Hi,
I just picked up a set of four Ford Fiesta 15" Zetec wheels at a local car boot sale but I've just discovered that they are ET52.5 which gives me some clearance issues on both front and back wheels. I thought that all Ford FWD wheels were ET38? These are genuine Ford badged wheels from (I understand) a 2001 Fiesta Zetec.

I guess I'll have to get a set of spacers but before I select the right size, can anyone give me some advice on what should be considered the minimum clearance between the tyre and bodywork at the back of the car. I am using a 5 link de-dion axle and GTS Tuning shock absorbers which I think have about 2" of travel. My wheels and tyres will be 195/55 x 15" Anyone any good at geometry or trigonometry who could work out the movement under roll???

I did a quick check tonight by winding the spring platform down on the nearside rear and jacking up the offside front corner. This nearly put the shocker on the bump stop and the top of the tyre moved about 7mm closer to the bodywork. I'd guess from this that worst case we are talking about 10mm minimum clearance (plus a safety margin) and what I want to know is what sort of safety margin is required to keep the SVA inspector from getting concerned? With the ET52.5 wheels on the car I have something like 5-6mm of clearance and I was thinking of getting some 15mm spacers to bring this out to 20mm or so. Is that enough? If I go much farther then I risk hitting my wheel arches so I need to keep the spacers to a minimum.

Advice most welcome!
Cheers,
Craig.

Not much help I know, but IIRC all the newer ford wheels have the larger 50something mm offset.

David

Hi David,
Thanks for the reply.
To be honest I never even questioned whether the wheels were ET38 or not as I was almost certain that they would be. My application isn't that critical so anything between ET18 and ET38 would have been fine but ET52.2 is just too much and I couldn't understand where all my clearance had gone. It was only then that I checked for markings on the rim...

BTW, I said in my last post that these wheels were from a Fiesta, they are actually from a Focus Zetec not a Fiesta.

Anyway, I guess I'll need to order up a set of spacers. Does anyone care to give me their advice/ opinion on how much clearance I should aim for between tyre and bodywork at the back before I place my order?

Cheers,
Craig.

as an aside, new fords arent even 4x108 - they've gone 5 stud

Oh well, not quite the number of responses I was hoping for so I've just gone ahead and ordered a set of four 19mm spacers from trackstore.co.uk. I didn't want to go any further than 25mm but I was worried that 15mm might not be quite enough so I struck a compromise.

In case anyone else has a need for spacers, the set of 4 spacers plus 16 longer studs costs £32 inc vat. Postage is variable but will be a maximum of £9.50 depending on the final weight. Seems like a good deal to me.

Cheers,
Craig.

and anyone else.
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