How to PROPERLY Install Wheel Spacers
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ต.ค. 2024
- Are wheel spacers safe? Does the wheel spacer you use matter? What is hub centric? Today I will show how you how to install wheel spacers properly and safely. We will be installing 10mm Spacers in the front of my MK7.5 and 15mm Spacers on the rear. In addition to the right spacers, we look at using the proper length wheel bolts when installing spacers. Also using the proper bolts for the wheels you are using Conical Seat bolts or Ball Seat bolts.
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The last tip to add a set of factory bolts to the tool kit in the car is a must when you swap out the factory wheels with after market wheels or adding spacers. If you have to put on the spare tire which is usually a steel rims for VW it seems to work best with the factory bolts. You don't want to take a chance with your spare not being fitted correctly. Worse yet would be to have a good spare and not being able to use it because you have ate incorrect bolts.
You have no clue how much I appreciate these extremely informative videos of the Golf R. My wife and I have had 9 brand new VW's in a row, all leases, and since we've always had new cars, I've never really needed to learn how to work on cars. Now that I have my 2017 Golf R, I have an itch to start learning some mechanical-type stuff, and these (seemingly) easy/beginner jobs you're posting lately make me feel like I can actually get in there and turn some screws. Plus, it's an absolute pleasure to see your Yellow R. Thanks again for creating and sharing this content! I tell all my VW friends about your channel.
Glad you covered cone/ball seat lugs!
I see it wrong a lot. :(
If you have a car with ball seat stock and you get aftermarket wheels with cone seats your spare wheel will still need ball seat bolts. When I was getting a tire repaired I had to stop the guy installing it from using the wrong bolts.
An employee at Les Schwab legit tried to tell me I can use conical on my ball wheels
Maybe we should start making flushish kits ; )
Or lug bolts that actually work with the OE caps 🙃
Bryan Green that’s something we are looking at.
@@Deutscheautoparts or sell an all black kit.
@@aceventura2515 We already do that
Black GTI Kit
www.shopdap.com/wheel-spacer-flush-kit-for-mk7-gti-black.html
Black R Kit
www.shopdap.com/wheel-spacer-flush-kit-mk7-golf-r-black.html
@@bryangreen9889 The OE caps fit fine with the lug bolts that came with the flush spacer kit I bought from ECS Tuning.
Wife: So what are you going to do today?
Charles: Work on my cars, maybe do some mods
Wife: You work on your cars everyday :|
Charles: I know :)
Hahah pretty much nailed it.
Clams McGee same
Don’t get a wife who isn’t wife material bubba lol
Wtf is this shit.
@@futball24 indeed 🤨
Your timing is impeccable, doing nearly the same install Monday. 10mm Front, 17mm Rear because we’re doing a Stoptech ST-40 BBK and now I’m stoked because the rear looks WAY more aggressive
These new videos are a Golf R owners dream..thanks!
insane respect for you. At my shop we cant stress these points enough the washer style spacers are horrible, we've had customers almost have wheel offs because they arent hub centric or event lug centric . also, bonus brownies because you didnt go crazy with antiseize. so many people cake the bolts and hub.... its so annoying to clean after too!
For the Wheelbolt/Lugnuts, there is also a third version you can come across wich are Flat seat/Mag seat Lugnuts(usually with a rotatable washer pressed onto the lugnut). Those are quite often used by japanese manufacturers, like Mitsubishi, Toyota or Lexus for their OEM Alloys.
Funny how so many people understand that spacers affect suspension parts and geometry (true) but think fitting wheels with less positive offset does not (false).
Thanks, HumbleMechanic, for an excellent tutorial on safe vs unsafe spacers and the right way to install them.
Fact! 👏🏻
Finally bought a set for my '17 GTI, putting em on after our lunches at work today. Lift ftw! Also, FYI the wheel bolts now have the indent for using the factory cap tool as well.
Hope you guys enjoyed this video. Are you running spacers on your car?
Nope. I still don't know if I should switch to aftermarket alloys from the cheam oem steel wheels..
Awesome ride, the r32 remains my favourite
I ran them until pot holes destroyed all of my factory wheels. Now I have some fancy aftermarket wheels to wreck on my commute.
Both are Rad, but the R32 has that something extra special
No, afraid of damaging my fenders on a moderately lowered MKVI on coilovers. Overly paranoid?
