque the bolts to 88ft/lbs, and meet the minimum safe thread engagement length. This can be easily met by using lug bolts that are extended by the length of the wheel spacer. The shank length of an E90 lug bolt is 25mm. If you have a 15mm spacer, you'll need a 25+15mm lug bolt.

More info here:

http://www.maximummotorsports.com/te...s_spacers.aspx

Are wheel spacers safe?

Yes. When properly installed they are just as safe as wheels installed without spacers.

Will wheel spacers cause my wheel studs to bend?

No. The load from a wheel is transferred to the axle/hub through the friction of the clamped joint, not through the wheel stud. A wheel stud can only bend if the lug nuts are not properly torqued, in which case the wheel is about to fall off, anyway.

The Physics of Keeping the Wheels On

As long as the wheel, hub, and spacer are stiff enough to prevent flexing and loss of clamp force, the cause of most wheel stud failures is under tightened lug nuts (not enough clamping force) or over tightened lug nuts (the stud has been stretched past it's elastic limit, so the clamping force goes away). Therefore, properly installed wheel spacers are perfectly safe.

The wheel stud applies a clamping force that holds the wheel to the hub. When the lug nuts are tightened, the wheel studs stretch elastically, like very stiff springs. The lug nuts should be tightened until the stud is at 90% of its elastic limit. This will provide the greatest possible force to hold the wheel to the hub.

The amount of clamping force at a joint is important because of the coefficient of friction (Cf). The more clamping force applied to the joint (in this case the joint between the wheel and the hub), the more force required to make the wheel slip relative to the hub. Unless the wheel slips on the hub, there cannot be any bending load on the stud.

Coefficient of friction -- There is friction between the wheel face and hub face. This friction can be measured, and it is called the "coefficient of friction". The coefficient of friction (Cf) is the ratio of normal force, at the intersection of two surfaces, to the lateral force required to slip the bodies relative to one another. As an example, good street tires have a Cf of 0.9. This means that if there is a 100-pound vertical force applied to the tire, the tire can generate 90 lbs. of cornering force before it slides.

When the car starts moving, the stress applied to the stud does not change appreciably, unless one of two things happens:

The vertical component of any external force applied to the wheel is so great that the clamping force is not sufficient to hold the wheel in place, and it slips on the hub. At this point the stud is loaded in bending and in shear, and may yield, or even break.

Some portion of the clamped joint, wheel, or hub is not stiff enough to prevent flexing, and allows the tension load on the stud to drop to zero. With no tension load on the stud, the clamped joint is no longer tight. The wheel can then move relative to the hub, and place a bending load on the studs.

Inserting a wheel spacer between the hub and wheel changes nothing about these physics.

The hub center of a hubcentric spacer does not hold the spacer on the hub or reduce the chance of stud failure. There is never any load on the lip of the wheel spacer. For there to be a load on the lip, the friction force in the joint must have been completely overcome. The lip on a hubcentric wheel spacer serves only as an aid for wheel installation.

Increasing the length of the wheel studs to use a wider wheel spacer has no appreciable effect.

[Bamaben]

to use spacers you want at least a 12mm or you'll need hub extenders. you also want to switch to wheel studs of at least 75mm so you have enough thread for the nut to fasten safely to.

Originally Posted by Bamaben

to use spacers you want at least a 12mm or you'll need hub extenders.

FALSE!! Seriously, where does half of this ridiculous information even originate...

Do you work at OPs tire shop, by chance

[camel335M]

I can't thank everyone enough for the wealth of information, this forum is outstanding! I'm going to mod this ASAP, i'll post some before and afters if I remember, thanks again everyone !!!!

[WallyF]

I have a set of E88(128i) wheels that I want to use on my 2006 E90 sedan. The 128i wheels are style 360 and are ET45. My stock E90 wheels are ET34.

Can I use 10mm or 12mm spacers safely to mount these 360 wheels on my E90? I know that I need hub centric spacers.

Can I use the stock E90 wheel bolts or do I need to purchase longer bolys?

Thanks

Wallyf

[wdeerfield]

Originally Posted by WallyF

I have a set of E88(128i) wheels that I want to use on my 2006 E90 sedan. The 128i wheels are style 360 and are ET45. My stock E90 wheels are ET34.

Can I use 10mm or 12mm spacers safely to mount these 360 wheels on my E90? I know that I need hub centric spacers.

Can I use the stock E90 wheel bolts or do I need to purchase longer bolys?

Thanks

Wallyf

16x7 wheels? they are et44 and you'd definitely want at least 12mm spacers. honestly id look for a 17 at the very least. lots of them around. heck, i even have some 284s with brand new runflats and tpms if youd want them.

e90 bolts will be fine so long as you get at least 8 full turns of the bolt to tighten i believe.

[VTECaddict]

12mm should be fine. You will need extended bolts.

[MonacoBlueE90]

Originally Posted by Underground6t9

spacers do put more stress on axle because you have your wheels out further.

So does wheel that is wider and or has lower offset.

Originally Posted by FCobra94

FALSE!! Seriously, where does half of this ridiculous information even originate...

+1 Minimum hub centric spacer is 10mm, but not all of them necessarily fit properly over the e9X hub. Under 10mm thick isn't hub centric anymore.

Originally Posted by camel335M

So I've been looking in to buying some spacers

Since nobody haven't mentioned yet. Get some aluminum paste to use between spacer and hub. Otherwise spacers will get stuck to the hub. I know since i once had them on once without any paste, it took me 30min/side to remove. Don't use copper paste, because it might react with aluminum making it ugly looking.

[mbanks21]

I would also find a new shop. They clearly don't know what they're talking about if they say they can't work on a car that has spacers on it. Most places wouldn't even notice them unless you point them out.