Front Spacer
 

I never got the front spacer. I had installed 25mm on the rear and had thought about adding a 5mm to offset the rear a little but never had the chance to follow through with it. Sorry, wish I can help on the front spacer.

:dunno:

No fronts yet either
 

Yeah, I haven't done the fronts yet either. Based on all the data, my hunch is that 10mm front spacers would not make the steering feel too odd on these heavier vehicles with the large heavy wheels. I think it is still worth doing. They are cheap enough.. just try it and see how she steers.

Looks wise, they so need it! I have rear spacers on the Z3 Coupe and the X5. Now when I look at other cars that don't have spacers they just look so funny / odd. My friends new 335 just looks.. well, I kind of feel bad for him. "Common dude, we need to fix your car".. hehehee..

These X5 need the fronts pushed out just a little further too.

So why am I waiting? Black bolts. Painting the longer silver bolts is not working out. I tried it on a front spacer kit for the Coupe. Paint instantly comes off the first time you torque the bolts. Even tried baking the paint on. I'm still looking for long black bolts. Can't find any leads. The only other option is to switch to wheel studs and buy high end (very expensive) black anodized nuts from TC Kline Racing. The problem is (besides the cost), they only make bolts for the 1,3,5 series. X5 takes larger studs / nuts. Anybody have any leads?

My OEM wheel bolts are black... have you tried the dealer?

Your BMW bolts? Right.. they're all black, but when you add a spacer that is between 5mm to 20mm thicker, you then have to switch to bolts that are that much longer too.. or they won't reach the hub. BMW doesn't make longer bolts. So that means going after market. Most guys buy the H&R longer bolts, but these are silver.

In this whole wide world one would think there's just gotta be someone producing black longer bolts. :dunno:

Ok, I found some from Turner Motorsports. But here is the classic problem... these will only work on non X5 BMW's with 17mm bolt heads. The X's take larger bolts.

http://www.turnermotorsport.com/html...ACK-WHEEL-BOLT

I am tempted to just try it, just hoping someone who has used them on the front will respond with their experiences. It would be nice for the bolts to be the same color too, when I put the rears on I realized they didn't match. Thanks for your feedback.

Hey TurnAround,
As I have OEM 19" 132's like you (mine are staggered though) and like you I am considering putting 25mm or maybe 30mm spacers on the rear could you post a couple of pics showing before and after pics of the rear end?

Their's plenty of chit chat on spacers but very little in the pic department. Also if anybody else out there has 19" rims (staggered) with spacers could you post pics please and indicate what size spacers you have fitted.

Given that I don't believe you put spacers on the front how did you go with bolt colours in that H & R's only come with silver bolts and of course the front ones are factory black. If you left the bolts unchanged are you happy with the look?

In advance thank you.

Here you go. Kind of rainy today for pics.

I ended up with only the rear spacers, and skipping the fronts. This was because of the silver bolt issue. As it turns out, leaving the fronts alone and going with a rear 25mm spacer makes the car very balanced looking (imo). I'm extremely happy and would do it again in a second. It had zero effect on worsening understeer (the usual concern with widening the rears). In fact, it improved the general handling of the car.. definitely. Not ranting / gushing here.. just sayin'.. this is one of the best mods you can make to your BMW. I am so pleased with it for improved looks and handling, I cannot imagine owning a BMW without this mod, and really.. I see unmodded X5's and realize now how "doofed in" / wrong the rear wheels look. (sorry guys..its fer yer own good to say this! hehhehee..)

Stock black bolts on the front... and the rear. 25mm and 30mm spacers have nuts in them. You can reuse your factory bolts. It works sooooo slick!

Now, keep in mind I don't have staggered wheels. One half of the extra width on a wider set of staggered rears will push to the outside. What are they.. a half inch wider? So that's one quarter inch wider then, which is 5.5mm wider. So.. factor that in to your decision. Said another way, if you do not widen the fronts, then view these pics with the rears 5.5mm wider. 30mm spacer.. then they'd be 10.5mm wider than the pics.

(Edit) Ohh.. almost forgot. I wish I had gotten 30mm spacers. I DO like the slightly pooched out look on the rear. The 30mm would have been even more ideal. I'll see if I can find a pic of my Coupe with the wider rears.


:thumbup:

Ok, here's some pics of the Coupe with 25mm rear spacers only. Now.. these cars already have a fat arse, so 25mm here, would be like 40mm on an X5. The moral to this story.. go with the 30mm spacers on any X5! hahahaa!! :wow:

Thanks for that, I appreciate it. Definately looks better with the rear spacers on. I think when the time comes I might go with 30mm. Nice cleaning looking ride you got there.

Just one last thing, I'm a little confused now re the black factory bolts. I wouldn't think that they would be able to be used if I go with 30mm, no ??