Wow. I didn’t know how much I needed a wheel hanger. I swap between winters and performance, and I didn’t know a hanger was a thing until now. My back and legs will appreciate this lol
Just picked up a set of BLOX Sport from eBay, 10mm and 15mm good quality! Had a little bit of pain in the rear getting the extended lugs tightened down though..
Not only does the hub center wheel, but it also helps support the load of the car to transfer to the wheel properly. The lug nuts were not necessarily designed for that task. Non-hubcentric adapters have chance to break bolts.
Not really true. In a properly designed bolted joint ALL of the load is carried by friction between the mating surfaces. The purpose of the bolts is create clamp loading so that friction between the surfaces is adequate to carry ALL of the working load. The pilot diameter is there so that the wheel is properly centered it is not intended to carry any load.
If there is movement between the friction surfaces the bolts will eventually work their way loose. I have seen it happen many times.
I posted earliar but removed it after carefully reading your comments. Referring to load bearing.. it's safe to assume that bolts and hub acts in unison in resisting loads due to everyday driving. Best way to picture it is along the face of your wheel hub is a shear plane and anything that protrudes between that plane is subject to dead load of the vehicle and dynamic loads from road surfaces and suspension travel.
Friction surfaces in this case, the wheel hub and rim do not resist all the load transferred from the vehicle. As mentioned above regarding shear plane and anything in between the shear plane will resist and transfer the load between mounting surfaces. I hope this makes sense if not the best way I imagine this is a welded connection between a beam and column. The load is essentially going from beam to weld to column.
@@DR-nc8nc One of the best replies on the internet. Thank you.
I've been running Eibach Pro-Spacer 25mm/front and 45mm/rear on my Mustang for several months now and have no issues. I re-torqued them after the first 50 miles and everything is solid. I got them for both suspension clearance on the front (previous owner's mods) and appearance.
The way you work on your car gives me a FULL SATISFACTION , and feel like bringing my GOLF 8 for you to do brake kit upgrade , sadly I live in the U.K. can’t cross the Atlantic Ocean 🌊 with my golf 😀. Very organised, neat work and place .
Thank you!!!
Charles, you do excellent work. If I were a mechanic, I'd aspire to be at your level.
Thank you! Id recommend to aspire to be better. :)
Simply the best online technician. Thanks so much for your help.
Terrific video (as usual). I’m looking at doing my Mk8, and the owner’s manual states torquing the wheel bolts to 103 ft-lbs. Quite a difference from your 120 ft-lb recommendation.
Follow the manual!
Watching this in 2021...just ordered 10mm and 15mm hub centric spacers for my Audi A3. Will go well with the H&R springs!
Nice!!! Everyone thinks my r is lowered haha
Very good video! Would add one more check, if you are running longer wheel bolts, just spin the wheels while the car is up in the air, to make sure that the new
bolts are not too long and prevent the wheels from spinning :)
One thing not mentioned is the chamfer @1:36 on the mounting surface of the wheel...not all angled tapers fit all wheels especially aftermarket wheels. That angled taper at the base on the face of the wheel spacer changes depending on the thickness of the spacer and if your wheel won't fit completely flush to the spacer do not use that spacer. Notice the angled surface on your wheel @10:05 IF the spacer has to large of taper the wheel will not fit flush leaving a gap between wheel and spacer...you have to make sure the wheel sits flush to the spacer. VW stock wheels have a generous angled taper but many aftermarket wheels do not this includes hub centering rings too, many aftermarket wheels use hub centric rings. This is something that's easily overlooked and is not only dangerous but if you torque a wheel down that doesn't fit flush you can damage your wheel...Always aways always check fitment of spacer to wheel before mounting to car and of course spacer to brake hub.
Should have put the spacer on the wheel and stuck a wheel bolt through both to show how many threads go into the hub with standard and extended wheel bolt
Bought 255s for my '99 A4 B5 today (50 mm wider than stock). Got the cheapo spacers from the local parts store. Amazon ordered some longer studs. Payed $100
I just used a hammer and beat my fenders down and in...flush and no wheel gap done with one tool; no jack required. Thx charles, always a pleasure.
Hahaha
@@HumbleMechanic... Glad to know that you know I'm joking. Those universal spacers look like they go to a full size (8-bolt) truck; that center bore is ridiculous.
Damn Charles , that car hasn't even seen rain yet. Did you make this video the day you got it?
