Are wheel spacers bad for my BMW? How to choose wheel spacers for my BMW? How do I install wheel spacers on my BMW? As we know, the refit of wheel-track has always been a talking point in every active auto forum. If you want to make your BMW 5 series look more aggressive or have a better driving experience, but think wheels with positive ET are too expensive, the BMW 5 series wheel spacers provide a very affordable and cost-efficient option for you. However, many people have doubts about the safety of good-quality wheel spacers installed on their BMW. The question I get asked most frequently is if I buy expensive and good quality wheel spacers to install on my BMW 5 series, am I safe?
The answer is no. If you select the wrong thickness of the BMW 5 series wheel spacers that will harm your car’s axle and bearing. And if you buy some cheap wheel bolts to match your BMW 5 series wheel spacers that will be a big problem. The most important that if you incorrectly install wheel spacers, the accident might happen no matter how good quality wheel spacers you bought. So how can we do to ensure our safety with good wheel spacers? These four questions below will give you answers.
1. How To Select the Thickness of BMW 5 Series Wheel Spacers?
In the case of the suspension system of your BMW 5 series without mods, you need the L-square to measure the distance from the top edge of the rim to the inner fender lip. You’d better not choose wheel spacers thickness over the measurement. As far as possible to choose the appropriate thickness, rather than blindly choose increase distance of the wheel track. Remember to balance the performance and appearance of your Bimmer. IF YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SELECTING THE THICKNESS, PLEASE CLICK HERE.
2. Hub Centric or Lug Centric BMW 5 Series Wheel Spacers?
There are a lot of choices you’ll find with BMW wheel spacers, but they are mainly classified as hub centric spacers and lug centric spacers. We recommend hub centric wheel spacers rather than lug centric. Much bad news that people associate with wheel spacers is blamed to lug centric wheel spacers. Due to the lug centric design, there is a certain gap between the hub assembly and the wheel. Without a firm contact, lacking the hub’s support, the wheel bolts play the role of bearing the road impacts. This makes wheel assembly less stable because wheel bolts will unequally bear with vehicle moving, and one of the wheel bolts may be broken firstly. Some fierce impacts are strong enough to deform the wheel bolts, making the wheel no longer concentric with the hub, resulting in vibrations. Even worse, it may damage the wheel’s center bore.
Hub-centric means that the wheel bore and axle line up perfectly, and bolts are used to secure the wheel to the mounting plate. Hub centric wheel spacers are made with specific diameters to fit the wheel hub by step rings. They are designed to connect the wheel and axle firmly to ensure the hub can carry most of the weight of the vehicle instead of the wheel bolts. Hub centric allow the wheels are truly central to the vehicle hub, with no vibrations through the wheels. Otherwise, hub centric design also reduces the stress on the wheel studs or bolts, prolong the service life range of spacers.
3. Are Wheel Bolts Important on BMW 5 Series Wheel Spacers?
Wheel bolts are the most important parts to connect the wheel spacer and hub after installation. If the length and quality of the wheel bolts purchased cannot meet the safety requirements, accidents are inevitable. BONOSS always using grade 12.9 wheel bolts to match the BLA wheel spacers which are very reliable and safe.
4. How to Install the Wheel Spacers on My BMW Correctly?
What I can tell you is that the difficulty of installing the wheel spacers is very easy and it only takes one person about an hour to complete this installation. You need replacement tools: jack, jack stand, 17 cross wrench, torque wrench, 17 socket spanner, pry bar, sandpaper, and hub cleaner. Then it’s ready to go.
STEP 1. Loosen the Wheel Bolts on the wheel.
If it is to operate the front wheels, it is important that make sure your Bimmer is at level, and pull up the handbrake or parking brake and lock the steering wheel, because the wheels’ swing or rotation may lead to the error of installation. Using the socket spanner to loosen the wheel bolts when the wheels are still on the ground, and then with the jack to lift the car body. It is very important that choose a safe and spacious place to park your car before using the jack. Otherwise, it is likely to happen accidents in the installation process. For the rear wheels, the body can be lifted with the jack before operation.
