Spacers on my BMW

[royawood]

I currently have a 2003 BMW E53 X5 3.0l with style 69 wheels and one inch spacers all around.

In the front, I am perfectly flush with the stock fenders. In the rear, I am still aprrox. 1" to 1.5" from being flush. I know this is due to the stock camber in the rear, as well as the wider body.

I am planning on installing a fender flare kit similar to that of the 4.4l with flares in the front and the rear. This will increase the distance for the wheel to be flush with the fender by approx. 0.5".

After reading many forums about how you're not suppose to stack spacers and long hours of searching the web for thick a$$ spacers with the necessary dimensions, I have become extremely irritated and am now looking for help from someone who actually knows what they are doing.

Along with the spacers, I purchased longer bolts which I recall being 63mm. I took the original length of the bolt, 38mm, and added the 25mm of spacer. I have had no problems.

I need to know if getting the spacers is worth it or if I should just buy new wheels with a greater offset and just space the rear. I am tight on cash, so whichever option proves to be cheaper.

Any help is appreciated, Cheers from Georgia, USA.

[ants_oz]

Mate, to be perfectly honest there is the RIGHT way to do this, and no other. The RIGHT way is to use the correct wheels and tyres. If you can't afford to do it that way, don't do it. Not everyone can afford to do everything they want - life gets in the way. Just enjoy what you have dude.

You seem obsessed with having the wheels pushed right out to the edge of the guards, but have you considered how these relatively skinny little wheels will look from the back of the vehicle? To fill out the rear guards properly, you need 315's on the right rim width.

Just take some time mate. Save your bucks as best you can, and wait till you can do the job right. Otherwise it's just going to look half-arsed and ghetto-fab.

[royawood]

Thanks ants_oz, I appreciate your input.

But again, my question was how am I to do this? Let us say I have the money to do it properly, how would I accomplish what I want?

[ants_oz]

You would use wheels with the correct offset and rim width.

[1naztyx5]

Not sure if I understood ( ants_oz) but sounds like he said spacers is the wrong way to do it? Can say I agree or disagree is all about preference .

How ever if your going passed 20mm I highly recommend DRA spacers that bolt to hub . Longer studs can be dangerous on heavy cars like ours .

Just in case you or anyone is wondering from e53's to F15's in our group are using spacers , specially if you want to flush out the wheels with the fenders .
Unless you go custom, it will be hard to find wheels to meet those needs.

Here is one example , owner is a forum member as well .

4.8is 25/30 mm spacers



Here is our group , pics from Bimmerfest yesterday

[ants_oz]

Wouldn't want to drive a vehicle very hard, setup like that. Tyre will be contacting the guard pretty darn hard.

[4.8isX5]

Lol, tire already wore out what it needs, on our air setup, it stops once the wheel is just about in contact with fender. Car is driven hard like on track. No issues, over 15k miles on setup.


Just a little clip

BMW X5 4.8is exhaust and launch - YouTube

[itscoo2pyopants]

^ that sounds mean!!! what kind of exhaust mods did you do?

[ants_oz]

Mate, if you know anything about track driving (I was state hill climb champ 2 years running) then you will know this - you can't drive a car on the road, anywhere near as hard as on a track. And if you drive a car on the public road as hard as you claim (I'm not watching some youtube clip when I don't even know who it is), then you deserve to have your license taken off you and your car crushed.

Bye bye.

[g300d]