Hahha it has seen 1 night drive and once rain. 😂
Just made my Rabbit GTI wheels flushish last week. Looks much better now.
Age and Treachery I was thinking about getting these for mine. Are they close to rubbing anywhere? I don’t want to have to take em off when I go lower
@@fuxidy No rubbing with stock wheels at stock ride height. Got 12.5mm in front and 20mm in back. Slightly less than flush in the front and even more room in the back. Can't say for certain they won't rub with a drop but I would say it most likely would not.
Great video Charles but I would be very interested if you could do a follow up on this. Just how your experience of the spacers have affected the handling of the car. As I believe you will now have a positive scrub radius and most front wheel drive cars tend to run negative scrub radius as far as I know. The reason I ask is twofold firstly I would value your opinion, secondly I have 16mm spacers on the back of my van as I have slightly wider tyres on it and they were rubbing on the inner wheel arch when cornering with a load and just to match up I would like to fit the same size spacers on the front. Many thanks for all the videos.
I going to have to create a playlist for when i get my Golf R next year.
Dooo itttt!!!!😎
Looks so much better with the spacers!
It’s so subtle but looks good
Charles! I've been working on cars for 15 years, I've learned that you always use some anti-seize on the bolts, else they can stuck very hard in the hub/rim..? Any reason NOT to use it on the bolts? Love the channel and the content!
Killin' it with these how to's.
Thank you!
I have a 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0l and I put 2 inch in the front and rear.
Awesome video dude. Thanks for all the info. I've ordered the Eibach Pro Spacer 10mm per wheel for my Leon 1.8 FR mk3.5. I'll combine them with Eibach Sportline lowering springs. Hope not to regret it.
Just ordered this kit too, arriving in a few days.
I like the flush look but it also makes the car seem higher so I’d only put spacers if lowering the car as well. That wheel gap looks massive when wheels come closer to the fender.
I felt a heavier steering and turn effort with 10mm in front. It changed suspension geometry in some way.
The wheel lug torquing was also very less sure. I had to torque 3-4 times with proper final number whereas just once without spacers. I had cleaned all mounting surfaces first of course. Does not make for confidence when the wheels don't torque perfectly the first time.
I haven't really noticed a change with the 10/15 I installed. But to be fair I have not really pushed her much
@@HumbleMechanic i haven't found anyone else that did. but my steering def required more effort, and also returned to center more strongly. I'm super picky I guess, I love the oem suspension feel, and don't like anything changing it.
Great Vid Charles. Hit every mark! Look to 'McGard' if one wishes to put the Wheel Lock Lug Bolts back. Have gotten lucky with correct Seat style, Thread Diameter and Pitch, and Shank Length for with or without Spacers.
You should do video on stud and nut kits too :) love the videos
Very nice video. Kinda wish you would have covered removal of studs for lug nuts as well but still very good for owners of vehicles with bolts. Also, your car is super clean, some may have to use some brake cleaner or sea foam to remove corrosion or carbonic buildup on the rotor face to get that nice seal and prevent the dirt from disjointing the plate.
That’s a nice car! I like these highly detailed videos with a lot of cool tips and info!
If I may suggest, providing a follow-up video showcasing the spacer vs stock look from 15-30ft away would really capture the difference in look.
I tried. You could barely tell in a picture
@@HumbleMechanic Thank you for the response! I also failed to realize how old the video was and thought it was very recent, woops! Keep up the awesome vids please!
Great vid, youre really here to help people out. Loved the 5 factory bolt idea at the end, great suggestion
Beautiful car. Nice to see you support shopDAP. A buddy at work has a mk3 in that color. Looks amazing on the R!!!!!!!!
Yesss!!! The mk3 Ginster is awesome.
Great video of showing how spacers should be installed
Definitely picking up a wheel hangar for my Scirocco project. I need to run pretty wide spacers to clear the wider track tires. 225 whereas the stock is 185.
OMG I just found out from my AC guy that 1. We have the same AC guy and 2. You live less than four miles from me. I've been a fan of yours for years lol... Our AC guy was checking out my MK5 R32 and asking me if I'd ever heard of you (which of course lol).
Oh man that’s awesome. I’ve been thinking about adding heat/AC to the garage and was going to call him for estimates. How crazy man.
ECS makes a slick lug nut conversion for 5x112/MQB, they support up to a 15mm spacer I think!
