Spacer Question

[Masnamerif]

Wheel spacers on a 986, are they just cosmetic or do they make a difference ( a positive one) to the handling road holding?

I am on Boxster S II 17" rims.

[That986]

Can of worms...........

[Southy]

You would need very large spacers to have an effect on handling. I recently had 9mm spacers all round for the 'stance' 

I've now taken the spacers off as I just couldn't get the front wheels to feel right with them on.

For your car on 17's the best changed to handling would be to move up to 18's although you will lose a little in road comfort 

[Boxob]

On the other had 17" wheels are generally considered the sweet spot for handling on a 986!

Most people use spacers to alter the appearance of the car rather than its handling. In theory adding track width will improve handling and they can be used to alter handling characteristics by dialing in/out oversteer or understeer.  I have mucked about with various spacers width combinations and the difference can be felt (I perceive it as the car being quicker or slower to turn into corners) but frankly other factors have greater influence - tyre inflation and condition, suspension condition, geometry. 

 

[edc]

As above, wider front spacer than rear = more front track = (should) more front grip = reduced understeer. 

Most people here though do it for cosmetic reasons and put the wider spacers on the rear.

[Araf]

2 hours ago, Boxob said:

On the other had 17" wheels are generally considered the sweet spot for handling on a 986!

I agree.  You lose grip if you don't have a compliant tyre.  I've found that I get most feel with a tyre wall height of between 75 and 100mm.  Any more and the car wallows and doesn't want to turn.  Any less and the tyre isn't able to deflect properly so skips across imperfections in the surface.

The trend towards bigger wheels was brought about by race series needing to use bigger brakes.  Teams traded off tyre performance for having brakes that lasted a whole race and so fitted the smallest wheels that could go over the calipers.

[Terryg]

6 hours ago, Southy said:

You would need very large spacers to have an effect on handling. I recently had 9mm spacers all round for the 'stance' 

I've now taken the spacers off as I just couldn't get the front wheels to feel right with them on.

For your car on 17's the best changed to handling would be to move up to 18's although you will lose a little in road comfort 

Southy, can you clarify that, I am confused. "You would need very large spacers to have an effect on handling" seems to be at odds with "I just couldn't get the front wheels to feel right"

In what didn't they feel right if it wasn't in the handling?

 

 

[Southy]

1 minute ago, Terryg said:

Southy, can you clarify that, I am confused. "You would need very large spacers to have an effect on handling" seems to be at odds with "I just couldn't get the front wheels to feel right"

In what didn't they feel right if it wasn't in the handling?

 

 

Sorry, trying to type on the way into work on the mobile, never works out right.

I was answering two questions at once, firstly for the spacers to have an effect on the handling you would need large spacers, even then you would probably be unable to exploit the benefits of the spacers on a public road.

Secondly, I was saying I had 9mm spacers on the car until recently, I removed the front ones last summer as I couldn't get the balance right, got wheel wobble at 70mph so I took them off, and last week took the 9mm rear spacers off, these 9mm spacers only improved the stance of the car and I doubt did anything for the handling that I would notice.

 

 

[Terryg]

1 minute ago, Southy said:

Sorry, trying to type on the way into work on the mobile, never works out right.

I was answering two questions at once, firstly for the spacers to have an effect on the handling you would need large spacers, even then you would probably be unable to exploit the benefits of the spacers on a public road.

Secondly, I was saying I had 9mm spacers on the car until recently, I removed the front ones last summer as I couldn't get the balance right, got wheel wobble at 70mph so I took them off, and last week took the 9mm rear spacers off, these 9mm spacers only improved the stance of the car and I doubt did anything for the handling that I would notice.

 

 

No problem, well worth clearing up I feel (probably alone there)

[Southy]

1 minute ago, Terryg said:

No problem, well worth clearing up I feel (probably alone there)

Not really, you are not alone,  I was asking all sorts of questions about spacers last year.

For me they just didn't work on the front and I've recently bought a new set of shiny wheels bolts so decided now was the time to remove the rears, for others they work fine.

[Terryg]

1 minute ago, Southy said:

Not really, you are not alone,  I was asking all sorts of questions about spacers last year.

For me they just didn't work on the front and I've recently bought a new set of shiny wheels bolts so decided now was the time to remove the rears, for others they work fine.

I look at all the posts about spacers and bigger wheels and I think "yep it looks great but my gut feeling is it's wrong" so I stick to my boring 17" (wheels that is, ahem)

[edc]

If you get wobble from the spacers its 99% a fitment issue either due to not a flush fit to the hub or a poor machined finish on the spacer. Sometimes you may find with the hubcentric ones with the centre lip that the centre bore hole may be too small and it prevents the spacer fitting flush to the hub, or even that the spacer itself doesn;t sit 100% centred.

[Masnamerif]

Thanks for all the comments guys.

My conclusion is I will probably leave well enough alone

[Boxob]

10 hours ago, edc said:

If you get wobble from the spacers its 99% a fitment issue either due to not a flush fit to the hub or a poor machined finish on the spacer. Sometimes you may find with the hubcentric ones with the centre lip that the centre bore hole may be too small and it prevents the spacer fitting flush to the hub, or even that the spacer itself doesn;t sit 100% centred.

