Can I use wheel spacers in conjunction with wheel adapters?

Hi, got 4x100 to 5x130 pcd adapters at 25 mm thick on my cabby at the moment. Looking to push the rears out more - can I use wheel spacers, say 10mm, along with longer wheel bolts to achieve this? This method will work out a lot cheaper than buying some thicker adapters. Basically it's just packing out the adapter with a washer. Or is there more to it?

Any advice is appreciated.

The stress you are putting on your wheel bolts doing that is unbelievable. It will mess all your geometry up. And i would say it would almost definitely void your insurance aswel.

And we wont mention your negative scrub radius

isnt it the same as using 35mm adaptors if you use spacers as well ? :dontknow:

It is the same yes. But but a 35mm spacer is a massive strain on wheel bolts. You can do it Yeh. And it will look quite smart as if there thick wheels... Like 7inch wide or 8s. But if there like 5 or 6 they just look like a crab. If you get me? I would just buy some more wheels with different offset. I am guessing there porche wheels are they?

Wheel bolts don't take any stress from the weight of the car, they simply apply the clamping force of wheel to hub. The hub lip takes the weight.

I agree with the above - surely the bolts just secure the wheel to the hub! Any stress is taken by the bearings and the hub itself. And yes, a 35mm adapter would be the same but it comes down to cost! A couple of 10mm spacers cost £20 whereas a pair of 35mm adapters will cost £120.
And yes, they are Porsche rims.
Different opinions here, anyone ever put spacers on top of adapters?

How can the hub take the weight? If the the wheels Arnt directly bolted to the hub?

so are people saying its the adaptors and spacers together thats the problem or the whole idea of bringing the wheels out by 35mm ?  :dontknow:

Matt_golf1272 said

How can the hub take the weight? If the the wheels Arnt directly bolted to the hub?

The wheel tightly presses onto a circular lip on the hub (front) or brake disc/drum (rear), which transfers the forces and takes the weight.

Yeh. I get that. But in this case the wheel is directly bolted to the hub. Its bolted to an adapter which won't have your circular lip.

For me its the total width thats the problem, sounds like something they,d fit on chop shop.

Yeh. Your right. Like the chap above who has asked the question. Its a difference here of opinions. But i still stick by mine.

Matt_golf1272 said

Yeh. I get that. But in this case the wheel is directly bolted to the hub. Its bolted to an adapter which won't have your circular lip.

If the adapter displaces the wheel so far out that its unable to sit on the circular lip, then the wheel won't be mounted properly/securely by the wheel bolts alone. It MUST sit on the hub. Wide adapters are "hubcentric" in that they have the lip on them, and a corresponding inset which sits on the hub itself. This will explain why the proper adapters are £120 while plain old spacers are £20. There's a bit of engineering there.

So back to the original question. These things need to occur:

- The wheel bolts, or whatever bolts go into the hub/hub spacer/hub adapter etc, must secure with at least 4 full threads or ideally as many as possible without protruding beyond ie into the mechanism of the drum brake.
- Same applies to any extra bolts used with the adapters
- The wheel MUST sit on the hub ring of some kind
- If an adapter is hubcentric, it too must sit on the hub ring securely, ie make sure you use the right one for VW fitment (58.1mm I think?)

The wheel bearings will be under more stress but personally I don't think this is significant.

The main problem will be, whichever wheels you're fitting which need these adapters, will be oversize and them, or their tyres, will hit the wheelarch/strut/inner bodywork etc

The chap has said he is going to get some for twenty so you can assume they are halfords\universal ones. At that they may not be vw fitment. So they will not fit on the circular lip… So if it isn't on it, it will not be taking the strain. So what will be taking the strain if it is not Sat on the circular Lip?

Matt_golf1272 said

The chap has said he is going to get some for twenty so you can assume they are halfords\universal ones. At that they may not be vw fitment. So they will not fit on the circular lip… So if it isn't on it, it will not be taking the strain. So what will be taking the strain if it is not Sat on the circular Lip?

You're right, in that IF the wheels and adapters aren't sitting on the hub lip then the wheel bolts would take the strain, which would be larger & different (it would take the weight of the car, as well as the clamping force, and as the wheels go round so would the vector of the force applied).

When people have tried this, the wheel bolts inevitibly work loose, no matter how tight they are done up, and the wheels fall off.

Hence why you MUST use hubcentric adapters, unless they are so thin that some (most) of the hub remains available to rest on. I think you're right in that 10mm adapters aren't going to be hubcentic, because there's about 10mm of lip protruding anyway, so it would not be possible to make the adapter like this.

hubcenteic spacers have the lip on them which the centre of the wheel sits on so what if you put the spacer beetween the hub and the adaptor so the wheel still sits on the circular lip ? the reason i ask is because im having similair problems  :dontknow:  

jeffdub said

hubcenteic spacers have the lip on them which the centre of the wheel sits on so what if you put the spacer beetween the hub and the adaptor so the wheel still sits on the circular lip ? the reason i ask is because im having similair problems  :dontknow:  

The hubcentric spacer won't be sat on the lip of the hub in that case, and you'll have similar issues.

youre right paul never thought of that  :redfaced:

thanks everyone for the advice/opinions so far.

Just want to clarify:

Hub - spacer - hubcentric adapter

in the above order is what I'm talking about, therefore I don't believe I'll need a hubcentric spacer.

In short, I'll need longer bolts from the adapter to the hub (10mm longer, as the spacers will be 10mm thick), and of course the spacers themselves.

Yay? Nay?