Grangey
I have looked into this as well and it’s a headache I know but after some advice from Andy Hutch on here he has said buy the whole kit they are available on the NET but are exspensive then you know exactly what you have and everything is included so good luck and let us all know how you get on as I am wanting to do this on the rears just bring them out 20mm :thumbsup:

 

Have some straight through brand new 15mm spacers if your interested, I've never had any problems with this type, even using lockers as well. Let me know mate. Regards Pete.

 

Pete pm me some more info on pricing and specs and I might be interested.

Thanks for the feedback guys, since I’d originally ordered the “through” type spacers and longer bolts etc, only to return the spacers for these... I’ve decided to see if we can “safely” bypass the need to fix the spacer to the week. Ie align the spacer differently and using longer bolts naturally go straight through to the hub therefore making them “through” type after all and saving me returning this.

It was the garages idea so whether it’s feesable I don’t know (would have thought it depends how the thead lines up...) but theory sounded promising so will see. Currently in the bodyshot so will let you know

 

OR you can always get the bolts shortened by a machine shop??? I had the same issue when I fitted a set of alloy wheels to my Vito. The wheels were from an E Class Merc so I thought that they would fit but the bolt holes were just too narrow, so I had a machine shop open the holes (I think that the difference was only a few mm) and then they also cut me the bolts to fit. Simple for them and cost only a few Euros....

 

Thanks Simon. Yeah the thought had crossed my mind but as I mentioned in my first post, the idea of only 15mm of thread being the only thing responsible for keeping my wheel on doesn’t sit well in my gut, especially knowing the stock hub takes a minimum of 20mm. That’s asking for trouble on my opinion, and that’s before we were to ask whether the thread of a spacer is really as realible as the one in the hub from factory (I’m sure it’s fine...but would I want to risk my life on it being fine when it’s only grabbing 15mm..?)

The fact my stock bolts fit the rears for some reason give me piece of mind- at least in no worse off, the idea of a shorter bolt though makes me feel I’m compromising something... even if I’m probably wrong

 

I also had exactly the same problem when I fitted bolt on spacers.
Like Simon I had a machine shop remove the excess amount which has caused no issues and have done 10k miles since doing so.
Best part was machine shop only charged me £10 for doing the job.
If it makes you a little happier it is fairly well known that a wheel bolt should have a minimum of 9 full turns to make it safe, you will achieve this easily.

 

Thanks, just did a bit of reading based on your feedback- and it seems the direct calculation considered safe is 1.5x the diameter of the bolt, so as A5's have M14, this would equate to 24mm. Given standard bolts are 27mm-28mmish, this reconfirms my thoughts that shortening standard bolts would not be good practise nore would relying on only 15mm of fixing to attach to. Therefore, I'll be ordering extended bolts (I had the wrong ones in the end!), thanks guys

 

I cannot really understand your issues here.
In your original post you said that the standard (28mm) bolts were fine on the 20mm rear spacers.
Therefore on a 15mm spacer there can only be a maximum difference of 5mm, yes ?
28mm or even 27mm minus 5mm (the difference in spacer thickness) =22mm at the worst case.
Now, if you get your maths right, M14 x 1.5 = 21mm (not 24mm as you said) where is the problem ?
At the end of the day a fair few on here have been driving around with shortened bolts (5mm at most) for thousands of miles WITHOUT any issues.