STEP 2. Use a jack stand to stabilize BMW.
After the jack lifts your BMW 5 Series, place the jack stand not far away on the same side. Generally speaking, the vehicle will design a special place for the jack to support. If it is not found, the beam or frame is also fine. Leave the jack stands just as an extra precaution, but it is not supporting any weight. No matter how little the program is, do not feel tiring, safety is most important.
STEP 3. Remove the tire.
In the case that the first two steps are done as guidance, we can use the socket spanner to loosen completely the wheel bolts on the wheel and remove the tire.
STEP 4. Clean the wheel hub.
After the tire is removed, clean the hub with hub cleaner and sandpaper. This can ensure that the wheel spacer and the hub contact surfaces are no foreign matter, increase stability and reliability.
STEP 5. Place wheel spacer over the hub.
Place the wheel spacer on the hub and align it with the hub center. If you buy BMW 5 series wheel spacers that accurately fit the hub, after you align and install them on the hub, it will be firmly in contact with the hub without any light shaking.
IF YOU BUY A BMW WHEEL SPACERS THICKNESS LESS THAN 20 MM, WITHOUT ANOTHER SET OF WHEEL BOLTS, PLEASE READ THE STEP 8.
STEP 6. Fix the wheel bolts on the wheel spacer.
If you buy a wheel spacer which’s thickness thicker than 25mm, there will be a set of lengthening wheel bolts for it, because the OEM wheel bolts’ length is not meet the requirement of the thicker wheel spacers. And you’ll find the thicker wheel spacers have 10 holes, 5 with conical bolts type holes, 5 without that. Screwing the OEM wheel bolts with your hands after the spacer was placed right on conical bolts-type holes. The method of screwing wheel bolts by hand is a very good way to fix things because the wheel bolt may not be in line with the bolt hole perfectly when using some setting tools like the impact drill. It is easier to feel the error of the installation by hand, it can avoid the harm of thread, improve the reliability of wheel bolts.
STEP 7. Tighten the wheel bolts with the torque wrench.
Use the torque wrench to meet the torque of the 140Nm requirement, the wheel bolts can reach the strongest state. It is easy to cause wheel bolts or bolt holes deformation if we screw the wheel bolt too tight, resulting in fracture or fall off. If wheel bolts screwed are too loose and do not reach the torque requirement, the wheel bolts with the wheel sports are easy to fall off.
STEP 8. Load the tire.
If you buy a BMW 5 series wheel spacers which’s thickness less than 20 mm, you can skip the step 6 and 7, because you can load the tire after placing the wheel spacer right on the wheel hub. Be careful when you loading the tire, don’t make the wheel spacers slide down from the hub. You can use a wheel hanger for auxiliary wheel installation to assist you to fix the tire because the BMW wheel hub does not have studs. After placing the tire on the hub, adjust the tire so that the bolt holes on the tire are aligned with the bolt holes on the hub, while holding the tire with your hand, insert the wheel bolt into the hole. Then use the torque wrench to tighten the wheel bolts with the 140Nm requirement. This is the last step of the installation. To the thicker wheel spacers, you do the same thing, the left 5 holes without conical type, screw the lengthening wheel bolts into, and use the torque wrench with 140Nm.
STEP 9. Check your BMW 5 series at low and high speeds.
After installing the wheel spacers, drive your Bimmer at low speed and check whether the spacers have an influence on the wheel movement under normal driving, whether friction sound or car body is shaking. The same check should be done at high speeds.
FINAL THOUGHTS
As I said at the beginning of this article, BMW 5 series wheel spacers provide a very good way to change your vehicle’s appearance and enhance the driving experience without breaking the bank on a new set of wheels. BMW wheel spacers are absolutely safe as long as they are installed on your Bimmer correctly. A majority of the time wheel spacers fail due to the operator, or the fact that it is the cheap spacers. The correct installation of spacers is extremely important to ensure they won’t fail on the freeway at high speeds.
