My Z came with the 18" chrome wheels (was the Z that I liked but had those wheels ), and I don't think that I'm gonna buy any new wheels for a while. Anywho, when you look at the car, the wheels look a little inside the body. I don't like that. If I put wheel spacers, will it afect anything on the car? Do anyone recommends the spacers or that's a bad idea. I would like to know the pros and cons of wheel spacers, and if is ok to put them on, what size should I buy?

Thanks in advance for your opinions!

 

I not believe spacers will be an option. Your lug stems will not be long enough to accomodate the extra space.

 

Pros? I guess it would put the tires to where you like them. Cons? Many. Tires will likely rub, could put more strain on the mounting points and cause a break. Most of all, if overdone, people could be left standing around waiting for you to hit the hydros.
Seriously though, the suspension is designed to allow the wheels to go inside the wheel wells. If you put spacers on the wheels, you could end up hitting the body with the wheel, and cause some serious damage.

 

Just had flashback of Cheech & Chong. The movie where they are in the van and hit the switches. Van ends up in someones front yard.

 

I have stock 18' and stock suspension/shocks and I have a H&R hubcentric 25mm spacer in the back and have no rubbing. If you think about it, people are able to put 275 flush to the body and have no rubbing. It's only when you get to the 285 wheels that you need to worry about your offsets.

As for lugs not being long enough, the H&R spacer cames with longer lugs on them.

As for strain and such, when you think about how a wheel goes on a car, you will see that putting a spacer on won't strain it. And are you really gonna go offroad ralling to be concerned about straining?

See how you don't have to worry about long lugs:


And here is my car with the 25mm spacer on the back. notice how the wheel is flushed to the body. Makes your car look more agressive. One of my favorite and affordable mods.

 

I get what you are saying, but I wasn't planning on having the wheels stick out the body. I was talking about something like what ZlleH has. Just to even the wheels to the body, not for them to stick out. But one of my concerns is, will this affect the way the car handles? i.e. will it loose traction, or anything bad at all?

 

It's the oppisite, why do you think those Japanese 350Z professional racers always have wide bodies? Their wheels stick way out for stability.

The more wide your stance is, the better your car is on the road. Think of it this way, stand straight with your feet together, then start spreading them out a little further apart. Which stance do you think will give you better stability and control? If you don't believe me, just take a look at all the professional race cars and see why they go wide body.

 

Couldn't have said it better! (ex. lamborghinis and other exotics, it's amazing how wide they are)

 

Sweet, I was about to ask the same about pros/cons on wheel spacers. Thanks for the info guys.

 

Zlleh sent me this link: http://performancenissanparts.com/ca...roducts_id=385

It say's 25mm spacers not available until late April 2006, damn.

 

i also have the 25mm h&r spacers on my G35 coupe. Much better look, noy all tucked in.
try ebay.. they're always on sale there.

 

The key thing to make sure about ebay spacers is to make sure that they are "hubcentric" to the 350Z. Do not get generic spacers that are not hubcentric to your car. H&R are hubcentric, and that's why I got them.

Here is a little read on what hubcentric means: http://www.miata.net/garage/hubcentric.html

Try to only get... No, you should ONLY get hubcentric wheel spacers, which uses your hub and not just your lugs for leverage and centering.

As for other places to get it, I had very good luck. I went to the classified and put out a post that I wanted to buy a used H&R 25mm wheel spacer. And lucky for me, a representative of Option Imports saw my post and sold me a used wheel spacer that a customer had returned because he calculated his offset wrong. So I bought it used for $100 shipped. It was an awsome purchasing experience and they were very fast and nice. So I totally recommend them:

http://www.optionimports.com/5065662a.html

But I don't know if they have it in stock or not. Good luck.

PS: the representative name on this forum is: optionimports if you want to private message him.

 

+1. The right way is to select wheels with the correct offset. Inexpensive spacers can be a headache. Hub centric spacers are more reliable. If I drove a Honda, the wrong wheels with spacers are acceptable. For the 350Z? Go the right way or not at all.

 

surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet, but bearing wear is a major side-effect of using wheel spacers

sure the stance will be wider and thus improve handling, but you'd likely be looking at replacing your bearings anywhere from 1k to 30k miles earlier due to premature wear

just something to keep in mind

 

you should look in to Eibach spacers, they are very good quality

 

I second the Eibachs! they have them with the specific hub size for the Z!

www.eibach.com

 

what do you guys recommend from front spacer size?

I don't really want the rears flush while the fronts are left sunk in...

 

with stock wheels 17/18's you can run 15 or 20mm up front. 15mm is good if you plan to run wider (245-265) front tires and aren't lowered.

 

I have 25mm rear and 15mm front with the track wheels. Sits pretty flush. No rubbing, lowered on s-techs. You could probably go 5mm more out if you want to be more agressive. I got mine all on ebay. H&R rears from a maxima, and custom fronts from maxima. $100 rear, $50 front.

Good deal, just gotta look for them.


Al

 

Is this something that would also happen with rims that already have offset?