Beware of cheap ebay spacers.

**wai** · 11-11-2012, 09:01 PM

To tell you the truth, this is the best reason why to stay away from spacers period.

Just because they are expensive does not mean they are better quality.

Place a little more value on your life and the lives of others on the road. I would hate to imagine what could have happened had the vehicle being travelling at motorway speeds.

If you want to increase the track, then get wheels that have a suitable offset to give you that wider track.

Please don't use spacers; no matter who makes them or how much they cost.

**Ben J** · 11-11-2012, 09:21 PM

I understand what your saying, and even though this has happened to me and was a bit of a wake up call, I'm still going to run spacers, just good brand ones. If spacers are tested and approved by dot or whatever in the states and are perfectly safe and legal to run over there, I can't see why they wouldn't be safe over here. While it's easy to say just buy wheels that fit, it isn't that simple for a poor uni student like myself to buy wheels made to my exact specifications, so I will just make what i do have work. If that means spacers than so be it.

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**dylan8** · 11-11-2012, 09:36 PM

As I said on facebook. spacers around that 10mm size are just not great in general.
10mm spacers that are just hub centric and NOT wheel centric dont usually provide enough seating for the wheel.
10mm spacers that are both hub centric and wheel centric dont tend to have enough meat to support the wheel on on the spacers wheel centric side. as clearly visible in the pic, its only a few mm thick.
Its the same for spacers a few mm either side of this, and there is actually

Even on my 15mm adapters that are 57.1 hub side and 57.1 wheel side there isnt a whole heap of material to do that transition, so i can under stand why that fails, but yours is fairly brutal!

good to see your ok though.

**Ben J** · 11-11-2012, 10:07 PM

Yeah as I also said on facebook, now I've physically seen the spacers I couldn't agree more. The 10mm ones are an awful idea. The metal ring which made the wheelcentric bit is barely 1mm thick, no wonder it broke.

I think what caused the spacer to break is that the cut out to make it hub centric wasn't quite deep enough. In person (and in the pictures a little if you look at the cracks) you can see where the hub has digged into the spacer due to them not being right. This would have meant that the spacer wouldn't have sat flush on the break disc. I think that over time (I put the spacers on about a month ago, and only drove it today) with the torque of the bolts, the spacers actually bent a bit, reducing the pressure on the wheel bolts, effectively untightening them. This would also have stressed the spacer in ways it wasn't meant to be, making weak spots where it bent. After a little driving the spacer may have broken and some of the bolts came out. I don't know what order this came in, maybe a bolt came out and then the spacer broke and other bolts fell out? Your guess is as good as mine. When I pulled over the wheel was only held on by two bolts, which were bent as ****. Basically I think it happened because the design of the spacer (which specifically said it would work on my model or car) was a couple mm off what would have actually worked.

**Tim** · 11-11-2012, 10:15 PM

They would have snapped because the bolt tension on a spacer that isnt flush was causing the material to bend. Heat treated ali like that doesnt like to bend so it cracks instead.
As soon as it cracked you would have lost tension on the bolts as the bending was all that was holding them in.

Its all been said a million times every time someone has a problem but spacers are only dangerous when not used correctly. But then you could say that about any work you do on a car.

**Ben J** · 11-11-2012, 10:25 PM

Originally Posted by Tim

They would have snapped because the bolt tension on a spacer that isnt flush was causing the material to bend. Heat treated ali like that doesnt like to bend so it cracks instead.
As soon as it cracked you would have lost tension on the bolts as the bending was all that was holding them in.

Its all been said a million times every time someone has a problem but spacers are only dangerous when not used correctly. But then you could say that about any work you do on a car.

This is exactly what I meant. Might not have worded it properly, but these are my exact thoughts. When I bolted the spacers up they looked like they were sitting fine, but there must have been slight bending I didn't notice until it was much too late. The spacers I buy to replace these I will definitely check to make sure they are sitting just right. They won't be hub/wheel centric 10mm but either smaller than 10mm and not wheel centric so the wheels can sit on the original hubs, or a bit bigger, so they fit properly and have a decent amount of material to sit on, with enough space at the hub for them to sit properly.

**Guest001** · 12-11-2012, 08:13 AM

[. If spacers are tested and approved by dot or whatever in the states and are perfectly safe and legal to run over there, I can't see why they wouldn't be safe over here.

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Just because another country says they are OK doesnt make them legal here.

You may find it ends up costing you a lot more than a "decent" set or a legal set of wheels if a cop picks up on them or you have an accident and have no insurance because they are fitted.

Guns are legal in the States but doesnt make it Ok to have them here.

As previously stated be sensible and dont use them.

**Ben J** · 12-11-2012, 08:26 AM

I get that they are illegal here, and I know all about police and defects (I just lost my license for 3 months from an accumulation of points from defects) and wasn't trying to say they would be legal here. My point is though, that those products obviously wouldn't be approved overseas in the first place if they weren't safe, and so realistically should be safe enough to use over here. I have considered the legal risks too but am not too worried. I don't have any insurance on my car at the moment (although I am about to get some third party) so if I'm in a crash I won't be getting any insurance money anyway.

I am going to need slight spacers up the front for my BBS RS to clear the brakes. It's either spacers of grinding down the brake calipers/carriers a bit (which some people do), but I decided small spacers would be safer than chopping up the brakes.

**Perun** · 12-11-2012, 08:48 AM

Spacers are bad, mkay...

Period.

Quality bolt-on spacers (aka hub adapters, such as the ones made by Eibach) can work well. People have used them on the track (drags, circuit) without problems but that still doesn't change the fact that they're not road legal. Still, it's a far safer option than having the weight of your car supported by 20 thin metal rods.