Wheel Spacers???
 

Does anyone have any experience with these? I am toying with the idea of installing wheels spacers to change the stance of the vehicle for the summer. I will be running the stock OEM 20" wheels with the factory sport suspension that came with the car. I have never done this before so I am open to any suggestions and all comments and recommendations. Should I go equal thickness all the way around? If so what thickness would work well? Should I go staggered? If so what thicknesses? Should I not do this at all to avoid problems?

I would look at ECS tuning and see what they say ! i have run there spacers on other cars but not this one

My take on this, aside from any potential fender clearance issues, any time you change the geometry of the suspension by moving the wheels out, there will likely be some effect of handling balance and/or component stress effectiveness. Audi undoubtedly spends hundreds of computer design hours doing engineering geometry analysis to determine the best compromise in handling, durability and performance. Change one of the factors and it will affect the others to one degree or another.

Spacers are generally used on Audis to compensate for non-standard aftermarket wheels to match the different offsets. Not so much for appearance as might be found on those "boy racer" cars.

Personally, I try to avoid spacers. As pointed out, they change the geometry of the suspension and increase component wear. I keep cars for the long haul. I did come across this active thread about spacers on the C7 platform.

Which spacers to buy?

Actually that is the thread that started me pondering & researching this. ECS has really great info regarding the use, sizing and installation of spacers. They also go into the advantages and disadvtanges of offset and backspacing which I've posted below. For me it looks like the disadvantages outweigh the advantages at this point.


Advantages of changing wheel offset and backspacing:
1. Increased Track Width for improved handling.
2. Increasing the Track Width by decreasing positive offset creates more room inside the fender, allowing for wider wheels and tires,
providing greater traction.
3. Creates awesome looks and an aggressive “stance” for your car.
Disadvantages of changing wheel offset and backspacing:
1. Increased steering effort.
2. Accelerated tire wear.
3. Increased steering sensitivity to road shock.
4. Differences in traction on opposing sides.
5. Increased bearing wear.
6. Increased wear on ball joints, tie rod ends, and suspension bushings.
7. Fender clearance issues can arise.
8. Inner fender clearance issues can arise.

5 to 10mm spacers won't add much wear and tear to a street car. We ran up to 20mm spacers on our race cars to change handling characteristics. We did not see any significant change in the failure rate of wheel bearings or axles due to the spacers.

Note:
Our racing series dictated the width of our wheels so we made adjustments with spacers.

I run spacers. Just 6mm as I needed them for my winter set up. I actually leave them on for summer for the stance. If you do decide to go the route of spacers, make sure you invest the money in longer bolts as well. My bolts are 6mm longer than factory to compensate for the spacer.

I have been running 15mm H&R spacers all around on 19in stock rim (sport pkg)

I think 15mm is the max size you would want to go without damaging the wheel hub and bearing in the long run