11) 5mm Rear Spacers
Somethings been eating me up ref: stance since fitting the new 19's. As I was passing through Gloucestershire yesterday lunchtime I decided to pay Forge a visit and see what their recommendations were to put things right.
I'm lowering the front in March so I don't fancy looking into spacers until I see how it's sitting.
In the end after plenty of deliberation we decided on the 5mm spacer for the rears (non hub centric). The reason for this was with the wider RS3 alloys
(OEM RS3 rim 235/35/19 tyre on 8J ET50, standard S3 rim 225/40/18 7.5J ET56)
I couldn't run 11mm spacers as they'd been rubbing on the rears. By reducing the offset on the 11m spacers to 5mm it should just squeeze inside the arch without rubbing under every ****** compression.
Here is a 5mm spacer, and as it's thin enought to allow the wheel purchase on the OEM hub it has been designed with a 64mm internal aperture rather than 57.1mm hubcentric. This allows the spacer to clear the angled edge around the base of the wheel hub.
The easiest way to fit this as it doesn't sit square on the hub is to position your wheel on the jack about 5mm above road height. Then push 2 bolts through the wheel and push the spacer onto the back of the wheel. then push the wheel / spacer upto the hub and locate the 2 bolts. Saves any japery trying to get the spacer to stay fixed on the hub.
a) 5mm spacer; it's thin
b) In fact it's thinner than an iPhone 4
3) It might be thin, but it's still phat!
d) BEFORE SPACERS
e) AFTER SPACERING (Subtle difference)
f) You may think I'm a pedantic gheylord painting the hubs up, but check 'em after some winter salt; rust free (black spacer is the meat in the sandwich)!
Badger 5
As the spacers were only 5mm it was debatable whether they needed longer bolts, but as I was passing Badger territory I popped in to see Bill Brockbank where I met our very own resident ASN moderator Byzan, and the charming Mrs. B. I had a quick brew and grabbed some slightly longer wheel bolts from Bill's stockpile. They look late 30mm's (poss about 38mm), and they work a treat without catching the ABS ring.
Be warned there is a strange line on the floor in that garage that must be one of these Gloucestershire druid laylines. Once I walked over it I managed to lose a bag of wheel spacers (which turned out to be in my pocket), and my wallet which ended up down the side of my drivers seat. I think Bill was just a magician and they were playing tricks on my mind, or there was something 'special' in that tea!
So now they're fitted, what's the scores on the door?
Like a chimp-witted imbecile I'd optimistically put the famous arch liner screw back in the arch after rocking the 19's, and not a single rub had been heard since fitting them. The missus was happy, I was quietly pleased and all was good in la la land.
Last night, first speed hump (sccccrppp), worse than before with 18" wheels on 11mm spacers..... Grrrrrrrrrrrr. No prizes for my first job at lunchtime today. Screw back out. Any after that..... Lump hammer!
For those who believe my car is always clean check out the road salt from yesterdays trip to Cheltenham / Gloucester. Snow foam to the rescue!
PS: DJSherif, post #194 please don't hesitate to start a new post for your wheel question in the 8P section, it's far more likely to be answered as a new thread rather than buried in someone elses build thread
That should be it now until March 3rd when we get low....