Those are the traditional design, with extended studs. For a lot less hassle you could get adapters with the studs already in them. I spent $200 shipped four years ago with B2AutoDesigns, and swap them in and out every winter. Take note, if you go this route, to throw the little half-height lugnuts in the trash and get something better suited for the job.


And if you never throw your car around, even a little bit, then I can't imagine worrying about having spacers. You'll be fine, don't obsess over it.

 

Some pro drift cars run huge spacers. Youll be fine, just get quality ones.

 

Thanks y'all. Some threads I've seen on the various Z forums had me worried a bit with stories of vibration and loose lug nuts. I think I've heard enough positive feedback now to outweigh that. I've also been reading some positive feedback on the Z1 hub centric spacers as well, so I may just go with those (more hassle, but I'm not doing the install anyhoo ).

Rochester, I ran across an old thread where you posted pictures of your G dropped with Swifts and 15mm spacers on stock wheels (good pics btw). Between your's and dragion's pics, I can't decide if I want to go with 15mm or 20mm spacers. Leaning towards the 15mm spacers...

 

If you care about my 2 cents, Go with the 20 mm. If you're able to fit the wheels with them of course. 15mm usually have much smaller hardware because 15mm doesn't leave much space for proper nuts. I ran 15mm with my 20"s and it was fine, but even with a quality spacer, there was some micro-deformation that ended up causing vibrations in the long run (after 2 years, one spacer got a 1/2 mm warp from when I cracked my rim). 20 inch wheels with low profile tires didnt help lol. It probably wont make any difference with Z1 spacers, but for the added peace of mind, its a no brainer.

 

5mm difference is pretty slim for comparison, and really dependent on how much negative camber you've got going on. Lining up the angle of the wheel to the fender lip is a subjective call. What one person thinks is perfect, another might prefer more poke or tuck.

But again, entirely dependent on how much your wheels camber in after the drop.


Right. But that doesn't matter with the kind of spacers he wants to install, because they use extended-length studs.

Anyway, here's an old pic of my spacer adapters with better lug nuts, which only work because the backside of the duckfeet support it.

 

Ah, nice. Yeah, OS needs to check if there is a recess in his wheels (unless I'm blanking out and he is running the duck feet).

 

He said he's getting spacers with extended length studs. So it doesn't matter.

 

Cool, I kind of jumped in halfway through this discussion, didn't have time to read everything lol.

 

I welcome anyone's 2 cents . I'll be running duck feet without plans for aftermarket wheels. What do you mean by "check if there is a recess"?

The reason why I'm leaning towards 15mm spacers is because I already have an SPC camber kit installed. From what the install shop is saying, the camber kit should do a lot for making the wheels more flush with the fender, but I don't think it'll make it quite as flush as I'd like. What do you mean by "the backside of the duck feet support it"? I didn't realize that some wheels wouldn't support spacers.

Thanks again for guys for hashing this out with me.

 

If your camber is straightened up within specs with your camber kit, then you're right... 15mm spacers will probably be perfect.

If you look at the backside of the wheel, you'll see recessed areas in the mold between the stud holes. It's this design that let's me use 15mm adapters instead of traditional spacers with extended length studs. Here's a pic. Look at this picture then go look at the other pic I posted, and you'll figure it out.




Happy to help.

 

Looks like John took care of all the explaining lol.

 

I had really bad luck with 25mm spacers on my RX8 - the lug nuts kept shearing and I'd go look at the car and realize I only had 3 or 4 lugs left. Don't recall spacer brand, but they were the spacer adapters that bolt on. Even switched out to ARP wheel studs on the spacers and they kept shearing. This was when tightened to 80ft-lbs with a torque limiting socket extension, and with the OEM 18" wheels.

… so I'm a little hesitant to space my car's duck feet out to the fenders when I put them on.

 

Ahhh, this is making more sense now, or I think it is.

So since the Z1 spacers aren't spacer adapters, and they just come with extended studs, I don't have to worry about whether my wheels are recessed inside.

The downfall to not having spacer adapters is that the shop will have to do some extra work to install the extended studs? Meaning they'll have to get behind the rotor I'm assuming? I'm having the shop install brakes/rotors all around while they're doing the springs, so if I understand this all correctly, it sounds like it shouldn't add much more labor.

@rotorymike You should take a gander at the Z1 spacers I linked a few posts back. I think that may solve your problem?

 

 

I actually just had to order a set of Z1 longer studs. My car was a rebuilt salvage, and it came with 10mm Z1 spacers all around. I noticed when trying to put other wheels on that one side wouldn't even read the threads (accident side). At first I thought it was because it was an AWD hub on a RWD car, but it was in fact that the Z1 longer studs were no longer present. Fun times with rebuilt salvage cars.

The Z1's are pain to get off after they sit awhile btw. Make sure you have a good chisel at home.