If you plan on getting spacers you should definitely get realigned as it will most likely throw out your alignment. Any changes you make to your car's suspension, be it tires, wheels, springs, coilovers, arms, etc. you should definitely get it realigned.

 

If anything, you are actually pushing some of your car's mass to the corners effectively spreading the COG. A wider track will of course change the angle at which the suspension tilts, giving you the feeling of enhanced stability, in terms of roll-over resistance. It has nothing to do with the COG which is determined by the height of the center of mass of the car.

You will also subject the wheel studs, bearings, A-arms and steering components to forces that they were not designed to handle (lever effect). How different will it be than just putting wider tires on, I don't know and people put wider tires on their cars all the time.

To make sure the wheels are properly secured I would also get high strength, extended wheel studs to make sure I still get the same amount of stud thread after I put the spacers on.

 

Now that's a solid statement.

 

You're right, I was referring to my situation. I lowered my car ever so slightly and had that mental image in my head. And as for stress on the studs, it isn't much different than running wider wheels with a more aggressive offset. Anything other than stock is definitely going to add more stress to any component regardless.

 

The studs are not pushed out by the spacers, so when you mount the wheel, the nut has less turns when it gets tight. You are basically using 15 mm less of the stud's thread. It night not be a big difference, but it is a difference. I have seen the results of loose wheel nuts and it's not pretty or cheap.

If anything, make sure you check the nuts torque every few weeks.

 

[QUOTE=PJCC,Jun 10 2008, 11:07 AM] The studs are not pushed out by the spacers, so when you mount the wheel, the nut has less turns when it gets tight.

 

Hello,
I have 15mm spacers at each side on the rear wheels.

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/7...0hintenwc3.jpg


http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=s...egvorne1pr4.jpg

 

here are a couple quick pics of the car w/ the rear spacers installed:





It was raining so I had no intention of trying to take purrdy pics

 

The effect on handling depends on the steering mechanism geometry and how the added offset changes the pivot point of the wheel relative to the rest of the steering mechanism (there are technical terms for this, but I don't know them). Most people perceive an improvement in low speed handling, but it almost always results in a serious degradation of high speed handling (to the point of becoming dangerous in some cases). Google around, there is information on the topic. Personally, I would not second guess the S2K engineers on this one -- they obviously spent a lot of time optimizing the steering and suspension. If you're doing it for looks, that is another thing.

 

So then in what ways would the spacers affect the high speed handling characteristics? I didn't buy spacers to mainly handle better, I got them more towards the reason of being absolutely sick of the OEM offsets when lowered.