Wheel Spacers on the SE

I installed spacers on Jessie, 15mm forward and aft. I like wheels to sit almost flush with the wheel well, so just a little added poke usually does the trick, without having to worry about rubbing or dramatically altering the handling (or, on the SE, the important aerodynamics).

I’ve put all the specs I learned/compiled about the stock wheels, hubs, and bolts, below. Thanks to @idrw’s teaching me about lug bolts, I picked the correctly sized threads and shanks on the replacements to work with the new spacers: 45mm (43mm would have been exactly right, 15mm larger than the stock 28mm, but 45mm worked just fine).

Swapping in the spacers was a piece of cake: just slip them in place and bolt the wheels back on, using the longer bolts. I will say that a wheel hanger bolt made things very easy; after removing the top lug bolt, screw in the hanger, then remove the rest of the lugs. The wheel hanger holds the wheel in place until you are ready to slip it off, and it allows one to slide the spacer and the wheel back on before easily replacing the lugs. Of course, don’t impact them in, use the star pattern, use a torque wrench, and re-torque after fifty miles and again periodically.

I think the final product looks “right” and properly stanced, whereas stock seems, to my eye, like the wheels are undersized, like an economy car’s tucked-in, small wheels.

Here’s the gouge:

Stock Wheel Specs
17" TENTACLE SPOKE
Bolt pattern = 5x112mm
Wheel Width: 7 in.
Wheel Diameter: 17 in.
Wheel Offset: ET:54mm
Color: Silver
Stock tires: Hankook Ventus S1 evo3 205/45R17
Center Bore: 66.6 mm
Torque: 140 Nm, 103 ft-lbs
Factory lug bolts:
M14 x 1.25, 17mm head, Conical taper, 28mm shank length.

Spacers, 15mm
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0834KSLD9/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_PU5JFbVD0JVSB?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Wheel Bolt, M14x1.25, 45mm thread length
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RKNWZ5Y/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_dR5JFbGEJ45KB?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Wheel Hanger
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SFZ6YJL/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_uzcLFb335J0AW?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

Yeah, mine are on the subtle end of the spectrum. Some people go bananas poking their wheels way out while lowering the cars, and then there is the "stance" crowd who play with the camber, often to extremes:


I just like the look of the line of the body's outermost flair continuing straight down the outboard edge of the wheel, rather than the outermost flair receding back inboard before intersecting the plane of the wheel.

But, to each his own. There are engineering and aesthetic tradeoffs in all mods.

Interesting about the spacers being illegal in Oz.

 

I believe I read the SE is actually lifted an inch on taller springs, to protect the battery. But, despite this, the SE has a lower CG because of the batteries' mass being on the bottom of the car.

Looking at it from the side, the gap from the top of the 17" wheel to the fender does look a bit large. I'm sure someone will offer a spring kit to lower it back to standard S specs.

 

Nothing noticeable in either attribute. Handles like a dream, and I average around 110 to 120 miles per charge while hauling *** at 80 on my commute with the AC on full blast to counter Houston's 98 degree afternoons. Milking it, I show 140+.

I just rotated the tires at 10,000 odometer miles (8000 on the tires, as the originals had a dragginess issue). All tires looked like they had even wear; I couldn't tell which were fronts and which were afts, except that I knew their positions already.

After having used anti-seize on the spacers where they contact the hub, they all slipped right off when I rotated.

TLDR: They're just cosmetic, causing neither harm nor performance improvement.

 

Just realized that my Rule 1E picture does a pretty good job showing the cosmetic difference my 15mm spacers make:

 

Per the Magnuson Act, a warranty denial must be caused by the aftermarket part; its mere presence is not sufficient cause for denial. It's hard for me to imagine what is effectively selecting an aftermarket rim with 15mm less offset meeting that standard.

That said, I just passed 16,000 miles with no indication of issues. The undriven rear suspension is pretty simple. The spacers' addition adds less change than a set of new rims.

Also, when I was having what I thought was an alignment problem (but was actually a tire drag problem), my dealer guys did not care about my spacers when they were troubleshooting the alignment issue, because four identical, small spacers would not cause problems.

 

That lowered and poked looks really good to my eye, but alas, my driveway's steep angle, my terribly potholed street, and my street's numerous traffic humps conspire to keep me mostly stock.