If the hub on the car is 10mm thick, and the spacer is 10mm thick, and the snout part has to be the exact same dimensions as the hub on the car, that leaves how much material to attach the snout part to the spacer? 0mm.

There's a certain thickness of spacer that CANNOT be manufactured because there's no way to attach the snout to the spacer, since there's no material there.

--Dan
Mach V

 

Well I've been tinkering with mine to see what will definitely fit. Seems like 8mm is enough to clear the front calipers, but like you said Dan it's EXTREMELY close with maybe enough space to fit a hair between where the caliper and wheel are at their closest. But it does spin without hitting the caliper, at least while up on jack stands - not sure if that makes a difference. There's also around 4mm of the wheel hub snout still exposed do that you can center the wheel.

There's a new problem, however. I'm running on 235/40-17s with the TSW spec'd KW V2s. Now the issue is that the inside of the tire is rubbing on the spring.

I've seen lowered R56s on RBs with 225s and 235s here in posts that seem to be running successfully.

Dan, have you received this kind of feedback with the RBs on a non-JCW R56 on lowered suspension with wider tires rubbing on the springs before?

 

I went on the motorsport Racemaster site. They custom build their spacers, complete with the hubcentric. Like most everyone else, I would like as thin as spacers as possible, and still clear the Brembo Brakes on my JCW. Really, in a perfect world I'd love these wheels, or compareable wheels, not to have spacers. Oh yes, the price quoted for 10 mm hubcentric spacers was $70. plus shipping and tax. What's H&R? $150 for their 15 mm units a pair. Now for someone to find out EXACTLY what size of spacers really needed to fit these Rota RB's on the JCW.

 

That's BRILLIANT! Although you'd still need lugs. Do they sell them as well?

For $70 I'd buy them and give it a shot.

Todd

 

You generally want at least 1mm of clearance to allow for slight flexing of the parts, and so tiny but strong things (paper clips?) can't wedge between the wheel and caliper.

Yes, we fitted KW coilovers and 225/35R18's to this car...



...and the tires and/or the wheels were rubbing on the front coilover springs. Coilovers are completely round next to the wheel, where the stock strut is squished a little for extra clearance.

To be precised, you need BOLTS. The kits we sell come with appropriately-sized longer bolts, and those bolts can be hard to find otherwise.

--Dan
Mach V

 

They can make 10mm hubcentric spacers, but they won't be able to make them for the MINI (hubcentric, that is) because of the way the hub is designed. You can get a thinner spacer that leaves some of the wheel hub exposed or a thicker spacer that extends past the wheel hub so that a hubcentric ring has room to be added, but not with a 10mm (at least not on the MINI). You can use a 10mm, but just keep in mind it won't be hubcentric. Based on my (not 100% accurate) measurenments, that would mean the hub ring on the spacer would only be 1, maybe 2mm in length. I'm guessing that's not enough for it to be strong.

You might want to email them to be sure.

The H&R set is 15mm and comes with the necessary lug bolts in a kit for two wheels, so that's why it's priced at $150.


Not sure if they sell lug bolts. I'm guessing they don't.

I'd say if you want the Rota RBs for your JCW get them. I haven't had any problems with mine using the 15mm spacers. In fact no one would ever be able to tell there were spacers on the car, excluding those in the know and then only because they know they're on there.

The car drive great and looks great, and I'm lowered and on 235s too.

 

Just contacted http://www.motorsport-tech.com/wheel_spacers.html

and the 10 mm spacers are $35 each and bolts in extra length are $12 per wheel. They, actually recommend getting four spacers so that the wheel track will be the same. Hadn't thought about that. But my question is: Has anyone used an 8mm, or 10mm spacer with the Rota RB wheels? I'm still in quandry as to the clearance between the Brembos and the wheels. As stated before, I know that that most have used the H&K 15 mm spacers, but I'd like to keep the wheels closer in, if possible. Love to eliminate them completely, but not possible, I guess Still can't understand why someone that is dealing in the Rota RB's hasn't found a machine shot that could do some work on these wheels to make them clear the Brembos.

 

Wha...? Do you understand what you're asking? You can't just mill 10mm off the spokes of the wheels and expect them to hold together. To make the wheels clear Brembos would require the spokes to stick our further, or to be thinner. It may be impossible to make them thinner. In either case, it's a re-work of the mold, not something that could be done at a machine shop.

