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Spacers on rear wheels


stew72

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I've noticed that my Boxster has got 15mm hub centric spacers fitted on the rear wheels, is this common and functional?

IMG_20160711_195523300_zpsullyehcp.jpg

To me they just seem cosmetic, the car drives fine, would it be improved if they were removed?

 

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Do you have any on the front?

 

They are purely cosmetic, but depending on what is on the front wheels, it might have a big improvement on the handing if they were removed.

 

I seem to recall that those who fitted 15mm rears saw a big negative difference in handling

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Widening the track on one axle is going to relatively adjust the characteristics of the handling feel to a minor degree. It may also emphasise any underlying alignment or wear and tear issues that you have have. 

Saying that, I fully intend on fitting wider wheels or spacers all round on my 986S, purely for cosmetic reasons. If it has a significant negative effect on the handling, I will revert back to factory specs. If I go 10j rears I have to fit a 20mm spacer on the back to make them clear the strut, but I'll just move the 9j's up front and add a small spacer if necessary to fill the arches.

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15mm and 5mm spacers are standard Porsche Tequipment sizes. The advice they give is that the 15mm should only be put on the rear. So unless you put 5mm all round Porsche are happy for you to independently alter track widths front and rear.

It will alter the cars handling but as had been said it's unlikely to be noticed in most circumstances.

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57 minutes ago, Boxob said:

15mm and 5mm spacers are standard Porsche Tequipment sizes. The advice they give is that the 15mm should only be put on the rear. So unless you put 5mm all round Porsche are happy for you to independently alter track widths front and rear.

It will alter the cars handling but as had been said it's unlikely to be noticed in most circumstances.

Not sure that reads correctly.  Porsche themselves fitted 5mm all round for the Anniversary 986 as an example.

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Lets also not forget a lot depends on the offset of the wheels that you are running.

When I changed from 10Jx18 47ET (aftermarket Boxster rear wheels) To 10Jx18 65ET (genuine Porsche 911 rear wheels)

I had to fit spacers just to get them back to where the Boxster wheels will have sat.

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5 minutes ago, Tex24v said:

Lets also not forget a lot depends on the offset of the wheels that you are running.

When I changed from 10Jx18 47ET (aftermarket Boxster rear wheels) To 10Jx18 65ET (genuine Porsche 911 rear wheels)

I had to fit spacers just to get them back to where the Boxster wheels will have sat.

Matches up to what I said above nicely. I'd have to run spacers to allow factory 10j wheels to fit. Which having an offset of et65, would foul the inner suspension. But lowering the offset to approximately ET45 makes fitment suitable (or et47 in your case).

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I have 10x18 without spacers and IIRC ET46.  The owners manual does state what is permitted.

If you just fit 15mm spacers to the rear, this will generally promote turn in, but will also promote under steer when pushed. 

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I did fit 7mm spacers all round but the front ones just didn't settle so I took them off, I find the car turns in better now (although this probably all in my head) :)

 

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4 hours ago, Patt said:

found the standard 265's too stretched and a very bumpy ride.

Don't suppose you have any photos of the 10's fitted running the 265/35's do you? I want to gauge how much stretch there would be and how it would sit at around et45

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4 hours ago, Patt said:

Not sure that reads correctly.  Porsche themselves fitted 5mm all round for the Anniversary 986 as an example.

What I thought I was saying was there are two Porsche spacer options for the rear: either 5mm or 15mm but only one for the front 5mm. So either it's 5mm all round or 5mm front and 15mm rear. :)

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10 hours ago, Patt said:

Tex,

 

What size tyres you running on the rears?  I found the standard 265's too stretched and a very bumpy ride.

I kept the 911 size, 285/30.

I was running 265/35 on the boxster wheels, (also 10j) was never keen on how they looked, also as I park in the road the rims were getting kerbed too.

Think I read somewhere once that running skinny tyres on your rims meant the tread laid flatter, don't know if that is true or not, but I just don't like the euro/ricer look.

Didn't notice them giving a bumpy ride, but they were what my car came with, so nothing to compare it with. What I can tell you is that the new tyres are extremely more bumpy, a combination of 30% aspect and that I fitted pilot sport cup tyres which have mega stiff sidewalls. Happy with them though :)

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12 hours ago, Boxob said:

What I thought I was saying was there are two Porsche spacer options for the rear: either 5mm or 15mm but only one for the front 5mm. So either it's 5mm all round or 5mm front and 15mm rear. :)

Now that makes more sense to me.  Maybe it was just me, but your initial post read that Porsche would not allow 5mm all round.

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Just now, Patt said:

I've just changed to PS3's 275/35.  My tyre man didn't think the 285/35 I wanted would fit.

thanks for the update Tex.

I've just been offered some 18x10j et65 turbo twist 1's for a very good price (with a pair of 4mm N3 Pirelli's on them in 265/35). I think gonna go for them and slap them on the back with some 20mm spacers - unless I can get away with 18mm spacers from porscheshop

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4 hours ago, Patt said:

I would have thought 2mm should be safe, although that's 2mm inwards.  Best really check the suspension strut clearance.

Yeh 2mm out to et43 would be fine, the extra couple inwards could prove troublesome.

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I can tell you that 16mm definitely won't work with 65ET.

I found out the hard way, so I now have a redundant pair of 16mm spacers knocking around, might pop 'em up in the for sale section, but they are not suitable for the application we are discussing here. Inside rim rubbed on both the suspension strut and a brake line, I think that 18mm or maybe even 17mm would clear ok, but will be close.

I couldn't find any 18mm for a reasonable price, so went for 20mm in the end, and they look very nice imho :) 

These were they ones I got btw, they are nice quality: eBay item 360942334697

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