wheel spacers on 996 cab?

Please see my last post and if you can assist please reply or send me a PM. TIA I would like to fill out the wheel wells of my 2000 996 C2 cab. Is it possible to add wheel spacers without having to roll the fender lips? If I can, does anyone have recomendations about how wide the spacer could be before I would have problems with the tires rubbing? Would the front and rear spacers be the same thickness? Thanks in advance for your assistance.

If you fit 19" wheels/tyres you will need to roll the fenders otherwise the spacers will fit fine.

Scouser, Thanks. I plan on keeping the 18" wheels and tires. What size spacer: 4mm 6mm 7mm 14mm or 15mm

Personally, I wouldn't go past 6mm for either front or back (unless of course you have a wide body then the skies your limit). Before I fitted my 19" wheels I had 4 on the front and 6 on the back. Now I don't have any.....and to be real honest I like them now without. The very reason I got the 19" wheels was becuase I had trashed the previous 18" wheels with curb rash cos they stuck out just a tad too much. BTW: check ebay out before you buy them. Cheers

For my winter set up I have the 18" turbo wheels with blizzak LM-22 tires 225's up front and 265's in the rear. I have ROW M030 suspension. I have no issues. Car looks sooo much better with this set up. It also shows that you can get much more aggressive with custome wheel offsets and that deep dish wheel. Look at cargraphic wheels.

Chuck, I have them on my '99 C4 Cab. Look great. With 18" rufs it comes out perfectly in line with the body. I'm not sure of which width they are but I suggest you find the right ones and do it. Good luck Mitch

Thanks guys, 996/699, do you know/remember what size spacer you had on your car? Mitch, are the Rufs the same offset as 18" Sport Classics? If straight in line with the outside of the fender is where you're at, I could get a pretty wide spacer and be okay. I am going to spacers just want to do it once. I have a set of 15mm Techart spacers that I might put on just to gauge what size might work.

Hey ChuckZ, on my last car, I had the Sport Classic IIs with 225 front and 285 rear (1999 C2, lowered with no rubbing at all) and I ran H&R 15mm spacers on the rear and 7mm on the front. Both required longer bolts from H&R. They did the job of filling the fenderwells with no apparent downsides. Actually, I still have the spacers and bolts if you're interested (sorry, that was not a cheap attempt at selling spacers, I'm just trying to help). Email me off-line if you need more info. [email removed]

Look at my heading - 15mm up front and 25mm in the rear

I'm sorry. I didn't notice that. I'll bet that if your car is really low, you could run into clearance issues. That being said, it probably looks mean as hell.

my car has row m030 suspension so not that low.

sorry 996/699, I missed that too. Any pics?

right side with 15mm spacer front and rear

left side rear without spacer

from left front corner no spacers

Right side with 15mm spacers front and rear. Very subtle difference.

Down low with 15mm spacers front and rear

down low right side without spacers.

Good as the spacers look on the car, I don't think I can use 15mm on the front. When the steering wheel is turned to the stop, the tire is up against the fender liner. Probably try the next size down.

Chuck: Porsche does not recommend spacers wider than 5mm front and back for any of their OEM rims. In addidtion, you probably know that you will need to get longer wheel bolts as well. Personally, I think spacers are a bad idea. If you look at the stories on both this and on the funcarsonline board, you will find that there are many sad tales about folks with spacers and having stripped bolts and failed wheel bearings because of the stress that the altered offset puts on the hub and bolts. Another more reliable way of making your wheels stick out further is to get some rims that keep the proper offset, but are wider. There are some great 13" gold faux wire wheel rims out there that allow you to stick your tires out way far! Team those up with some W rated whitewalls, and you will have a killer combo! BTW: Love your color top combo. That was my first choice when I ordered my 02 Cab.

OE, Thanks for the note, the color is awesome. I have had 4 928s over the years and 3 of them had spacers. My current GTS has a 1" spacer on the rears and I've had no issues nor, have I heard of other GTS owners with any issues. Didn't the 930 have spacers too? Porsche recomends you don't do lots of things to your car. Is it really that big of an issue?

What year is your GTS? sounds like it is one of the last ones. I prefer rims that have the correct offset, and are just deeper on the outside to make the rim stick out further. I agree there are alot of things that Porsche says are no-no's , but I also see many folks that are singing the blues when they break their car becuase of some mod. It looks like 996s have more problems with extra wide spacers than other models, especially on the front suspension. The last thing I will bring up in trying to dissuade you from spacers is that with your wheels sticking out further, you will get more gravel and debris damage on your paint from stuff that the tires kick up.

Hi OE, My GTS is a 1995 model with 10,800 miles. It is one of 74 1995 GTSs built and approximately 23-27 with a 5-speed trans. I am a 928 fanatic, check out my web site: 928 site I am going to have to put smaller spacers on the front because of the rubbing issue. I agree that some of the mods folks have done have contributed to problems down the road and that's why I've stayed away from extensive engine mods. Would very much like to keep the stock wheels and tires. I guess what I keeping thinking is how Porsche used to tell owners not to put 18" wheels on older cars. I also agree with your last comment and as fanatical I am about keeping my cars in pristine condition this is definately a concern.