As sooper_cooper points out, those will just be simple wafers, and the remaining couple of mm of hub that stick out will probably not be enough to locate the wheel relative to the hub. So your wheels will not be mounted hubcentric. Probably not a problem -- I've done it on a few cars without problems -- but it could lead to the wheel being off-center relative to the hub, which means unpleasant vibration and weird wear problems with the tires.

--Dan
Mach V

 

Hey, just nail me to the cross, why don't you. I just asked a simple question. I've been around some guys that were very adept with lathes and can do some rather miraculous things. I just asked as 10 mm is not a lot of space.

 

Perhaps you could look at a hubcentric spacer, maybe the racemax 12mm, to take a quick look at how much space is available. You will find that the hubcentric part does not have too much room. Maybe you can make something.

 

Whoa, let's keep this cool!

A 10mm hub centric spacer can easily be milled, but the way the R56 wheel hub is designed makes it not possible.

Take a look at this diagram:



#7 in the diagram is where the spacer goes. The part that extends is the hub centric ring. I measured it and it appears to be ~11-12 mm in length, if I remember correctly. As such, and for a wheel spacer to have a hub centric ring, it would have to be wider than the ring on the wheel hub. Otherwise the spacer's ring would overlap the stock ring and the end result is your wheel would require something like a 58.2 mm bore instead of the 56.1 I believe it is.

You can use a 10mm spacer, but it won't be hub centric and it would only leave about 1-2 mm of the stock ring protruding beyond the spacer, which is cutting it pretty close.

Again, none of my measurements were scientific but the principle remains the same.

I tried an 8mm spacer but it barely, literally barely, cleared my calipers. Even so, the problem then was that my tires rubbed against my KW coils on the inside.

Of course it all also depends on whether you're lowered, what size tires you have, and how low you go.

Hope that clears thing up a little and helps to explain it a little better.

 

Hmm, not sure why the picture didn't show. Here's where I was trying to link to:

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...76&hg=31&fg=10

 

With all this trouble, maybe I'd be just better off getting the Kosei ECO 1's which require no spacers. Love the Rota RB look, I've never liked the spacer idea in the first place.

RaceMax claims that they've done the 56.1 spacer in a 10 mm before. Or, they think that they can do it. Maybe instead of just doing the emails, maybe a telephone call might be better.

As for having 1-2 mm left on the 10mm spacer, without the hubcentricity, what's to hurt having just that? Afterall the lugs are tightened to a torqued spec, and the weight of the car will just have a little on what's left of the hubcentric, and most will be on the lugs, just the way cars have been for eon's of years. If my old GTX from the 60's with over 430 hp and 500 lbs of torque could just use the bolts, and also it weighed in at over 800 lbs more than the Lil Guy, what matters? Unless there is something that I am not aware of.

Like I said, maybe the 14.2 lbs. Kosei ECO's might be better arter all, and they do have them in Black.

 

Sooper Cooper.

I know that I've seen pictures of your car, but can really tell what the 15 mm spacers do for the tread look. I'm running, and will run Summer tires in the same size, 215 x 45 x 17" so I don't think that I'll run into a clearance problem. I, however, in the future intend on puting on my H&R springs, but haven't gotten to it. The 38 hotrod takes presidence over the Mini for awhile. I will probably way a year before any suspension mods are done. My 38 Ford money pit still thinks it needs more attention. It should be, finally finished this Fall. The gray leather came today, so my basement smells like leather.

 

I plan to take some better pictures soon. The pic I'm using now was taken right after the KWs were installed. Since then I've had the car re-aligned and corner balanced. You'll get a much better view once I get the new photos uploaded.

I'm also running very low, too low for my taste anyway. I think I'll raise it up a half inch or so.

Anyway, I was aprehensive at first too but I haven't had any problems and the car handles phenomenally after the upgrades.

Of course the decision is yours (I had a set of Kosei Racing Seneka on a lowered and modded out Acura I owned years ago and they were great). You shouldn't have any problems with the 215s and the H&R springs if you go with the RBs.

I did dial in some negative camber in the front, but I had planned to do it anyway, spacers or not, for tracking the car this summer.