Does anyone use wheel adapters and do they affect performance adversely? I’ve been using for a few months and I can’t find any huge difference but my car is an weekend driver.
Hi
when you say “wheel adapters” do you mean wheel spacers to increase track/ clear calipers or the spacers designed to enable you to fit a wheel with a different PCD to the Factory OE
Sorry. Different wheels with different bolt pattern
I have never used the adapters to change the PCD only to clear calipers, in my limited experience of these items are problematic unless they are Hubcentric, if the product is Hubcentric on both the hub mounting side and the wheel mounting side and manufactured to sufficiently small tolerances then there is no issues.
The problem tends to come when the items are not hubcentric and you are relying on the wheel studs to take the weight of the vehicle and to centre the wheel rather than as the manufacturer intended that the hub should perform both these tasks.
This issue can also occur when aftermarket wheels with the correct PCD but the incorrect centre bore are fitted and spigot rings are not fitted to take up the difference between the wheels centre bore and vehicles hub, this often leads to a vibration on the steering wheel which is often mistaken for the cars tyre/wheel assembly being out of balance.
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- 1" (25mm) | 5x114.3 (5x4.5) to 5x100 Wheel Adapters / Spacers | 12x1.5 Studs | 1.0 inch Thick These are the adapters I do not know if this tells you anything. The wheels I do not know if they are hub or lug but they have the same Center If what I have won’t work I’ll definitely not use them
Hi from your spacers specification I assume you are fitting 5x100 PCD wheels to your GTO which is 5x114.3 and increasing the track by 50mm overall (25mm each side) the M12x1.5 is the OE stud thread so would be correct if you as using the same wheel nuts.
You do not mention the centre bore of the spacer/adapter you have but the hub of your car will be 67.1mm and the size of the centre bore of the spacer on the hub mounting side should be clearance 67.1mm
I have attached two photo’s of wheel spacers (not specifically for your application) the first is of a straight flat machined spacer which uses the studs to centre the wheels (Which I personally do not like) the second photo is of a Hubcentric spacer which gives a upstand in the centre, the diameter of which should be the same as the Centre Bore of the wheel you wish to mount IE: centre bore of your 5x100 wheel
I hope my explanation makes sense
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To be honest the photo you have shown from Titan Wheels is not the type of Spacer/Adapter that I personally would be prepared to fit to my own vehicle, this type is putting the entire weight of the vehicle on the wheel studs as the centre of the wheel Unsupported which in its self is not good engineering practice and as I have mentioned previously it in addition does not centre the wheel on the hub so there is a very real chance that you will get wheel wobble when driving above 40mph generally between 50 - 75mph.
But the biggest danger is the studs being the only support for the weight of the car on the wheels, in extreme cases I have seen studs shear off from the hub due to the extra strain of the wheel centre being unsupported.
Obviously this is only my opinion and many people may be perfectly happy with this type of flat spacer, its purely that I have seen more that one occasion where studs have failed under those conditions and I have been known to do some spirited driving and the thought of even partially loosing a wheel fill me with dread.
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I think what I may do is refurbish the oem wheels and replace those. Can I ask. when looking for new wheels I am supposing the most important factor is 5x114.3? I definitely want the correct engineering for the ride.
I would need to get different adapters so I’d ask for hubcentric. I do not know why Goodyear would not let me know these are not the good ones. If I had the $ I’d just go get new wheels.
You are correct that any replacement wheel must be 5x114.3, the centre bore must be 67.1 or larger (if larger then you will require a spigot ring with a outer diameter the same size as the centre bore of the wheel you wish to fit and a inner diameter of 67.1mm.
The biggest problem I have had getting wheels to fit properly is the offset and the spoke design, the front calipers on these cars protrude from the hub more than a lot of vehicles of the same type IE: Nissan Skylines, 300ZX, Silvia’s etc, the OE wheels spoke design curves outwards from the mounting surface towards the outside edge of the rim and the vast majority of aftermarket wheels spokes are not sufficiently curved and foul the caliper body.
I have seen numerous 3000GT/GTO’s with spacers on the front axle simply to clear the calipers, I can tell you that Rays Engineering TE37, the Enkei Circlar GTA K95, the Enkei Mitsubishi Lancer EVO7 and EVO10 factory wheels all clear the calipers, I would assume (although I have no first hand experience) that the EVO6 and EVO9 would also be a direct fit.
The advantage of the EVO wheels is that the centre bore is the same as the 3000GT/GTO at 67.1mm so require no spigot rings.
I have just purchased a set of EVO10 Wheels to replace the white wheels that are on the car at present for that very reason.
Hope some of this helps
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Thank you it does help and my learning as well of the engineering… When I see all these cars 3ks with new wheels I just wonder what is the first they search for. I apologize for being so ignorant on the subject but I need to start somewhere.
Having made the mistake three times on the GTO the first thing I look for is the shape of the spokes on the inside of the wheel as they come away from the mounting surface if you look at the Enkei Circlar GTA in the photo you will see the huge gap between the caliper and the wheels spokes it is this style of wheel that gives the clearance required.
If you look at the standard GTO wheel for the series 2 & 3 (the one pictured is chrome but the painted version is the same) you can see how the spokes curve to clear the calipers
Its difficult to see from your photograph but I am assuming that this is with your current set up with the spacer/adapter fitted you might have sufficient clearance for those wheels without the spacer if they were 5x114.3, but I can tell you that without a trial fitting it is almost impossible to tell.
As I say I have purchased 3 sets of wheels by measuring and fallen foul every time only by 2-3mm but if the caliper hits the wheel its a fail
These are with the new adapters on, the clearance with the calipers is very good. When looking back there was advertisement as hubcentric for these adapters but I do not know if this is actually true. When ordering they ask for input of car make and model and year, this doesnt really tell me much. I think I might just refurb my OEM wheels and wait until I can get the ones I want in the future maybe.
Can’t say I agree that either stock or with adapters that the “weight” of the car is ever on the wheel studs. Clamping force essentially makes the wheel and hub (and any kind of spacer) one physical unit. Even without centralising spigot rings, tapered nuts will centre the wheel if tightened up in the right sequence and to the correct torque. If the weight is on anything, it’s on the wheel bearing. Just my opinion.
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You guys can correct me on this one, but I have always had the assumption that spacers are not good for anything as they put way too much load on different bearings/bushes as the car was not designed for what they do.
I hope this is correct.