Unexpected issue with H&R spacer kit 7 mm all-around

[Emm]

I just got the H&R spacer kit with 7 mm offset on all four wheels (just wanted a slight offset for visuals, and also wanted to make sure I didn't run into any issues, so decided against 15 mm). My car is a GTS Sport Turismo 2023 with the RS Spyder Design 9.5x21" front and 11.5x21" rear rims (re-painted from Taycan GTS standard Black Satin to Platinum Satin — looks great and will try to post some pictures later for those that might be curious; I can't stand black rims on a black car , with Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3 Ultra High Performance 265/35-21 front and 305/30-21 rear tyres. When I have the chassis in the lowest setting, the tyres now hit the wheel house when I go over even minor speed bumps which were never an issue before. Has anyone else ran into this issue? Could it be some screw with a round head somewhere inside the wheel house which is the culprit, or could it be that the tyre just hits the plain wheel house surface (i.e. too small margin inside the wheel house to begin with)? I'm surprised because I've read many threads about owners adding 15 mm all-around without mentioning any issues.

Thanks for input!

Mark

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[Polar993]

I also have a 2023 ST GTS in black and I added 12mm spacers up front and 10mm spacers in the rear. I also lowered my car slightly with FVD lowering links.

I have no rubbing issues whatsoever, and I live on a private road with large speed bumps. I do raise the car into Normal mode whenever I drive over the speed bumps, but that is mainly to prevent the front spoiler from scraping and to avoid any possible damage to the underside of the car. I have never experienced any rubbing within the wheel wells.

You may want to jack the car up and look up inside each wheel well to make sure there is nothing protruding from the fender liners. Perhaps one of the clips in the fender liner came undone and that what might be causing the rubbing?

Here’s a few pics of my setup.

Please post some pics of your refinished RS wheels. I’m thinking of doing exactly the same as I don’t really love the all blacked out look.

 

[Emm]

Thanks for the tips, I'll have a closer look inside the wheel wells when I visit my tyre dealer to remove the spacers on Friday, to see if there are any obvious screw head or fender clip issues.

Your car looks great with the low stance, and the tyres fill out the wheel wells nicely! I also like the non-tinted rear windows (prefer those myself).

I've had 4 x 10 mm spacers on my previous RS6 Avant C7 and Golf R Mk7 with no issues at all, and I also have 2 x 5 mm upfront and 2 x 7 mm in the rear on my current Cayman GTS 4.0, so I was quite surprised to discover this problem on the Taycan. I've just taken a second local drive, and when I have the chassis in the second lowest height there are no issues, it's only noticeable in the very lowest setting — but on the other hand, these particular speed bumps (and even some bumpy creases in the asphalt from undergrowth) were never an issue before.

I'll get around to take some professional photos of the car once I have everything in place (I'm still waiting for the rim center caps in Platinum Satin with a monochrome crest), but below is a couple of quick photos that I took earlier today when I had the car over at WrapZone for putting PPF on the rear red reflectors (to tone them down a bit).

To achieve the monochrome look that I want I've also replaced the coloured hood crest with the new Turbonite crest, which I think suits the car perfectly (the only bummer now is that the brake callipers are red; on my Cayman GTS they are black and thus "disappear" within the wheels .

 

[Paint_To_Sample]

I too have a GTS with 12mm spacers all around.

I am on PS4S tires in OE size and have never had a rubbing issue with the spacers at any height setting

 

[Polar993]

Thanks for the tips, I'll have a closer look inside the wheel wells when I visit my tyre dealer to remove the spacers on Friday, to see if there are any obvious screw head or fender clip issues.

Your car looks great with the low stance, and the tyres fill out the wheel wells nicely! I also like the non-tinted rear windows (prefer those myself).

I've had 4 x 10 mm spacers on my previous RS6 Avant C7 and Golf R Mk7 with no issues at all, and I also have 2 x 5 mm upfront and 2 x 7 mm in the rear on my current Cayman GTS 4.0, so I was quite surprised to discover this problem on the Taycan. I've just taken a second local drive, and when I have the chassis in the second lowest height there are no issues, it's only noticeable in the very lowest setting — but on the other hand, these particular speed bumps (and even some bumpy creases in the asphalt from undergrowth) were never an issue before.