I use quarter inch spacers in the front to prevent the spokes of my wheels from contact with the brake calipers.
that is such a cool grey car
The new bolts with the DAP kit have a dimple, and removing the cap is easy with the cap removal tool.
Also, the cap for the security bolt won't fit the new extended bolt, so you will need to order 4 new ones.
Explained it better than fitment industries.
Thank you for the wheel bolts tip.
Decided to put some sexy TT wheels on my A4, no problems until I went to put on brakepads lol. Shop that put on my wheels said their half an inch narrower than stock. Stuck now deciding what to do. Thanks
Hitting the strut assembly?
HumbleMechanic No the calipers. We had the new brakes all installed ready to go but when we went to roll out of the garage the caliper clip popped off and the car wouldn’t move, scuffed them up from the back as well 😕Always double check your work!!
HumbleMechanic After watching this definitely going with hub-centric. Just not sure what size I’m looking for yet..
You make me love owning a golf
AWESOME!
Very informative and I just installed mine yesterday, unfortunately I have done it wrong the first time and can't afford to fix it 😅 Maybe next time.
Wut u do
Personally i put a couple thin dabs of silver antiseize near the hubcentric ring for easy removal and corrosion prevention.
I had to cut a small section of the fender liner out on my R because it was rubbing the right rear wheel. But I guess spacers will fix the problem too. Idk if you noticed that. If you were sitting in the back seat, you could hear a rubbing noise when the car was making a left.
You can use heat shrink on the sockets to protect the wheels as well
I like that method. I’ve always used cheap shrink so it never lasts. Lol
So Charles, what’s your thoughts on wheel spacer/hub adapters that change your car’s lug pattern?
Put the ECS flush kit on mine. Really improves the appearance.
It's scary to think that people might actually use those universal spacers. Also, I think those wheels look good without the wheel bolt covers on.
I use them, it's somewhat inconvenient but nothing too terrible. It's the best I could get because my summer wheels have a 72.6 mm hub and the hub itself is 57.1. Finding hub-centric spacers for this particular combination of diameters is problematic.
My golf with 8 inch wide rims looks ok without any spacer. Instead of spacer i rather prefer a larger wheel
I'm using 8mm spacers on my GSW because I'm running 17" Ronal Goals (ET 54) with summer tires and the offset is different from stock (ET 43). The wheels are pushed out enough that they look so much better than the stock wheels I'm running with winter tires.
That’s the set up I have for my mk7.5 GTI, with stock wheels.. great minds think alike
Great video, thanks for the awesome tool recommendations 🤙
45 degree pattern wheels point front and back
from one side to the other of the car.
I like 90 degree patterns wheels just for that reason.
I may do this to my gti 😊
Flushish sounds coo bro I’m running 5mm on my 2019 GLI 245/40/19 x9.0 seats perfect rears only
If it helps, I bought H&R "high quality" wheel spacers in just 10mm, hub centric, and they bent hitting a pot hole, nothing drastic and no damage to anything but the spacer, that is not good, thankfully a realized because I rotated my tires. Investigating, turns out that H&R which are supposed to be good quality, are CNC machines from an unspecified alloy, that is not good, so this time I ordered a new set but made sure they where FORGED from 7075 T6 Alloy, I will never instal spacers if they dont fit those specifications
The main problem caused by spacers in the front is the altering of scrub radius. The inside tire has to turn sharper than the outside tire when you widen the track (add spacers).
What a coincidence, those black R calipers look just like the red S calipers on my S3... 😁😉
😳😳😳😂😂
Very good advice. Can't fault it!
thank you
What about installing a locking wheel bolt. What’s the solution if you still want to protect your wheels from theft? Great vids btw 👍
Most people do a stud conversion. I assume they also have longer wheel locks too.
Just don't use the VW ones. Pieces of junk.
Excellent video sir! Very concise and informative!
Fun to see how you take wheels of the car vs how i do it in a vw garage i have a air driven impact driver and just zip 4 of the 5 lugnuts lose and put my hand in the center and zip the last one out, put the gun away and take the weel of and we have protected soccets but the wheel locking nut from the car is almost never protected so we don't bother about it bc it is a one time occurrence every few months
Correct me if I'm wrong, increasing the rear track in relation to the front even by 5mm seams like it would increase understeer...
