Kayaker

I had 10mm spacers installed on my car this morning. When I called my shop to see how it was going, he said no rubbing but a little vibration at higher speeds due to the spacers not being hub centric. I asked him to take them off. I raised the hieght a little to keep from scraping the lip all the time and thought the spacers would help fill out the wheel wells.

My mechanic told me that all spacers under 15mm lack the mass to be hub centric and therfore some vibration can be expected. I wish he had told me before I ordered them from him and had them installed.

Do those of you with spacers less than 15mm notice any vibrations?

Silver_Patrone

thats what i did....

8Rings

Your mechanic is less than properly informed (read idiot). H&R has Hubcentric spacers all the way down to 3mm. I've put 8mm hubcentrics on the old A4 and absolutley 0 vibration at all speeds.

Now, to be fair, I put non-hubcentric 10mm on a VR6 Jetta I had and couldn't get the thing over 40 without getting my fillings rattled out. So at least you mechanic is not lying about that.

See Mike at purems for H&amp;R kits that include the correct bolts.<ul><li><a href="http://www.purems.com">http://www.purems.com</a</li></ul>

Kayaker

He used H&amp;R spacers. I told him that I heard from this forum that H&amp;R makes hub centric down to 3mm. Here is his reply:

Well, it's a bit of tricky marketing. They call them hubcentric as they themselves center on the brake hub, however, the wheel isn't hubcentric on the spacer. So, not until you go with at least a 15mm spacer at least does the spacer itself have enough of a 90deg edge on the end of the spacer to allow the centerbore/hub of the wheel to fit completely on the nose of the spacer.

I actually really trust the shop I go to. It's in Portland, OR and Porch, Audi, and VW owners come from as far away as Seattle to Bend and won't let anyone else touch their rides.

When I pick the car up in about an hour, he's going the show me the difference between a 10mm and 20mm on a wheel in the shop.

PDXA4

I've gone there on several occasions before, him and his son are very good people...Totally trustworthy and I would leave any expensive set of wheels there without worry...

I wish I was close to that place now...

8Rings

while 3mm is pretty thin the spacers I've seen from H&amp;R have a wheel side bevel that will center the wheel to the spacer. You probably won't get to a 90deg lip until you get to a thick spacer but I'm not sure the 90deg is "required" for centering.

I was under the impression you had flat, non-hubcentric spacers. All I can say is I've had wobbles using the flat ones and no wobbles using the beveled type.

April

No problems.

Skyler@Achtuning.com

That size typically has no built-in hubcentering surface for the wheel or just a small cone (which has to exactly fit your particular wheel), the 5mm and lower sizes are thin enough that the factory hubcentering surface pokes through enough to center the wheel.
Sometimes if your wheels use hub-centering rings you can flip the centering ring around and gain an extra 3mm or so of surface that would otherwise be lost by the chamfer.

bbbradley

Properly installed spacers (assuming they are well made) shouldn't vibrate regardless of hub-centric or not.

I have a second set of wheels for the Miata that have a centerbore larger than the hub, I have spacers to make it easier to center them, but I've run them without spacers with no problems. You can't just slap the wheels on and go, you need to ensure they are centered as you install them. Once the wheels are torqued down there is enough friction to hold the wheels centered.