Safe to use wheel spacers on X5?

[Hal88]

I got HRE 28mm in the rear only, it looks cool and no issues.....I thought you weren't supposed to install spacers in the front for safety reasons.

[JCL]

Originally Posted by Hal88

I got HRE 28mm in the rear only, it looks cool and no issues.....I thought you weren't supposed to install spacers in the front for safety reasons.

Some would say that you should never install spacers on any axle, for safety reasons. I'm in that club.

Spacers change the loading on wheel bearings by having the incorrect offset. Expect lower wheel bearing life.

Spacers change the loading on suspension components.

Spacers introduce an additional failure mode by having a second interface at the wheel attachment point. This is because there is now a bending moment applied to the wheel bolts. Safety margins can go down by a multiple of 2 or 3 very easily, even with narrow spacers. The affects of this one point can be partially mitigated by the use of proper hub centric spacers. Using quality spacers with correct hardware helps, but doesn't completely resolve this issue.

Spacers change handling by altering the steering geometry, particularly the scrub radius.

If you want wider looking wheels, the correct approach is to buy wider wheels with the correct offset. Using spacers is just a quick fix to the looks issue, specifically, the outer tire edge location relative to the fender.

That all said, many buy them just for the looks, don't care about the safety or handling issues, and haven't had problems. That's one approach.