Hey there,

Firstly, let me say that I've been reading the posts alot lately, and I appreciate all the knowledge you folks share with everyone. Thanks for that.

I have a question about spacers for my 2006 xA. I just ordered some 17x7.5 Rota Slipstreams and will be installing them in maybe a week.

My question:

What is the largest (widest) spacer that I can use with this setup? I've read about issues people have had with rubbing and wobbling. Obviously, I want to avoid this.



Thanks!

 

What's the offset of the wheel? Sometimes, running wider spacers will lead to wobbling so it's always best to order a wheel with the right offset and widths and not resort to spacers to push your wheel out.

Generally with that size rim, you'll be running 215/40/17 tire. When you mount the rim and tire, the two points you'll need to check are the rear control arm to see if the tire or rim is rubbing on it. If it is, than you'll need to get spacers or a shim in the rear. The second point is the front suspension perch, the top metal plate of the shock. On some rims and tire settings it may rub, but most of the time it should be fine.

On average, most aftermarket rims will probably need a 5mm spacer up front and a 10mm in the back to flush the wheels to the fenders.

Hope this helps!
~m-flo

 

If the offset is 40mm ish the fronts will be fine and just need the One Ton Garage spacers in the rear to help bring the rears out to closer match the fronts. The OTG spacers fit between the axle and brake backing plate and come with longer bolts in the kit. You will want to avoid spacers that go between the hub and the wheel because you will need to add longer studs and most spacers don't allow the use of the hubcentric rings. Also make sure to get and use hubcentric rings. They will center up the wheel with the hub and not make the lugs do all the work.

 

Thanks for the info, guys! I'll figure out the tires and give it a try!

 

Well, I'm going to order up some 15mm H&R spacers, and they come with longer wheel studs. I'm running an 18x7 with a 215/35/18 tire. You're running a .5" inch (13mm) wider wheel than I am, though. What size tires will you be running?

Maybe, eventually, we can all compile our spacer, wheel and tire data and get a "sticky" of what rubs and what doesn't. I asked about my setup, too but never really got a definitive answer.

 

So, since I'm obviously a total NOOB, what is a sticky? I've seen them posted, but how do they differ from normal posts?

I'll try to find out more secs on these blasted wheels.

 

Stickies stay at the top of the section. It takes a moderator to make a topic a sticky

 

Ah hah!

Here's the wheels I'm getting:

Rota Slipstream 17x7.5
offset = 45
hub bore 67.1mm

Falken Ziex 512 Tires - 215/40/17


Now, can anyone tell me whether I need spacers? If I don't 'need' spacers but decide to get some, what size should I get? And finally, will I avoid rubbing?

Thanks!

 

With a +45, I'd say to be on the safe side you will need spacers. Personally, I'd go with a 15mm spacer, which would reduce your overall offset to +30mm.

I can't comment on the rubbing.

 

Thanks for the reply. How does this offset thing work, anyway? I mean, my xA is totally stock right now. So I guess there's no offset - is that right?

The Rotas have a "+45" offset. What precisely does that mean? I'm obviously confused and kinda dumb...Thanks for your patience.

What is an ultimately safe offset for the xA? You know, to keep the wheel faces flush with the rest of the car?

So, when the wheel spec mentions an offset of +45, does that mean it's =45 toward the center of the axle? And Is that to compensate for the width of this particular 7.5 inch wide wheel?

Sorry for all the confusion. I really appreciate it.

 

This is a good article on offset from the Tire Rack: http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/tech/...jsp?techid=101

The factory xA and xB wheels have a +38mm offset. My wheels (see sig) are +40mm offsets. This means they'll be moved in towards the body 2mm more than the the stock wheels. Your wheels will be 7mm inwards. On the xA and xB, you have to worry about the inside of the rim hitting the suspension if you go more than a +42mm offset.

If you want to go conservitive, go with 10mm spacers. If yout want a little more of an agressive stance, you could probably run a 15mm no problem.

 

Nice! Now I'm finally getting somewhere. Thanks for the info, sushi. Nice Tuna and Shrimp, by the way....mmmmmmm.

 

Where's the hamachi? I'll take nigiri over maki any day

Agreed with the spacer... I have the same wheel specs and I'm 15mm (10mm shims+5mm spacers) out on the rears, no rubbing.

 

Indeed! The best part is that I'm a huge fan of salmon (sake) and Mackeral (saba) and those are the two cheapest nigiri in Japan! I end up eating CHEAPLY!

Thanks about the spacers. Here's what Van had to say about (our) setup:

"Hmmm, with the 7.5", +45mm wheel you will actually run into some clearance problems against the control arm, so you'll actually need to run some sort of spacer just to get the wheel/tire away from the suspension. Since you're also looking to get the wheels as flush as possible w/o having to roll the fender, you could run a stacked spacer shim set.... where you stack two hub spacer shims to get a total of 20mm of spacing. This gives you an effective offset of +25mm for the wheels, which should get you to where you want to go. As for the fronts, the only way to space the front wheels is to use wheel spacers.... a 5mm wheel spacer would be the simplest way to go, but if you wanted more spacing, like with a 10mm wheel spacer, you'd want to swap in longer wheel studs. This isn't as hard as it sounds, as a lot of guys have had good success using mid-90s toyota landcruiser studs (which you can easily get from any dealership). So if you went this route, you can run a 10mm wheel spacer in the front, giving you +35mm offset."

Really good info, me thinks!

 

One last thing...

Any help on 'hubcentric rings'? I need to know what size or type to get, so if you have any info that'd be SWEET.