Spacer shims. How bad are they?

[Adunaphel]

So, I'm looking at new summer wheels for my Merc. I found a nice set 7Jx16 of Golf wheels, problem is they're ET45 where I need ET37 or ET31. So I though I'd use 8mm spacers to fix the ET. Problem is that I heard a lot of horror stories of people's cousin's neighbor's dog trimmer's grandma (no actual first hand knowledge) crashing because of bad shims. So I'm asking here, is this a good idea, or should I continue looking for wheels elsewhere.

 

[Beni]

Just some 1st hand experience: The X1/9 needs 15mm at the front to allow the brakes to fit, hasn't killed me yet, neither has it caused excessive wear. The X is quite light at the front, though.

 

[Spectre]

8mm spacers are fine, just get correspondingly longer bolts for the wheels, of proper rating.

As a general rule: Anything more than about 15mm is questionable on a heavy car; 20mm is a bad idea on any vehicle.

Do, however, check to make sure that your wheels are rated for the weight of the car. There's a not-insignificant difference in weight between a Golf and a C-Class!

 

[Adunaphel]

Do, however, check to make sure that your wheels are rated for the weight of the car. There's a not-insignificant difference in weight between a Golf and a C-Class!

Less than you might think:
C220 CDI: 1420kg
Mk4 Golf 2.8 V6 (where they came from): 1420kg

 

[Spectre]

True, it depends on the generation. But you didn't specify which Golf you got it from in the first place, so how was I to know?

 

[Adunaphel]

Golfs before mk4 didn't have the 5x112 bolt pattern.

 

[Komeuppance]

Make sure your bolts(or lugs for other cars) are quality made. If you can get proper spacers that are hub centric, that would be ideal.

Those two areas are why people have problems with spacers.

I ran a 25mm spacer under heavy abuse for a long time, would still be using it if I hadn't decided to change my setup.

-Robert

 

[BerserkerCatSplat]

As a general rule: Anything more than about 15mm is questionable on a heavy car; 20mm is a bad idea on any vehicle.

Depends on the spacer design as well, larger spacers (I have 1.25" adapter-spacers) will bolt to the studs and then have their own set of studs to bolt the wheel to, which means you have to torque two sets of nuts but has far less possible compliance than just using a huge spacer and really long studs.

The only spacer-related failures I've seen are ones where the studs fail, which is generally a product of people tightening the lugnuts with an impact gun rather than properly torquing them like they should have.

 

[SirEdward]

Golfs before mk4 didn't have the 5x112 bolt pattern.

If I'm not mistaken, Golf mkIV don't have that pattern, rather have 5x100. 5x112 is from Golf mkV on.

 

[IceBone]

I'm possibly getting spacers for my OZ rims too, so this thread is relevant to my interests.

 

[Adunaphel]

If I'm not mistaken, Golf mkIV don't have that pattern, rather have 5x100. 5x112 is from Golf mkV on.

This I found out too, so I'm now on M-B 17" alloys. Still looking at 10mm spacers for the rear tho, to bring out the rear wheels a bit more, since the front stance is near perfect, making the rears look too far in.