Spacers, eibach springs

Jooboi89 · Post by **Jooboi89** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 8:28 am

Heyi am awaiting 20mm backs and 15mm hubcentric spacers, but im wondering whether these will be ok after speaking with a fellow zed driver...

I have lowered my e85 facelift with eibachs, the wheels are 18inch and currently sit inside of the wheel arch.

Any advice welcome, dont want to have to send them back to be fair!

ben g · Post by **ben g** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 8:50 am

Depends what wheels you have fitted.

I have 12mm front and 20mm rear spacers on mine with no issues.

davros · Post by **davros** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 9:01 am

Hi, I’d be interested to know this too. I’m running 108 style wheels with a B12 lowering kit. I was thinking of getting 20mm rear and 15mm front like the OP but not sure if they will rub or not ...

MACK · Post by **MACK** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 9:08 am

Jooboi89 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 17, 2018 8:28 am Heyi am awaiting 20mm backs and 15mm hubcentric spacers, but im wondering whether these will be ok after speaking with a fellow zed driver...

I have lowered my e85 facelift with eibachs, the wheels are 18inch and currently sit inside of the wheel arch.

Any advice welcome, dont want to have to send them back to be fair!

This wont be what you want to hear but adding spacers may give you tramlining and other issues etc. Due to the changes to the scrub radius.

I'm not trying to scaremonger but I had the same spacers on mine and did notice a few issues when i fitted them. However I put that down to poor alignment due to doing various things to it such as fitting M spec tyres, eibachs and B4s as well as new trailling arm bushes and front arm rear bushes etc. Before I got it aligned I wanted to mess around with the other springs available as I still wasn't happy with the ride and eventually settled on SE springs. I then tried a number of wheel tyre combos. then I noticed one of the wishbones was shot so fitted a pair of Meyle HD new ones. As you can probably gather this lot dragged on for ages and ages one way or another and I eventually got it aligned a few weeks or so ago.

Post alignment the tramlining/bump steer etc was still there I did initially think it was due to the tyres being worn funny due to all the changes/repairs I'd made. Then I got thinking back to my Uni days 20 years ago and remembered about Steering Angle Inclination and Scrub Radius etc. Why I'd not thought about it when buying the spacers in the first place god knows!
For those that dont know, fitting spacers or wheels of a different offset has a massive impact on the factory scrub radius and too much scrub radius (especially positive, but also negative to a lesser degree) can give you a host of issues.

I removed my spacers last week and my issues have virtually disappeared.

My advice would be to try the spacers now you've bought them and if you have no issues then great. 15/20MM spacers will fit on eibach or B12 equipped cars without issues (providing you shockers aren't totally knackered) and you using factory wheels. Plenty are running them on zeds or wheels with different offsets to standard. Tyre choice can have a massive impact on issues like tramlining etc with grippier and harder side wall tyres usually worse. But you may well also find that you start to get issues as your tyres become more and more worn so if you do whip the spacers off first before condemning the tyres.

aquarianone · Post by **aquarianone** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 10:10 pm

Just be willing to experiment to find what works for your setup.

I've got the b12 kit fitted on the e86.

On 18" mv3's I went with 15 mm front and 20 mm rear.

The 20s stuck out way too much and I eventually settled with 12 front and 15 rear.

It's also worked out well since upgrading to 19s 313 reps. (et40 all all around)

Just check clearance on the front on full lock, it was a pretty tight squeeze not rubbing the inner arches.

DaveD · Post by **DaveD** » Tue Sep 18, 2018 9:02 pm

Mack - very interesting point. I'm toying with the idea of spacers as i think it will make a meaningful difference to the look of my car, but the exact same concern has been in my mind. I'm not too far away from having a setting i'm happy with on the coupe now, with c31psi in the front tyres and around 3mm of rotation on the steering column adjustment giving the car relatively little in the way of tramlining, whilst still keeping responsive steering. However spacers will by definition put more pressure on the geometry of the front suspension.

To those in the know, would poly bushes help here? They'd give a tighter front end so perhaps counteract some of the negative effects of the spacers on scrub radius? This would be at the expense of NVH but perhaps a compromise?

MACK wrote: ↑Mon Sep 17, 2018 9:08 am This wont be what you want to hear but adding spacers may give you tramlining and other issues etc. Due to the changes to the scrub radius......

MACK · Post by **MACK** » Wed Sep 19, 2018 12:30 pm

DaveD wrote: ↑Tue Sep 18, 2018 9:02 pm Mack - very interesting point. I'm toying with the idea of spacers as i think it will make a meaningful difference to the look of my car, but the exact same concern has been in my mind. I'm not too far away from having a setting i'm happy with on the coupe now, with c31psi in the front tyres and around 3mm of rotation on the steering column adjustment giving the car relatively little in the way of tramlining, whilst still keeping responsive steering. However spacers will by definition put more pressure on the geometry of the front suspension.

To those in the know, would poly bushes help here? They'd give a tighter front end so perhaps counteract some of the negative effects of the spacers on scrub radius? This would be at the expense of NVH but perhaps a compromise?

MACK wrote: ↑Mon Sep 17, 2018 9:08 am This wont be what you want to hear but adding spacers may give you tramlining and other issues etc. Due to the changes to the scrub radius......

To be honest I think poly bushes would probably amplify the effects of the scrub radius being altered. There would be less compliance in the steering and suspension, in the same sort of way lower profile tyres or runflats do with less/harder sidewalls etc. I think going down this route you would feel more of the tramlining at the steering wheel.

Jooboi89 · Post by **Jooboi89** » Wed Sep 19, 2018 12:55 pm

Just an update FYI!

The car is sitting really well, it looks cool. Standard 18 inch mv2's, Eibach 30mm lowering springs, 20mm on back 15mm on front, no scrubbing and drives well so far.

Changed the chrome surround grill for full gloss black too, what a difference.

JB

philbo909 · Post by **philbo909** » Wed Sep 19, 2018 1:31 pm

Jooboi89 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 19, 2018 12:55 pm Just an update FYI!

The car is sitting really well, it looks cool. Standard 18 inch mv2's, Eibach 30mm lowering springs, 20mm on back 15mm on front, no scrubbing and drives well so far.

Changed the chrome surround grill for full gloss black too, what a difference.

JB

Jooboi89 · Post by **Jooboi89** » Wed Sep 19, 2018 1:42 pm

Some very quick piccies lol. Couldn't get great angle and its pissing down

: image_6483441.JPG (221.77 KiB) Viewed 1418 times

: image_6483441 (1).JPG (224.64 KiB) Viewed 1418 times

: image_6483441 (2).JPG (177.81 KiB) Viewed 1418 times

JB

wilson14 · Post by **wilson14** » Wed Sep 19, 2018 2:18 pm

Jooboi89 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 19, 2018 1:42 pm Some very quick piccies lol. Couldn't get great angle and its pissing down

image_6483441.JPG

image_6483441 (1).JPG

image_6483441 (2).JPG

JB

Looks great

Jooboi89 · Post by **Jooboi89** » Wed Sep 19, 2018 2:24 pm

wilson14 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 19, 2018 2:18 pm
Jooboi89 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 19, 2018 1:42 pm Some very quick piccies lol. Couldn't get great angle and its pissing down

image_6483441.JPG

image_6483441 (1).JPG

image_6483441 (2).JPG

JB
Looks great

Thanks man!

philbo909,

Here you go!

philbo909 · Post by **philbo909** » Wed Sep 19, 2018 2:43 pm

Sorry for making you get out in the rain, but they do look spot on

davros · Post by **davros** » Wed Sep 19, 2018 3:41 pm

looks great and I like the new black grills too

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