I'll get around to take some professional photos of the car once I have everything in place (I'm still waiting for the rim center caps in Platinum Satin with a monochrome crest), but below is a couple of quick photos that I took earlier today when I had the car over at WrapZone for putting PPF on the rear red reflectors (to tone them down a bit).

To achieve the monochrome look that I want I've also replaced the coloured hood crest with the new Turbonite crest, which I think suits the car perfectly (the only bummer now is that the brake callipers are red; on my Cayman GTS they are black and thus "disappear" within the wheels .

Your car looks great. I like the monochrome look you have going on, and I am envious of your carbon aero kit.


I am torn between powder coating wheels a dark grey like yours, or perhaps a neodyme gold tone color. I was also thinking of painting the lower plastic front splitter, side skirts and rear diffuser a metallic dark grey color, then having all those painted parts PPFd. That would complete the look for me.

 

[nischalr]

I have a 2023 GTS ST, with 15mm all around with 21" wheels and rear wheel steering. I drive in lowered mode 99 percent of the time and have had zero rubbing issues. I concur that there is something else going on. It is also possible that the 7mm spacers bring your wheels out to a specifically unlucky offset that happens to rub on something that it would clear if you went either more aggressive(10, 12, 15mm) or less at 5mm. That would be unusual for sure, but possible. It will be interesting to see what you find when you take a look under the car in the wheel wells. There have been so many reports of 10mm spacers and above with no issues.

 

[Emm]

Thanks to everyone who's commented. I was at the tyre shop today, and the guys there made the following observations:

1) I have the Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres on the car, and Goodyear tyres are generally quite a bit wider than Pirelli tyres (even when the formal width spec is identical), and they thought it could be that most other owners who have no issues with wider spacers could be on Pirelli tyres (as the car comes with either of these tyres from the factory).

2) There is one screw head in the front wheel well at 12 o'clock just behind the fender that holds the inner lining in place, that protrudes a couple of millimeters and has definitely taken a hit; I could remove that screw and the inner lining would still remain in place (dipping a bit but not so much it can be clearly seen from the side), but spontaneously I'm not overly keen on removing screws...

3) There were even some traces of rubbing on the rear wheels, but while there are no screws in the rear wheel wells, there is a sharp joint where the two different sheet metal parts meet, and it could be that on my specific car the width of the rear wheel fenders are on the shorter side (not every single Porsche car is 100% identical down to 1 mm, there is a factory margin of ± a couple of millimeters — at least according to what the tyre guy has learned).

4) It could also be related to different rims — I have the RS Spyder 21" rims, and these could perhaps be slightly wider (more offset) than other Taycan rims.

5) People are different, and as they politely pointed out to me (I've been a client there since the mid-90s), I tend to be a very discerning (sensitive ) driver that reacts immediately when there is only a hint of rubbing going on, while some other drivers perhaps only react when the rubbing is *very* obvious...

Hence it would seem to be either one or a combination of these factors behind my issues with as little as 7 mm offset, while most others in this forum have no issues with neither 10, 15 nor 20 mm spacers.

Either way, my solution was to simply remove the spacers, as I absolutely hate it when I notice tyre rubbing even on smaller speed bumps (earlier today on the way to the tyre shop I even had rubbing when driving over an annoying crease in the asphalt outside my driveway, and I wasn't even in the lowest chassis setting then!).

However, even a mere 7 mm offset definitely made a visual improvement in my eyes, so in case anyone with Pirelli tyres would like to have a go at these, I now have a set for sale (H&R black spacers, black longer bolts, one locking bolt for each tyre )...

 

[Vision]

Could be the camber also, I noticed when I lowered my car, the camber got a lot more negative and I'm using a 15mm spacer with no issues. I'm actually going to order a 20mm for the rear this week.

I would get a alignment done and see what your rear camber is.

 

[bwherry]

Hey @Emm - can you post a couple photos of the 7mm spacers themselves if/when you have a sec? (and if you still have them) Curious what they actually look like (hub extension etc., considering the slim size).

Thanks,

Brian

 

[Emm]

Hey @Emm - can you post a couple photos of the 7mm spacers themselves if/when you have a sec? (and if you still have them) Curious what they actually look like (hub extension etc., considering the slim size).