Car Nut yap, thats is correct. And thats why most people think that after they put wheel spacers at a rear of a FTW car (most of them have a narrow rear track just because the understeer question) the car get million miles better. Its actually slower, but the wider rear track had help with increased security feeling (stability)
I've heard that spacers can cause issues with the wheel bearings due to a shift in the offset. It would be great if you would go into that a little.
No question that a wheel spacer increases the overturning moment on the wheel bearings and thus shortens the life of the bearings. With 10 or 15 mm spacers this may not be that significant.
Question! Should the wheel spacers be the same front and back for AWD cars?
Antiseize on the mating surface is a big NO-NO. same principle as your comment about rust on the mating surface. Can cause the wheel and spacer to not sit perfectly flush.
Do a video on stud conversions
I bought my spacers from the renowned H&R german brand, expensively made in germany, and the hub centric lip bent on the first low speed pot whole, not a major hit, thankfully I noticed it when rotating my wheels. I bought a known brand to make sure I got quality, but it turns out H&R makes their spacers from an unknown alloy (very soft) and are machined not forged, thats not good. Now I bought some chinese brand, they are 7075T6 alloy and Forged, (I just recently learned about aluminium alloys and what 7075 plus T6 mean), Im pretty impressed, they look better quality and are even lighter, also if I bang them agains each other, the H&R end up with a deep very noticeable mark, like potty, you can tell theyre really soft, but the forged spacer dont even have a mark, nothing, its pretty drastic. Nobody talks about alloys or forging on spacer videos, yet its the most important aspect when choosing spacers.
WOW Sad to hear about H&R. I love their stuff.
Better off getting Eibach next time. Other H&R products, like their springs, have been known to snap sometimes in the last few years.
Nice upgrade! I just suscribe to your channel humble mechanic, I been watching you and Jason or quite some time! Great work by the way!
Hey wanna to ask, what is the best option to buy a vw GTI, golf or golf turbo, which hach is the best and most reliable? Thanks and advance!
Great tutorial, as always! 😎
Did you get any vibrations with them? I think the prep and high quality spacers are needed to avoid vibrations.
Just as an FYI; the lugs are 'dimpled' now so the original lug bolt caps are easily removed with the hook t9ol.
Awesome
Charles, I freaked out a little bit when I saw you impact out the puzzle style wheel lock
And then I realized you already loosened them in the previous video
For a minute there I didnt know what to do with all the confusing feelings welling up inside of me
I didn’t loosen them. ;) zipped them out with the impact as I have done thousands of times. And these locks are probly never going back. Haha
@@HumbleMechanic GAAH!! Blasphemy!
Thanks for the great video. Question, how does one pick the correct spacers. I have a 2019 Jetta GLI 35 and would like to do the same. Would the 15 and 10 mm be as safe bet.
Yep. That’s exactly what I used
do we need longer bolts even for only 10mm?
This guy is an absolute mensch 😎
This probably a dumb question Charles but I notice you use your torque wrench by pulling up rather than pushing down. Is this method more accurate when using a click type torque wrench?
Wheel hangers how many years have I changed wheels without them! You should make this video ten years ago!
Question: 9:10 where you say the 10mm go in the front, and that you have to go at least 15mm at the rear: I didn't fully understand the exact reason for this difference. Do you mean the hubs at the rear differ from the ones at the front? If yes: I presume that's not the case for ALL car makes and models?
I feel like every time I watch a video the beard is an inch longer. I’m genuinely impressed and jealous, keep lettin it grow!
Hahah mayyyyybbbeeee 😜
I love the look. Wouldn't this increase the likelihood of stone chips to the painted surfaces behind the wheels? I'm really not a fan of the protective flaps. Congrats on the car purchase. I really am enjoying your videos.
The car is getting mud flaps. I don’t like them either but she gets mad dirty on the sides.
Rokblokz or rally armor?
@@Tony-wd5xp I have had Rockblokz for 2 years and 2 Canadian winters. They have held up perfectly and reduce the side spray noticeably. Just make sure you adjust them wide enough!
What's your take on swapping the VW lug bolts for studs like on American cars. It sure would make it easier to take the tire off and on. Wouldn't adding spacers change the geometry on the suspention and create more wear, especially on bearings?
not holding/supporting the head of the torque wrench can materially affect accuracy of the torque
Do you know if they sell wheel locks that will be the same length, thank you Charles
shrink some heat shrink tube over the key lock, it stays permanent on there....that's what I did :)
I was wondering if the caps would still fit on the lug studs. Bummer that they will likely cause headaches lol