15 replies to this topic

[lewis]

as the title says, do spacers make a great amount of diffrence to handling and anything else, and does the size i.e 1 inch thick make a diffrence to driving compared to half inch spacers?

just pondering on the idea, thanks yalll :cheese:

[Mincento]

if you read the posts that people have put on my topics then yes 1" spacers make a major difference

[lewis]

cool thanks clubbyman looks like il read on

[bluebottle]

i have 1" spacers on the back of my jem, and because the front has cooper 's' brakes, its effectively 3/4" wider than a standard car, and it the handling is still brilliant, i can still out corner most modern cars, and most ordinary mini's, so i'm not sure how fitting spacers is meant to ba bad for handling!

[siggy]

The problem with spacers is that if you go too wide then that upsets the steering geometry and the handling.

I would consider 1 inch to be the max with drum brakes and none with disc's as there is no need

Siggy

[Dan]

Bluebottle, if your car has discs at the front it is supposed to be spaced out by 1" at the rear. This can be done with a traditional spacer or with spacered drums. If you are saying that you have spacer drums and 1" spacers as well, then you will chew up wheel bearings but otherwise all is as it should be.
This is all because the disc setup is already nearly an inch each side wider than the original design of the suspension, which is also why most of us think that Clubbyman's spacers should head for the skip and why the Cooper S needed to run reverse rim wheels to keep the tyres under the wings.

[bluebottle]

i know all that, but there have been several blanket statements on here saying "spacers are bad!" and "stay away from spacers" etc. as you say dan , depending on your set up, depends how good or bad spacers are (i'm on minifins rear, with 1" spacers, 's' discs up front), people should clarify things instead of making hysterical statements about spacers, when they have little or no knowledge of them.

i mean if spacers were that bad, then the manufacturer wouldn't fit them as standard, and they wouldn't be allowed in motorsport.

[miniman5]

i heard the damage some tihng am i right??

[Dan]

Hysterical statements? Ok, I see what you mean. Yes it probably was a bit of a knee jerk reaction but the spacers we were all reacting to are 2" thick and fitted to a car with disc brakes remember! The wheels on that car are now getting on for 3" further out than originally designed which is madness. As you say Bluebottle it is all about suspension setup. You could correct for those 2" spacers by spending lots of time and money but on Clubbyman's car none of this has been done and his car as a result is fairly dangerous.

[tom]

I read somewhere that 12" or 10" wheels with disks and 1" spacers do a lot less damage to the suspension geometry and wheel bearings that fitting 13" wheels. Is this right?

[Mincento]

whats this take the *yellow human water* out of clubbymans car you make it out to be right bad and it aint it still handles well from what we could tell as we spent most oif the time TRYING to slow it down on the way home

think ill have to change my username if poss as i dont have a clubman anymore.

[siggy]

Clubbyman, having drove a car with the same brakes/wheels as yours it is dangerous, as the increased bumpsteer caused by the change in castor angle causes the car to be very unstable.

Siggy

PS thats a comment not taking the *yellow human water*

[Mincento]

The spacers on my car are actually about 6/8ths of an ich thick as me and my mate took of the wheel and checked them while doing the brakes but when i first looked through the wheel they did look about 2".

is this still bad and have you lot thought of a cheaper way of 10" wheels safer method on my car than is already done.

[Dan]

6/8? That would be 3/4 then! Now that you have seen them what type of spacers are they? If they are the type which use screw on stud extensions they really are dangerous and you should not use them. Obviously this is better than 2" would have been but personally I would only ever use spacers to correct for wheel offset problems. The cheapest way to do something is rarely the best way, but you could try a pair of Fiesta callipers with 7.9" discs (8.4" discs with 1/4" taken off by a good engineer, don't try machining them yourself) . I dont know which Fiesta will provide what you need or how successful this swap is having not done it myself, but I do know that people have been doing it for a while. You should be able to find some info on the net somewhere.

[siggy]

You can buy a good set of 'S' Discs for £250 which is not a lot of money, considering how much a persons life is.

As you have 8.4's all you need is 2 calipers. 2x disc's. 2 x flanges and bolts.

To go the fiesta route you need to have the disc's machined and other engineering work. which if you can not do it your self may cost more that the S set up.

Also when you inform your insurance company of the mod they may increase the premium over S discs and ask for an engineers report.

Siggy