Which universals are you talking about? Pics?

Even if he lives far away, all you need to know is the thickness you want. and the 56.1 center bore. I sent the info to someone and they made the set for me... off the specs. If your friend knows what he is doing you should be able to still have them made with out being there,

 

it's a lot easier than you are making it. i feel like you may be over thinking it.
the uni spacers will float but the WHEEL will be resting on the hub.

 

He should know what he's doing, he built an entire rally car. I'm actually going to see him this weekend, but not at his house, so no machine tools. :(

I don't know what the universals look like at this particular store, I just called them on the phone to see if they had any. All I know is it's 1/4", 4x100 and they're $10 apeice.

If my friend made me some I'd have him machine an extra lip in there, so I'm not losing any hubcentricity. Probably not necessary on a 5mm spacer, but heck why not, right?

 

I'm going to give it a try, I just wanted to know if there was anything to look for. I'm like a hypochondriac when it comes to my car, too skittish about everything.

 

Running a 5mm spacers should still leave you with 6mm for the wheel to mate up with the hub, one other question for you though... What wheels are you planning on running with?
And do they have an center bore of 56.1, if they are larger than the hub diameter you would still want to get some hub rings and in some cases aftermarket wheels will come with them to match your hub.

 

Right now I'm running oem s-lites. It's only my tires that are rubbing. If I upgrade to aftermarket rims, I'll go with less offset and hence not need the spacers. The centerbore I'm sure is what the universal spacers seem to come with, which is like 70 something mm.

 

Then the universals will float, and if your running them with S-Lites, you shouldn't have to worry about them not lining up with the hub, The hub rings are usually used with wheels that are a different center bore than the hub.

Once you tighten them down they should hold. S-Lites are already Hub centric since they are mini specific. The only time you really need to have a lip added to a spacer is when the spacer itself is large enough that there is not enough hub for the wheel to sit on. Which is the issue I had since the spacers I had made are 11mm...

 

Gotcha. Whew! Lots of good info in this thread now... gonna pick up those spacers after work today then, I'd like to have them for the weekend since it's possible I will have alots of gear and maybe people in my car, and I can't have my tires shredding themselves against my rear struts.

Thanks everyone.

 

...

 

QFT!!

 

Get the spacers, install them and test them out before you load the car up, to make sure they fit right. Post up your results.

 

Lol yeah I didn't mean I was going to put the spacers on and then go drive around with a car full of people...

 

Well I put the spacers on tonight, only in the back Because lo and behold, my lugs are about three turns in... Going to be getting studs right away..

 

when wheels come off while driving it can be expensive and dangerous!

Matt

 

So driving to work this morning, spacers still on (my commute is only 7 miles, wanted to try them out) the rubbing is still there over bumps as before, but it seems like it rubs even MORE easily than before. I didn't think the spacer would reduce the spring rate enough to make it rub even more, but who knows.. i did a quick check when I got to work, and i don't THINK im rubbing the outside. Could I have a busted strut? It is still only rubbing on one side..

 

Only you Max...

Check the strut, and the lower control arm. If it's rubbing even with the spacer, then that seems like a camber issue.

 

It's so odd, because I JUST had the car aligned last week... at least I hope they aligned it. I think i'm going to bring it to the tire shop today after work and see what they can do. Heck maybe I should just go back to 205's... Might as well return the spacers, but I doubt the store would take them back after they've been used.

 

Well, I took my car to the tire place at lunch time to bring up the issue with the rubbing, and I had them recheck the alignment. Everything was fine, and they made a small adjustment on that rear wheel. I've removed the spacers, since I don't need to use them, and they probably aren't a great idea if I really don't need them. Helix, where I was going to order some wheel studs, suggested not to use them and to just get H&R's which come with studs. :shrug: But if there's no rubbing, there's no point anyway.

Although that brings me to another question.... if there is no rear camber adjustment on the 02-04 cars, how do they do an "adjustment"?

 

of adjustment for rear toe based on the front attachement point for the trailing arm, but that's about it.... Other than that, there's just loosening stuff and pushing parts around to one side of the slop or the other.

Matt

 

something isnt adding up. are you sure you're rubbing on the strut? can you visibly see mars or marks from the rubbing?

 

Well, now that I've got the spacers off again and the alignment double-checked, I'm going to see if I can get some people or junk loaded into my car this weekend and see if it rubs still. Maybe I'll just have to live with it.

 

The only evidence I can see is rub marks on the wheel liner, where the indentation is for the strut. I only witnessed constant rubbing when the car was loaded with my old snow tires and holies in the back coming home from the tire shop. Only since then, I've experienced a small rub over large bumps. I've never experienced rubbing on my 205's, no matter what I had in the back, and I've had my car loaded with 3 people + gear, and also 4 people at times.