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03-24-2009, 01:30 AM | #1 |
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spacers + wheel bearings = ?
I've been hearing bad things about spacers and wheel bearings. I don't know too much about the subject so someone please enlighten me. As far as I know the only analogy(not sure if it's right) that made sense to me was that if you hold a metal rod out and put weights on the opposite end of the rod you(your hand) will feel more stress, and this is what happens to the bearings. true? false? anyone?
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03-24-2009, 02:08 AM | #2 |
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Interesting topic, I'm interested as well as I was thinking about getting spacers also. With my background in mechanics and aerodynamics I'd think that your consern is accurate and it very well may induce more stress lateraly on the bearings. But I don't think 10mm spacers will make a huge difference but then again I'd really like to see how our M3 would hold up after say 10,000 miles with those spacers.
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03-24-2009, 09:18 AM | #4 |
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Because of levering effect.
With spacer, longer bolt or bolt conversion which will change physic calculation, such as the longer the level will be easier to lift up an object; provide more force to lift up an object. Under this situation, wheel bearings will be premature damage. Wheel bolt will under more level forces and spaces between wheel and hub will increase. Although you are using a very thin spacer, car is a very heavy object and traveling very fast, an exponents calculation. Last edited by Fanta; 03-24-2009 at 09:24 AM.. Reason: Physic Questiong |
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03-24-2009, 01:32 PM | #5 |
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^ what the heck did that say
Good topic. The longer lever arm obviously produces more torque on the bearings. However, wheel bearing are designed to take not only severe vertical but severe side loads as well, especially in a sports car. Think about the side load when cornering really hard. This effect will obviously be larger with larger spacers. My gut instinct about the phyiscs, along with the fact that spacers are so widely available and used says that premature bearing wear will not be an issue. You do see nearly the same effect with aftermarket wheels with differing offsets as well. Don't think this has caused many folks premature bearing wear either. Myself I do run spacers purely for looks reasons. In general they are kind of a "hack" but I am not ready to shell out the $ for wheels and tires quite yet. |
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03-24-2009, 01:51 PM | #6 | |
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03-24-2009, 03:16 PM | #8 |
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depends - if you use a spacer to return an aftermarket wheel to stock offset there should be no effect. if you put 25 mm spacers to get a lowrider rim sticking out look it will affect the bearings if you drive hard. if you are doing it for show and dont track the car its prolly no big deal.
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03-24-2009, 06:50 PM | #9 |
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Hunch, speculation or evidence of this? Where is the cut off point, 15, 20, 25? I suppose the latter question illustrates my point - there is not clear line in the sand on such issues, just shades of grey.
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03-24-2009, 07:08 PM | #10 | |
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If anyone feels the need to run higher - they should really look into buying wheels that fit the car, not cars that fit wheels.
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03-24-2009, 07:15 PM | #11 | |
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Lugs are another concern but the wheel bearing issue and lugs are a separate issue. You know the problem it is more with OEM wheels. OEM clearances are very generous for mud or snow or anything else and give poor looks. |
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03-24-2009, 07:23 PM | #12 | |
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Most times OEM wheels are going within a 12-15mm window from stock specs, not much at all.
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03-24-2009, 07:48 PM | #14 | |
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03-24-2009, 07:53 PM | #15 |
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I'm not understanding your question.
I'm simply stating that anything 20mm and under is completely safe and no cause for concern on bearings and/or lugs. If you should need more, simply consider getting the proper wheels to fit your car.
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03-24-2009, 08:11 PM | #16 | |
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the point is that a lot of people (including myself) will say that you are good with less than 10mm, or 15mm, or even 20mm, but that is not from actual experience or evidence, rather from common practice. 20mm could be a totally arbitrary number for all we know...it would be nice to have some real data, but i think there are simply too many variables.
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03-24-2009, 08:28 PM | #17 | |
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Past experience can be seen on e46 M3s, which are on their 8th year of seeing US roads with no ill effects of spacers within these thresholds. If referring to e9X M3s, there's not enough time to tell, but I doubt it would be drifting far from past models. Spacers are even a common mod of Ferraris that see track duty to increase track width. Staying under 20mm is perfectly fine, I would simply avoid going further than that if at all possible.
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03-24-2009, 08:30 PM | #18 |
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The only concern I would have with very large spacers is that you have a lot of bolt not threaded into the hub. With proper wheels you will only have a short amount of bolt before it is threaded in.
Just seems like there might be a lot of stress on the bolts, but I am no engineer so just guessing. I would have thought they would make bolts that were not threaded all the way to the top for added strength....Steve
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03-24-2009, 08:33 PM | #19 | |
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03-24-2009, 08:34 PM | #20 | |
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03-24-2009, 08:37 PM | #21 |
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I understand that part. It is more that you are relying on a lot of the bolt that is passing through the spacer not attached to anything....Steve
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03-24-2009, 08:49 PM | #22 | |
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To answer your question - Zero. However its not a risk we're up and willing to take, as you're close to doubling the stock shank length. On another note, H&R offers a particularly wide spacer (30mm) for X5s which allow the lugs to thread into the spacer itself (DRA Series), and no reports of damage since the models were introduced back in 2000, clocking quite a bit of miles to date.
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