Thanks,

Brian

I'll try when I get the opportunity -- I left the spacers at my tire dealer's garage and more or less forgot about them :–). Right now I'm contemplating whether I should get a new set of 20" winter rims (with new 20" winter tires); if I should just get a set of 21" winter tires and switch on my current RS Spyder rims; or if I should just leave the summer tires on and let the car more or less stand still this winter (I also have an RS6 that I will drive instead during the winter).

Meanwhile, here is a link to the store where I bought them (I got the ones in black, but they're available in silver too):

https://www.bilmodecenter.se/product/h-r-spacers-porsche-taycan-2019-5

Hope this helps.

PS. Let me know if you'd be interested in these, as I probably won't be using them...

 

[bwherry]

Thanks for the reply, @Emm . Nice to not have to worry about winter tires here in Southern California! I don't think I'll need any spacers on my new wheels, but sort of doing research just to be prepared... and thanks for the offer for yours, but as I'm in USA and you're in Sweden, I think the shipping would be cost prohibitive haha.

If and when you can access your actual spacers to snap a few photos, I'd love to see them - but no rush. I was curious to see your actual spacers, to see what the little "hub extension" parts look like, if present at all.

The part number that H&R lists for 7mm Taycan spacers is 14957160Z (14957160ZSW for the black ones), which is the same part number that they list for the 2019 Cayenne. The ECS Tuning product page for those include photos of what appear to be the actual spacers. Looks like this:

You can see the five little hub "extensions" to make the spacers hubcentric. This jives with the 2019 Cayenne, as its hub isn't a continuous flange, but five separate flange sections - or "flangelets" so to speak:

So the little bits on the spacers fit into the gaps between the hub flangelets, like a little puzzle.

But the hubs of the Taycan have only three flangelets:

So I was curious to see if your 7mm spacers have only three little hub extensions - or none at all!

Actually using the part number on the page you linked to (14957161Z), it seems those are for the 971 Panamera, which, as it turns out, has the three little hub flangelets like the Taycan:

(image grabbed from YouTube of a guy changing the front brakes on his 971 Panamera ST)

So I think the H&R TRAK+ application finder might not be listing the correct part numbers for 7mm Taycan spacers... I wonder if they make any 5mm spacers with those little hub extensions too...

Brian

 

[Fantasmos]

Any chance the rear axle steering is to blame? Maybe others simply don’t have this option and when your rear wheels turn they rub the fender. Just thinking out loud. I’ve never had spacers on my cars, never managed to see the difference on the photos to justify it.

 

[fika]

I have rear steering, 12mm spacer equivalent offset on OEM sized wheels (built them to spec of the mission-e wheel with 12mm spacers) and new Pirelli P Zero R in the OEM size (which are 1" wider and slightly taller than the GoodYear F1 of the same size) and have not had any rubbing issues at all. I suspect there is something out of spec somewhere causing this.

 

[Emm]

I have rear steering, 12mm spacer equivalent offset on OEM sized wheels (built them to spec of the mission-e wheel with 12mm spacers) and new Pirelli P Zero R in the OEM size (which are 1" wider and slightly taller than the GoodYear F1 of the same size) and have not had any rubbing issues at all. I suspect there is something out of spec somewhere causing this.

Thanks for input. I had no issues with tyre rubbing while steering, even taking sharp turns — it was only when I went over minor speed bumps (asphalt "buns" used for forcing low speeds) *and* I had the chassis in the lowest setting that I could hear/feel rubbing of the tyre in the wheel house, and this was never an issue without the 7 mm spacers; there were never any issues while driving on smooth roads (with the lowest chassis setting), nor while driving with a higher chassis setting (even while going over the same speed bumps). I found this so annoying that I removed the spacers and kind of gave up on the whole idea, but I still find it odd when I read about so many others here that are using even thicker spacers with no rubbing issues at all. Like you say, perhaps something is out of spec on my car, but I have no clue as to what ("Vision" wrote in an earlier post above about looking into the camber, but I just got tired of trying to sort this out; maybe I'll get back into it and look at it again in the spring :–)...

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