Wheel/Wheel Spacer question?

Eagleye

Tinkerer
Hey guys, I've got a few wheel questions I am hoping you can help me with.

So the stock wheel setup on a 15 STi is 18x8.5 +55 offset with 245/40/18 tires.

If I end up doing wheels this year I have a few options. I could stick with the stock STi limited wheels and buy another set locally (a guy has a mint set ~250 miles) for $1,000. These are forged BBS and exactly what is on my car now. I like the idea of running these as I know they are strong, reasonable weight, and cheaper than any other high quality forged wheel I will get by a good bit. The downside is that I would rather have a wheel around +40, +42 offset. Perrin makes a 15mm spacer that comes with longer replacement studs if a spacer isn't a terrible idea? I have used spacers before but they were very cheap and on a lower power car. Typical spacers seem like a bad idea when you end up using 2 sets of studs, but with these replacing the factory ones, it might be just fine. For this I would go with the stock size 245/40/18 tire.

Option 2: Buy new wheels with the 40-42 offset in 18x8.5 or 18x9 with the offset I want. Due to the high price tag on the more "expensive" brands, I would be looking at cheaper wheels like Enkei or Rota. Here I would go with 245/40/18 or 255/40/18 depending on wheel width.

Option 3: As a member here pointed out, look for used wheels on the other forums and hope I don't get screwed haha.

No matter which I go with they will be wrapped in a high quality tire. Probably Super Sports or something very similar.
 

Grinder34

Track Monkey
Spacers are fine, as long as they maintain the hub-centric nature of the wheel. That means there's usually a dead-zone where you should NOT use spacers due to something I'd need a napkin to diagram.

So if the hubcentric lip is ~10mm (i dont know how big it is, just using an example) you could run up to about a 5mm spacer leaving 5mm of lip left for the wheel to sit on. Between about 5-15mm you'd be in the "no-zone." But 15mm and above would be fine. (in the 10mm example, again check for actual #s).

Some will argue that spacers will prematurely wear out wheel bearings do to shifting the effective load. Maybe it will, but unless you're doing something really silly (50mm spacers), I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it, but YMMV.
 

Eagleye

Tinkerer
Spacers are fine, as long as they maintain the hub-centric nature of the wheel. That means there's usually a dead-zone where you should NOT use spacers due to something I'd need a napkin to diagram.

So if the hubcentric lip is ~10mm (i dont know how big it is, just using an example) you could run up to about a 5mm spacer leaving 5mm of lip left for the wheel to sit on. Between about 5-15mm you'd be in the "no-zone." But 15mm and above would be fine. (in the 10mm example, again check for actual #s).

Some will argue that spacers will prematurely wear out wheel bearings do to shifting the effective load. Maybe it will, but unless you're doing something really silly (50mm spacers), I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it, but YMMV.

Specifically I was looking at these:

https://www.rallysportdirect.com/pa...115bk-perrin-wheel-spacers-black-15mm-5x114-3

https://www.rallysportdirect.com/pa...020bk-perrin-wheel-spacers-black-20mm-5x114-3

Both are hubcentric, the 15mm would come with new longer studs vs the 20mm that has studs built in.
 

Grinder34

Track Monkey
Thats a LOT of money for what it is, IMO. (A machined piece of metal and some studs). The spacers I have on my car (5mm, IRC) were closer to $20 and came with new wheel bolts.
 

Eagleye

Tinkerer
I agree it is ridiculous. However, I don't really see a cheaper option that is 15-20mm, hubcentric, and reviewed well. Basically I am looking at $900 for locally sourced new 2016 STi limited wheels (BBS forged) + $285 for spacers + $550 for tires = $1,735

Or I look used for something of similar quality and spend somewhere between $1,200-1,800 total for used wheels and tires (no spacers needed).

Or I go with something lower quality like Enkei for $1,000 + $550 tires = $1,550

I feel like no matter what I am spending a lot of money to have a second set of wheels. It just comes down to spending a few hundred more for new/like new vs taking a chance on used stuff. Who knows maybe it all gets scrapped except the spacers and I just keep the crappy tires I have and get an AP, gauges, and an AOS with the additional funds.
 

Eagleye

Tinkerer
^^^ +1 for faster wheel bearing failure.

A lot of guys run a 18x8.5, 18x9, or 18x9.5 with less offset, +35 to +40. Is it the fact that you are moving the mounting point 15-20mm further from the bearing (with spacers) that is causing the premature wear? Because in both cases you are shifting some weight further from the bearing.
 

Eagleye

Tinkerer
I dug into it further and got to thinking about the cost if I did spacers and I think they probably aren't the best option. So I will just plan to deal with the gap or buy wheels that have less offset. I appreciate the thoughts guys, I had not thought about the wheel bearings very much. That combined with cost just makes the whole idea feel silly.
 

Batmobile_Engage

Squirrel Meat Aficionado.
Staff member
Given...my wheel bearing issues due to the offset was probably exacerbated by the fact that I'm (being a 2004) on 5x100 hubs, and those wheel bearings don't hold up like the 5x114(?) ones do.
 

Alin

Diehard Car Enthusiast!
Regarding option 3, Ebay and Paypal have sided with the buyer 100% of the time in the last couple of years. As long as you're paying through Paypal FOR GOODS OR SERVICES (not gifting money), then you're covered 110% with absolutely no risk. If you don't get your wheels/tires in the exact condition you were told they were in, then you return them and get your full money back. Seller/Paypal cover return shipping as well.
 

Grinder34

Track Monkey
As far as the wheel bearing is concerned, it sees no difference between a wheel that came with a particular offset, or one that achieves that offset with a spacer.

I'll also say that tons of people run spacers, lower offset wheels, etc... and its not as if wheel bearing failures are rampant.

It's like oil. Some people swear you can only use Rotella, others say AMSOIL, others say Redline, etc... or you'll wear out your engine too quickly! If you were a statistician and had perfect insight, you might be able to draw conclusions, but everything else is annecdotal.

And another options is to get used cheap rims for winter and use your current ones (with spacer) for summer.
 

Alin

Diehard Car Enthusiast!
As far as the wheel bearing is concerned, it sees no difference between a wheel that came with a particular offset, or one that achieves that offset with a spacer.

I'll also say that tons of people run spacers, lower offset wheels, etc... and its not as if wheel bearing failures are rampant.

It's like oil. Some people swear you can only use Rotella, others say AMSOIL, others say Redline, etc... or you'll wear out your engine too quickly! If you were a statistician and had perfect insight, you might be able to draw conclusions, but everything else is annecdotal.

And another options is to get used cheap rims for winter and use your current ones (with spacer) for summer.

It's settled! It's now time to add wheel bearings (directly under oil) to the list of topics to avoid discussion of!
 
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