Should an 8mm H&R spacer have the hub centric ring?

[DELUX]

Ok guys, I have a dilemma. I still have a bit of vibration even after getting new tires and now I'm leaning towards my 8mm H&R spacers I picked up recently. They are supposedly hub-centric, but they don't have the actual 'lip' on them but rather they're like my 5mm H&R spacers up front and just have a cutout. If anybody owns BBS wheels, they know that the hub-centric ring is slightly recessed and I don't even think it's making contact with the hub in the rear using these 8mm spacers. My previous spacers were from Black Forest and they were 16mm and DID have the lip and I had absolutely no vibration.

I know there are some spacer nuts on here who should know the answer. I've seen older H&R 8mm spacers that DO have the lip, but AWE told me that these were the correct hub-centric spacers when I bought them.

P.S. - Does AWE EVER answer their phones? Sure doesn't seem like it...

Any ideas?

[b6onboost]

H&R has three different models of 8mm spacers.

1 - One model does not have a lip
2 - Hubcentric Version 1 is both hubcentric and wheel centric. 135mm od. (OEM VW/Audi wheels Only)
3 - Hubcentric Version 2 is like version 1 except it has a 150mm od for a larger rotor surface.

My guess is you have #1, as it has no lip and is for aftermarket wheels. If the hubcentric ring for your BBS wheels does not sit on the actual OEM hub, this is likely the source of your vibration. (I'll add, if you recently had new tires mounted, it could very well be as simple as a poor balancing job.)

Even more info: I have 8mm Version 1 above. In my hand I test fitted a hubcentric ring on it. It would not fully seat on the spacer as the spacer has a angle entending from the base to the lip. However, my 15mm H&R spacers do not have as sharp of an angle from base to lip, so the hub ring would sit perfectly flat. In the pic below you can see the angle on the lip. It's funny because you'd assume the angle is the same, but it's not.

So here is what I determined: I couldn't run 8mm Version 1 with aftermarket wheels as I didn't like that the ring wouldn't fully seat. I couldn't run 8mm the non-hubcentric (#1) as they didn't have a lip and the ring wouldn't quite reach the oem hub with the spacer on. I know guys who mod the hubcentric rings to sit flat, didn't want to deal with it though. 18x8.5 CH's...et35? you really need spacers?

If this makes me a 'spacer nut' i'd appreciate a rep for being one.

H&R 8mm Version 1


H&R 15mm

[DELUX]

Thanks, that helped a lot. I'm going to TRY to get a hold of AWE again today. And yea, I kinda need the 8mm spacers in the rear or it looks kinda dumb with my front offset being flush and my rear being tucked in.

[b6onboost]

AWE is correct in saying they are 'hub-centric' as the spacer center bore is an exact match to the oem hub. However, not all spacers are 'wheel-centric'. They are simply flat and generic to all wheels. If the car's hub lip is long enough, there is no need for a spacer to be 'wheel-centric'. On our cars, 7mm is about the limit. Anything larger should be wheel centric otherwise there is nothing to support the center bore of the wheel. This is why all 2-7mm spacers don't come with a lip, but everything 8mm and over does. H&R just happens to make 8mm's in both.

You might need to look at ECS or BFI spacers. They may have a different angle on the lip which will allow you to seemless mount your BBS wheels using the hub rings. Like I mentioned, on my H&Rs the rings fit the 15mm's perfect, but not the 8mm's, and it was all due to that angle.

[DELUX]

I hear ya. I got a hold of AWE today finally and spoke to one of their sales reps, I'm sending him a part number for a spacer that has a lip, but I may also look into the ECS options. Do you know which one specifically would match the angle of the BBS rings?

[b6onboost]

Not specifically. All of the spacers with lips are generally for oem and most aftermarket wheels. Normally BBS wheels come in offsets where spacers are not required. 8.5 et35 is pretty perfect for our cars, but i know everyone's tastes are different. At this point it'd be trial and error with different spacer brands or rings.