Club 80-90 Forums

Hi All, a bit of advice required! I have just got hold of some VW Passat wheel to fit to my 1989 California Van. I have had the wheels drilled out to fit the centre bore, new tyres fitted and they are ready to be fitted. I have tried them on the van and all fits well, except that the hub sticks out a bit far to get the centre caps on as they are concave and go inwards and touch the hub. It would be nice to get the centre caps back on, and also to get the wheels a bit further out to improve the looks, but I was advised by a friend, a good mechanic, that this addition of spacers could lead to wheelbearing wear. I have seen lots of vans with spacers fitted and have never heard of problems with them, so any advice would be great.
Also a big thanks to all who kept a look out for our beloved stole Atlantic, however it never turned up.
Thanks, David and Ashia.

from what i think/know , if the overall offset is the same as what the original VW had then there should not be difference in wear , but ....

i am pretty sure having wider tyres / alloys compared to std steels will make things wear a little more.

but having major offset difference is a biggest cause i would say.

Matt

correct.

Hold on David..
you put a car wheel on a two tonne van and drilled out more alloy material making it theoretically weaker.
That's one modification your insurance company would love to use against you in my opinion.

still to agree with the others and add there is a suggested range of offset from VW, T25's that came from the factory with steel wheels have a ET of 39 while T25's that left the factory with alloy wheels came with a ET of 30.
so there is some scope for spacers without being hard on the bearings