Will 30mm spacers work? Legal?

[Jmac]

Yeah you are right mate, crazy hey!! Just off topic a little on legal - got stopped in a vehicle that had a BOV full atmospheric dump, whoosh bang. Copper says it was bad for the environment???????????????????????? No idea hey.
They really have got no idea
Anyway i say fit ya spacers mate
Jmac

[TazzyVR6]

Well if the stock rims have et 35 and the new ones are et 30 +30 for spacers =60mm. That equals +25mm over stock, so 12.5mm wider at each wheel.

I just went out and had a look at the stock arch flares. I believe tyre poke is accurately measured by cops by looking vertically down from above the archs, and if they poke at the top they are illegal. Well from the looks of it there is about 50mm of room at each wheel from top of tyre out to top of arch. So should be ok... I'll get a pic tomoz to show what i mean. The tyres do poke at the front and rear of the arch stock but that is just cause the arch raps in towards centre of car...

[Tim]

your calculations arent correct if the new wheels are wider than the originals.

[99gti]

your calculations arent correct if the new wheels are wider than the originals.

My wheels were on offset of 52. By adding a 25mm adapter it reduced them to 27. Offset works in a funny way and I have 10" wheels and they poked...

I'm going to increse the offset by reducing the adapters so as to bring the wheels back inside the arches.

Spacers are legal as long as they bolt to the hub. Essentially they then become part of the hub and not the wheel. If they just float in between they have the potential to shear off the bolts and are illegal because they float.

They still require to be engineered to make them legal but it can be done easily as long as the engineer who inspects them believes they do no add excesive force to the rest of your suspension including the bearings.

[Lorenz]

The spacer has to be welded to the hub itself, not just bolted on to be legal.

Or best of all, get new hubs made up that are wider than stock, then the cops wont pick it at all!

[rayray086]

Tazzy, this is a difficult situation when it comes to getting the right offset.

First off, a lesson on wheel width and offset (can be intense, so don't read this on a bad day!).

<BEGIN LESSON>



Offset is measured in millimetres from the CENTRE AXIS of the wheel to the MOUNTING SURFACE of the wheel. ET (google says it means "Einpresstiefe" which in German means "insertion depth") is often accompanied by the offset value so as to tell you that it's the offset value. If the mounting surface is located closer towards the outside edge of the wheel, the wheel is known to have a POSITIVE OFFSET. If the mounting surface is closer towards the inside edge of the wheel, the wheel is known to have a NEGATIVE OFFSET.

Now, because the offset measurement is based on the CENTRE AXIS of the wheel, the amount of backspacing and lip (or dish) the wheel has is all dependent on the offset. A particular wheel at a particular width with positive offset will have LESS DISH and a LARGER BACKSPACING than the same wheel if it had a negative offset. The higher offset wheel will sit further into the car than a lower offset wheel, providing more fender clearance, but reducing suspension clearance. The opposite applies.

Now, applying this to spacers - think of adding a spacer as extending the mounting surface of the wheel:



The red indicates the spacer. The blue line is the new offset after adding a spacer, and the green offset was the original offset without the spacer. In the case of the above diagram, you can see that the offset (which was previously a high positive offset) has now been reduced (to a lower positive offset). So like Neil's wheels and his calculations, the original offset of ET52 on his wheels have now been reduced to ET27 due to a 25mm spacer. If Neil was to use a 60mm spacer, the new offset will become ET-8. It may be hard to grasp at first but just remember that offset is measured from the CENTRE AXIS of the wheel.

One last piece to the puzzle. Offset is largely DEPENDENT on the width of the wheel. Right now, we know that, for example, a 6" wide wheel with ET38 will sit further into the car than a 6" wide wheel with ET8. But what about different widths? An 8" wide wheel with ET38 will sit very differently to a 6" wide wheel with ET38. If you think about (and because I've been repeating it ) offset is measured from the centre axis. Using the above example, because they have the same offsets, the extra width in the 8" is 'distributed' evenly to either side of the wheel, i.e. the extra two inch (50.8mm) is divided evenly to the lip and the backspacing. Compared to the 6" wheel, the 8" will have an additional 25.4mm lip, and an additional 25.4mm of backspacing.

Now I think we can apply it to your car and the Volks CV wheels. Let's get the numbers down first - your stock VR6 wheels are 6.5" wide, ET43. The Volks are 7" wide, ET30; 8" wide, ET35. With the spacers you want to fit (I'm assuming 30mm each corner), this will push the Volks out to ET0 and ET5 respectively. I can tell you now that you will have LOTS of suspension clearance so no problems there. However, the 7" Volks, being 1/4" (~6.4mm) wider on each side of the wheel (totalling 1/2" wider) and having a reduced offset of 43mm compared to the stock VR6 wheels, will now sit 43 + 6.4 = 49mm further out. Assuming the 7" will go at the front (for looks), they will poke, A LOT. I had a similar setup before (7" wide with final offset of around the ET0 mark) on VR6 brakes and this is what it looked like:



Suffice to say the wheels didn't stay on after those pictures.

As for the 8" wide Volks, they will be 3/4" wider on each side of the wheel (total 1.5" wider) and a reduced offset by 38mm will mean it will have an extra lip of 38 + 19.1 = 57.1mm. For the rears, it's still pretty major poke and you might be able to escape with minor rubbing on thoroughly rolled fenders and stretched tyres (I'm thinking 195/45R16 or 195/40R16). To give you an idea:



That's 8" wide ET12 on the rears. With the 8" Volks at ET5, imagine an extra 7mm poke.

<END LESSON>

I'm wondering though, why use such a thick spacer? The VR6 brakes don't have that massive of a caliper to warrant a 30mm spacer on each corner? Volks largely produces racing wheels and I believe the CV is one as well, so they would have designed it with big calipers in mind. That said, if they don't clear the calipers, then I think you won't need a large spacer at all to get them to clear. I'm thinking max 10mm each corner really...

Anyway, using the figures I bolded, if you decide to use smaller spacers, just deduct the values and you should get a new "poke" measurement so you can compare with your stock VR6 wheels.

[mikinoz]

Make that post a sticky (or at least in a FAQ thread!)

Nice one.

[evorobin]

Well if the stock rims have et 35 and the new ones are et 30 +30 for spacers =60mm. That equals +25mm over stock, so 12.5mm wider at each wheel.

I just went out and had a look at the stock arch flares. I believe tyre poke is accurately measured by cops by looking vertically down from above the archs, and if they poke at the top they are illegal. Well from the looks of it there is about 50mm of room at each wheel from top of tyre out to top of arch. So should be ok... I'll get a pic tomoz to show what i mean. The tyres do poke at the front and rear of the arch stock but that is just cause the arch raps in towards centre of car...

Adding spacers reduces offset so et30 with a 30mm spacer becomes zero

http://www.1010tires.com/WheelOffsetCalculator.asp

6.5" et35 to 8" et0 means the new wheels will stick out 54mm more. Who said you needed to run a 30mm spacer that's mental...

edit volk wheel size 16x8 is based on rims I saw in Adelaide recently. They are for sale for $300 too and also missing one of the plastic centres too

[Mrk_Mickey]

Robin, he needs spacers so that the wheels won't foul the calipers!

[evorobin]

Robin, he needs spacers so that the wheels won't foul the calipers!

Yes but 30mm /side is crazy probably a 10mm max spacer would do the trick.

This is sticking out 4mm MORE than the 30mm spacer would do. Bit OTT you'll agree