Will wheel spacers stop rubbing? If you operate correctly, yes, they will. Wheel spacers are advantageous for many vehicle tires. When you put a wheel spacer on your car, it’s going to pull your tire farther out and away from the hub assembly. In most cases, this can prevent the tires from rubbing against your fender flares or suspension components when making turns or hitting bumps.
When pushing the wheels out, you get more inside rim space. As this space increases, you lower the risk of the tire rubbing the suspension or brakes. Usually, a performance brake kit comes with larger brake calipers, which require more inside wheel space to fit. At this point, wheel spacers are effective to keep the caliper from rubbing the wheel spokes. This ensures safe driving. Besides, properly filling the wheel arches will make your car look nice.
How Many Wheel Spacers Should I Use for Brake Calipers?
Wheel spacers are always designed to maximize wheel fitment. So, if you meet rim rubbing issues when installing larger brakes, it may be necessary to utilize a wheel spacer to increase the inner wheel clearance. Upgrading to an aftermarket wheel with adequate clearance is also a good idea. However, not all people have enough budget and time to get a set of nice aftermarket wheels.
In this case, using wheel spacers is still the easiest and most cost-effective solution. For decades, wheel spacers have been widely used and it has been proven that they are safe as long as you operate everything correctly. Before you purchase wheel spacers for clearing big brake caliper issues, you should always confirm how much inner wheel clearance the vehicle’s wheels have, regardless of wheel size.
In order to determine how much inner wheel clearance a wheel has, some measurement job is necessary.
- Pick one wheel and remove it;
- Place the wheel carefully on the ground (the inside mounting face up) and prepare two straightedges;
- Place one straightedge horizontally to the inner mounting surface, and the other one is perpendicular to it;
- Measure the distance from the inner mounting plate to one wheel spoke;
- The result is correct inner wheel clearance;
- Allow 3mm in all directions from the caliper to the wheel spoke;
If you have 40mm space for OEM brake calipers and you need at least 49mm space for aftermarket brake calipers, then 12mm wheel spacers will be very useful. When using wheel spacers, always stick to high-quality hub-centric spacers (and longer wheel bolts/lugs when needed). It is also important to confirm that the wider track will allow the tire to clear the fenders in all positions. Turn the steering wheel to the left and right on the spot, and check whether there are tires rubbing with the fenders. (If there is a rubbing issue, you may need to replace the wheel spacers with a smaller thickness).
