GezP

iTrader: (23)

Evening all

I was thinking of getting some wheel spacers for my 06 wrx. TBH it's a cosmetic thing. I've got 17" dare st wheels and personally not over keen on how they sit so far inside the arches.

Advice on please:

Will this effect handling etc? Last thing I want to do is ruin the handling and performance I've spent a fortune achieving

What spacers would people recommend? Happy to spend the money on quality, I was thinking of the ultralight 25mm spacers

All advice please, thanks

CHOLTON

If your hell bent on the things I think you can get spacers that bolt to the hub and then the wheel bolts to them , not 100% sure as ive never bought any . I imagine they put extra strain on suspension components because of the weight of the wheel moving further away .

Someone with far superior knowledge to me will be able to explain better im sure !

GezP

iTrader: (23)

cheers, i was thinking of the ones that bolt on and then bolt the wheels to the spacers. Was gonna avoid the cheap discs you can get for a couple of quid off ebay

dunx

iTrader: (3)

IMHO you can't have a wideboy-yank look and decent steering feel/handling.

As you alter the front steering geometry by adding 25mm spacers you will reduce the "feel" at the steering wheel. It may actually handle better and grip more, but not that you will feel through your fingers...

dunx

P.S. Silly offset wheels have a similar effect.

BlobEyedRex

Increasing the track will improve handling but is also dependent on other suspension mods and geometry set-up, also 05>newages have the widest track of all newages anyway.

It will increase bearing wear but probably no more than if you went with wheels with a lower offset e.g stock is ET53 & you then fit wheels with an offset of ET43 this will have the affect of pushing your rim face further out and as mentioned earlier it may improve some things and then have negative effects for others.

If you do go for it then go with this style
http://www.cdfracing.co.uk/index.php...d6320f55cbb8bc
you may have to cut/grind original studs down so as wheels will fit if the wheels dont have recesses on the hub face between stud holes (my OZ have this, but whether their deep enough is another ?)

simple plate spacers will require new longer studs fitting, and this can be a pain on the front as the ABS tone ring etc. gets in the way stopping you from knocking old studs out & you can find bearing is knackered or gets knackered when removing the hub

I've been thinking about trying this myself but £180 to find out & get the answers to above questions is whats holding me out as I can think of many things that £180 would buy that I know would improve my scooby such as Adj. rear anti roll bar.

GezP

iTrader: (23)

thanks for the advice guy's. sort of understand most of it. Its scares me about extra bearing wear.

dunx - not after the yank look. even though I do like some of the huge width rota wheels its not really the look I'm after. I prefer the race / rally look - british style

All i wanted to do is bring the wheel line slightly further out towards the wheel arch.

BlobEyedRex: I've heard good things about cdfracing, if I do these might be the badboys

The only handling mods I have so far are, tein front and rear strut brace and bc coilovers.

Within the next year or two I'm planning on doing a few track days, nothing major just a hobby thing ( wife says its my midlife crisis ) so - whats the best thing for this? leave it well alone, spacers or just bigger wider wheels?

cheers

BlobEyedRex

As said it should give positive handling benefits but you will need to get geometry re-setup, which means like my current setup you get more negative camber on the wheels well the top of the wheel moves inboard with that so even after moving them out with spacers you won't get that flush look

Unlike 2WD our cars have some unusual setups such as the high offset for wheels, now why would subaru do that? must be a good reason

If spacers do have negative effects or you just don't like how it now handles after fitting them has not only wasted £180 but also you would then need to get the now cut down studs replaced and issues already mentioned about removing hubs come into play again increasing costs even more.

Personally I'd spend that money on a known proven mod such as adj. ARB perfect for track days as well

my current 17" OZ P1WRC wheels have offset ET52, now checking face edge to wing tip it's only about 1.5cm which is nothing really & taking into account the negative camber set, I think the effect your also seeing is probably made worse by our cars having big accentuated wings compared to alot of other cars .

My reasons for the spacers were to increase the track for performance but that's from experience of doing so with 2WD

GezP

iTrader: (23)

cheers, didn't realise that it would gain negative camber on the top of the rear wheels. The complete opposite of what I'm after - the guy's going for the low yank look, their cars look like they're too heavy for the wheels.

thanks for the advice dunx and blobeyedrex, think I've seen the light. Last thing I wanna do is potentially ruin what I've got.

BlobEyedRex

the negative camber is essential if it's been lowered & good for track setup which is why i mentioned it, IT's not a by product of just fitting spacers

although you will need to get geometry setup after pushing the wheel that far out as suspension is dynamic

Not sure how much you've had car lowered but if it's around the 25/30mm range & you've not had the geometry configured for it go get it done and give them these settings to base from
For a DCCD-A car: -

Front Camber (make sure it's equal side to side)

Minimum -1° 10’ Preferred -1° 15’ "Track" -1° 20’ / -1° 30’

Front Toe-in (Total) Minimum 0° 02’ Preferred 0° 06’ Maximum 0° 10’

Front Caster Standard Subaru (more is good)

Rear Camber Standard Subaru (make equal side to side if at all possible)

Rear Toe-in (Total) Minimum 0° 06’ Preferred 0° 10’ Maximum 0° 14’

Thrust angle Minimum -0° 01’ Preferred 0° 00’ Maximum 0° 01’

Non DCCD-A car is the same accept: -

Front Toe-in (Total) Minimum 0° 00’ Preferred 0° 01’ Maximum 0° 03’

Rear Toe-in (Total) Minimum 0° 02’ Preferred 0° 6’ Maximum 0° 10’

GezP

iTrader: (23)

cheers, maybe I've not really noticed the camber I have. I did have it all set up when I had the coilovers fitted at scoobyworld and before I take it on the track I'm gonna get Paul at Zen to re-do it as I've heard he's the nuts at it and totally **** at getting it spot on

dunx

iTrader: (3)

Don't fear -ve camber, I run loads and it's fine on the road and track.

A wider wheel/tyre combination with the correct offset will increase grip, I run 235/35/19 R888's on a 8 x 19 OZ alloy, the offset is 44mm, but as the wheel is wider the actual steering is little affected overall. My problem was the square tyre shoulders required rear arch mods (bug-eye STI) but the grip is astonishing.

HTH

dunx

BlobEyedRex

Got round to checking space from wheel/tyre to inside edge of wings, this is with 17x7 ET 52
front 10mm gap to lip edge
Rear 8mm gap to lip edge
So with the smallest of the hub centric spacers which have fitted studs being 15mm it's push wheels to far out (unless WRC bodykit fitted). So only option is the thinner spacer plates but then you'll need to fit the extended studs + need to unsure the plates if alloy have been hardened so they don't compress unevenly when tightening the wheel nuts

So safe options which I'm going for will be 17x7.5 ET48 (18x7.5) with a 225 tyre
If 8" wide as in other post ET43/44 good
But always worth going to a fitter and testing wheel fitment, as different styles may not be big brake friendly, OZ, Rota, Inovit, team dynamics have a good choice of styles, offset suitable for scoobs

GezP

iTrader: (23)

thanks for the advice guy's. gonna have to try a few wheel and tyre combo. Tim at scoobyparts said he could help with different widths / sizes etc

cheers