Correction on my spacers. 15 mm up front and 23 in the rear NOT 25mm.

Has anyone experienced negative impact on the wheel bearings and/or suspension components like Orient Express is concerned about? I certainly do not want to do something to my car that might induce other worse problems than the stock wheels not filling out the wheel wells to my liking.

I too, would like some factual evidence to what spacers will due to your car. I am no mechanical engineer but do think that what I have heard to date on this forum and others is legend. Stripped bolts is from over tightening. The only thing that I can picture from all of this is that with the wheel further out you have increased the leverage point of the wheel on the suspension which would mean it will require less force to compress the suspension. This would be a negative (Some one technical might be able to tell us if this is negligable or not). As for offsets, I have to imagine that you want to keep the center of the wheel close to the hub so that the geometry is not changed by a larger wheel. Anybody care to explain if I am correct or totally off base?

The main issue with spacers is that they change the scrub radius. Most modern car manufacturers advocate negative scrub radius (BMW being the notable exception), because it stabilises the vehicle under "split mu" breaking, i.e. breaking with right and left front wheels on different friction surfaces. A 986 (I haven't got 996 data here, but I assume it's the same) has a scrub radius of -7mm. That's *negative* scrub radius which stabilises the vehicle under split mu breaking. Introducing spacers decreases this, i.e. if you use 5mm spacers, you are left with a scrub radius of -7mm+5mm=-2mm. You get very close to a positive scrub radius, and in real life with an asymetric contact patch you might already be there. If you fit 15mm spacers, you get a *positive* scrub radius of 8mm, which destabilises the vehicle under split mu breaking and is pretty much the opposite of what the manufacturer intended. Cheers, Uwe

Where is this scrub radius and how is it measured? How does a spacer change the radius? Do I assume the radius has something to do with the contact patch of the rotating tire?

Scrub radius

Does anyone have spacers for sale. Looking for 2x7mm and 2x15mm.

raffi: Try www.boothedesign.com he has ton's of them. Peter

thanks peter, I will check them out

I have deicided to go with the Porsche recomendation of a max of 5mm on the spacers. As good as the car looks with 15mm spacers front and rear and as conservative as I know Porsche can be on things like this there's got to be a reason they say only 5mm's. I recently saw an ad in Excellence for a spacer kit available for the 996 from a Porsche dealer, I'm sure its the 5mm set up with longer wheel studs. I'm going to check it out from PCNA or get the spacers from Ralph Boothe. Thanks to everyone for their opinions and recomendations.

hey Chuck, I checked with Ralph, he had pretty good prices a little more expensive than H&R but he has custom size chromed lugs for $12 each. If you are gonna go with porsches reccomendations why not do their 17mm and 5mm setup. As far as I know they now have a 17mm set for the rear. I have read about the porsche 17mm spacers multiple places and would definitely go that route if you are gonna pay porsche prices anyway . FYI from renntech I learned from posts by KarlS and Loren that porsche reccomends either 5mm all around or 5mm front and 17mm rear. I am assuming that you thought porsche only reccomended 5mm all around...

Hi Raffi, You are correct. I'm going to have to look into this more. Will let you know what I find out.

Guess I got the answer to my original question in Porsche's Tequipment book. I picked it up at Hendrick Porsche the other day. Guess I'll be putting 15mm spacers on the rear and 5mm on the front. Here is the page from the Tequipment book.

Here is the Tequipment book they're in. Thought it relevant since this is a 996 specific book.

thanks for the info chuck, also for the great pictures of your cab with the spacers. The car looks awesome with the 15mm up front but I would also go with the 5mm front and 15mm rear like you chose just to stay closer to porsches recommendations.

What does Porsche recommend for wheel bolt lengths for 5mm and 17mm spacers?

That's the next hurdle because the 17mm spacers require the old style lug nuts like on my 95 GTS and the 5mm front spacers will require longer wheel studs (I will post length when I get that info). Problem is, the face of each is different. What to do? Haven't figured that one out yet. Raffi, Thanks, it really does make the look more aggresive doesn't it?

I know this is an old thread, but in case someone has questions regarding the 17mm rear wheel spacers by Porsche, they seem to be relevant to C4 cars only. See below from Sunset Porsche Parts site: Genuine: SKU: 000-044-500-10 Description: Set, consisting of two 17 mm spacers for the rear axle, including wheel nuts. Note: Not in conjunction with snow chains. A manufacturer?s certificate must be requested from your Porsche Partner for installation. Please observe the technical approvals and the Installation and Modification Instructions from After Sales Service. Please contact your Porsche Partner for further information. Note: Only to compensate for the rim offset for 911 Carrera 4 models and 911 Targa 4 models. Use only on rear axle.

This is mine with 15mm front and 7mm rear. Lowered on B8s with H&R springs, stock 18� wheels ET50 front , ET65 rear.