@Southy and I had the same 9mm  bought from the same on-line retailer. Both mine and his caused a wobble. Whilst the wheel sat tightly on the spacer, the spacer was not tight on the hub. Perhaps about a millimeter too large inside diameter. My assumption was that the wheel bolts would centre the spacer. They did not. I have now fitted another set of spacers to the front. They are a good fit and no wobble. So 100% fitment due due to poor manufacturing tollerences.

[That986]

6 hours ago, Boxob said:

@Southy and I had the same 9mm  bought from the same on-line retailer. Both mine and his caused a wobble. Whilst the wheel sat tightly on the spacer, the spacer was not tight on the hub. Perhaps about a millimeter too large inside diameter. My assumption was that the wheel bolts would centre the spacer. They did not. I have now fitted another set of spacers to the front. They are a good fit and no wobble. So 100% fitment due due to poor manufacturing tollerences.

I had the same wobble when i had bolt on spacers at the back, as soon as i changed to the bolt through type my problem disappeared. 

As for the original question i have 15mm front and 20mm rear spacers on my car which brings the wheels out to flush with the arch. I can report that the car feels more planted in the corners with less understeer which for the driving i like to do suits me down to the ground. But the biggest thing that made a difference was getting the car properly aligned, after that the car really did come alive. 

I'm on 18" wheels with 225 & 265 tyres. 

[Boxob]

1 hour ago, That986 said:

As for the original question i have 15mm front and 20mm rear spacers on my car which brings the wheels out to flush with the arch. I can report that the car feels more planted in the corners with less understeer 

Odd as less understeer is the opposite of what the wider rear track set up should promote! Perhaps what you have done by widening the front track by 30mm is move the point at which the front looses grip so that you do not reach it?

As an aside but a consideration, adding spacers is a mod for insurance purposes. As a consequence I had to change insurance companies and pay a higher premium. IIRC +£40 ish.

[That986]

6 minutes ago, Boxob said:

Odd as less understeer is the opposite of what the wider rear track set up should promote! Perhaps what you have done by widening the front track by 30mm is move the point at which the front looses grip so that you do not reach it?

As an aside but a consideration, adding spacers is a mod for insurance purposes. As a consequence I had to change insurance companies and pay a higher premium. IIRC +£40 ish.

It definitely clings into the corners better than it did when i got it. Now i'm not saying the spacers are the be all and end all of that as it's been properly aligned as well after the spacers were fitted but it definitely felt more planted because of it. Decent Bridgestone tyres have only exaggerated that as well.

As for not reaching that point i can totally understand that as this car has way more talent for going round a corner than i do and constantly surprises me with just how much speed you can carry. I was out a couple of weeks ago with my friend in his AMG and he had the legs on me on anything straight, around the corners though i was having to hold back while he battled understeer/oversteer. The Boxster though was absolutely planted and if it did twitch it was only through provocation. 

[edc]

Spacers or not most owners will never encounter significant understeer. On a wet tight rutted round about maybe but not on a normal A or B road bend.

[Jason986S]

I echo what @That986 says completely. I have had the same experiences and run the same set up (all be it a slightly slimmer front bolt through spacer - that I was to up).

Good quality fitting/manufactured spacers, bolts and balancing/alignment and all should be well. Mine has no issues.

[Lonewolfgjp]

I ran 7mm fronts and 14mm spacers with 18s on my 986. Never had any issues other than a better looking car?.

My spacers were an excellent fit and I used oem longer bolts as I don't like the look of the aftermarket ones. 

They were from The Porsche Shop in Halesowen in case anyone fancies getting the same ?

[the baron]

Surely the only reason to add spacers is when you are changing your wheels out for larger wheels that need spacers for them to fit, can't see the point of just adding spacers for the hell of it, but thats just me.

[edc]

57 minutes ago, the baron said:

Surely the only reason to add spacers is when you are changing your wheels out for larger wheels that need spacers for them to fit, can't see the point of just adding spacers for the hell of it, but thats just me.

Most people are using them for cosmetic reasons or to push the wheels out to compensate for offset. Fewer do it for handling reasons. Even fewer I guess for spurious just for the hell of it reasons  

[EXY]

IIRC the MY04 Anniversary came from the FACTORY with 5mm spacers.

So perhaps Porsche knows something

Also you need to ensure wheels are torqued to 130NM, I am sure if that's wrong someone will correct me

[MichaelAC]

I'd not use spacers that aren't hubcentric  or you are quite likely to get the wheel wobble. Also, increasing your front track will change the scrub radius which can completely mess up the feel and handling.

I tried them on my TT (only 10mm) and the effect on the steering was awful, it was very clear that there is a lot more to the geometry that it affects than simply the track. However, most on the TT forum didn't notice the difference and they were running bigger spacers than I was. I'm quite sensitive to how my car feels and spacers on the front really has a negative effect in my experience.

The 17inch front wheels on the 986 are quite tucked in though so I'm not surprised people do it, I think I may move to 18 inch wheels instead myself. 

[el 3.2S]

Bolt through hubcentric 8 & 15mm spacers on 18" wheels here. Improved look, absolutely no wobble and, for me, the car feels better on corners. Agree with the earlier "planted" comment.