Which wheel spacers for my winter set - UK M6 GC owner

[Dazza993]

Hello all

Winter is on the way here in the UK and by the end of this month my M6GC will be switching to the winter wheels & tyres I bought shortly after acquiring the car.

The winters are genuine BMW 19" 408M wheels which I purchased from a main dealer. The wheels fit and whilst look okay (for a winter set) could do with pushing out into the arches a little more. The wheels are 9" wide all round whereas the standard 343M are 10.5 at the rear and 9.5 at the front.

So looking at potential wheel spacers to enhance the aesthetics there's few to choose. I was planning on going for a 20mm spacer at the rear and a 10mm at the front.

A UK distributor for the Eibach spacers recommended the Type 7 ones where the wheel spacer bolts onto the hub with supplied bolts and the the wheel bolts onto the spacer using the existing wheel bolts. The supplying dealer suggest this type of fitment is much more secure?

Does anyone have an experience of the Eibach Type 7 spacers? Are they significantly better than a regular spacer combined with an extended wheel bolt? What puts me off is that it's impossible to check the bolt torque holding the spacer in place without having to remove the rear wheels.

The same distributor also does the standard Type 2 hub centric spaces from Eibach, the H&R hub centric spacers, Macht Schnell spacers that do come with the extended bolts and a Rogue Engineering spacer which again comes with the extended bolts.

Basically I'm looking for recommendations of these or any other brands and whether using extended bolts with a 'normal' spacer (as opposed to bolt-on) is a satisfactory solution given I want to push out the rears by 20mm

The spacers will be for winter use only so the car won't be driven that hard whilst these wheels are on the car.

If there are any UK owners whom have fitted spacers would you mind sharing where you purchased these from? Currently I'm looking at what CA Technologies can offer. Prices seem reasonable from them.

Thanks in advance

[Evil Derboy]

Without knowing the offset of the wheels it’s hard to determine the spacer width that you need (width is one thing but offset need to be taken into account as well) however I’m running Macht Schnell 10mm rear and 12mm front on the 343s.

I’ve had spacers on many cars including the bolt on type and I would never use those again. I had terrible vibration issues on a previous Audi A5 without bolt on spacers and no matter what I did just could not get rid of it.

I went with the Mach Schnell spacers after reading good feedback on here and I also got them from CA.

One tip that has really made a difference is to fully torque all four wheels whilst they are in the air.

Im also considering a winter tyre set up. Either tyres only or with a set of aftermarket rims.

[Evil Derboy]

Having looked up the specs of your winter wheels a 12mm spacer on the rear will bring them out to the same as your other wheels. So a 20mm spacer would be about right. Ideally a 22mm spacer would have right in line with the arch like the set up I’m running.

PS. I’m running 20mm hubcentric Super Forma spacers on my Maserati with no vibration issues.

[Dazza993]

Thanks for the information Derboy.

The winter wheels have an ET32 offset at the front and a ET25 offset for the rears.

To be honest if 12mm spacers front & rear would bring these winter wheels out to where the standard 323M wheels sit, that would do me. I'm happy with the look/setup of the standard wheels. I might go to a 15mm spacer at a push.

Looks like I'll go for the Mach Schnell spacers too, as they come with the necessary extended wheel bolts - which need to be the M14 x 1.25 thread, 17mm hex head and a 60 degree fixed taper, cone seat - about 40mm in length for a 12mm spacer. Does that sound right?

Is there a website or calculation you used to determine what sized spacer would match the standard wheel setup?

I'm a big fan of a dedicated winter wheel setup - I've had one for my previous 2 cars and the winter tyres make a huge difference not only in snow but cold damp weather too. I like the idea of dedicated wheels as I can swap them at my convenience and don't run the risk of damaging the standard wheels getting the rubber changed twice per year at a cost of £10/£15 per wheel each time. It's a bit of an investment but the summer tyres last longer and you still have something to sell if and when you trade the car. I've a nice set of Jaguar Lyra wheels + Michelin Alpin PA4 tyres if anyone is interested?

Thanks again
Dazza

[Evil Derboy]

Alpins is what I’m considering. I never bothered with winter wheels/tyres on my previous M3 and there was a couple of bad winters where the car ended up stranded. I have winters for the other car but do like the idea of going for wheels as well.

Wheel bolt length is just the std bolt length plus the spacer width. CA will keep you right.

As for the calculation. Take the wheel width in mm and half it. That gives you the width of the wheel from the centre. The offset is the distance in mm from that centre line to the hub facing. So by subtracting the offset you know the distance in mm from the hub to the outer edge of the wheel. You can then do the same calc for any replacement wheels and the difference between the two numbers is the required spacer width to make them the same.

[Dazza993]

Thanks for the information Derboy - by my calculations I'll need a 7mm spacer at the front and a 25mm spacer at the rear.

I also found this website that came up with the same conclusion

http://www.1010tires.com/Tools/Wheel-Offset-Calculator#

So for the fronts, I'll stick with a 8mm spacer assuming that not too thin to be a hub-centric one. I'm half temped to sacrifice the front spacers all together for the sake of 7mm (will it be that noticeable) and save some cost - wheel bolts + a security bolts will be more than the spacers themselves.

For the rears I think I'll max out at 20mm - or 18mm if I go for Mach Schnell, which is about the maximum thickness they do.

I'll confer with the guy from CA Technologies if you've been happy with his advice.

As for the winter tyres - the Michelin Alpins were very good. There was one occasion a couple of years ago where there was a good dollop of snow and the car (Jaguar XF-S) coped admirably. The tyres that came part of the wheel/tyre/TPMS package I bought from my local BMW dealer are Pirelli Sottozeros, so I didn't have much choice in tyre brand unless I created my own set which would have been more expensive.

You can get a 20" Michelin Alpin to fit the M6 but you're looking at about £350 per corner.

[Evil Derboy]

Not sure about that website. It just states that it’s 22mm closer to the strut on the inside but doesn’t specify how far in from the outside and I’m personally not confident on the calcs. Also are you sure about your dimensions? You’ve said the std wheels are 10.5” at the rear but I read somewhere that were 10.

[Dazza993]

Hi Derboy, I got my wheel dimensions here

http://www.alloywheelsdirect.net/bmw...43m_wheel_4171

but I'm sure I've seen the sizes confirmed elsewhere.

As for the website - the outer difference (i.e. how much more the wheel will sit into the arch) was the same as using your supplied formula.

I'll check my manual or look for an official online catalogue to double check though.

[Evil Derboy]

Originally Posted by Dazza993

Hi Derboy, I got my wheel dimensions here

http://www.alloywheelsdirect.net/bmw...43m_wheel_4171

but I'm sure I've seen the sizes confirmed elsewhere.

As for the website - the outer difference (i.e. how much more the wheel will sit into the arch) was the same as using your supplied formula.

I'll check my manual or look for an official online catalogue to double check though.

I was having a quick look on my phone and don;t think the the ones I looked at were M6 specific. They might have been for the M5 now that I think about it.

Safest way of doing this is to buy the wheels first and test fit and measure before choosing the spacer width. That way you cant go wrong.