ECS Tuning Spacers Review

[sipabit]

The ECS Tuning spacers
We'll save any discussion about spacers being good or bad for another thread. This is a review of the spacers only

You're looking at 15mm for the front and 20mm for the rear.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1UojjbEpCGwG6WyE4QOi1fpdmrKN_kfqG

HUBCENTRIC
You'll notice they're hubcentric which is the ones you want. It has the lip for the wheel to rest on so it's centered nicely. Ones that aren't hubcentric are literally just a plate of metal with a big donut hole in the middle. You wouldn't be able to rest it on anything. The danger of this too is that anyone who removes the wheel to replace tires or for a tire rotation who isn't aware of your spacers will most likely have them fall off when they unmount the wheels. Typically that type of job is done on a lift and I'm not so certain about the integrity of the metal once it drops from that height. Best to go with these hubcentric ones whatever brand you choose.

NOTCH
Not all spacers will have the notch you see in the photo. I'm pretty sure this is for removing the spacer if it's stuck on too tightly with the anti-seize that you'll need to apply to both sides. Just put a flat head screwdriver into the notch and pop it off. I did it once and it worked well. Not sure how I'd do it otherwise. I guess you can manage to wedge something between the spacer and the rotor but having the notch sure helps.

PERFORMANCE
With a track width increase of 40mm in the rear (1.57") and 30mm in the front ( I had typo at first and wrote 15mm accidentally), I'm surprised the the handling difference was as noticeable as it was. The car does feel "wider". This could be b/c the car to begin with is so vulnerable when taking sharper turns at higher speeds. Any small changes translates to a noticeable difference.

Even those that don't drive the car aggressively will notice the car tends to feel like it's going to tip over at high speeds. It's a pretty sudden delivery once the tolerance is met. Matching with lowering springs and the improvement will be more drastically improved, but the spacers alone seem to give it a more planted feel on their own.

FITMENT
Those who have seen my other thread will know that I've experienced wheel poke on the driver side. The wheel sticks out further than the passenger front wheel. I had no clue this was the case b/c I wasn't looking that closely. With my originally 20mm spacers in the front which I found were too thick, the wheel poke was more apparent. The stock setup just hid the pre-existing condition. I took the car to BMW and they did their inspection, albeit by a young kid who had it on the rack for no more than 10 minutes and brought his coworkers to poke (pun intended) fun at my claim of one wheel poking out more than the other (all caught on dash cam footage) concluded that there's no issue. Long story short, the 15mm spacers fit nicely and the wheel poke isn't as apparent as it was with 20mm but more apparent than stock. Good enough for me.

Feel free to ask any questions. I'm very open to answering anything or helping out.

 

[MagicCarpet]

you say 40mm track increase at rear and 15mm at front ? did you decide not to fit a 15mm spacer on the poky side/

I just went out and measured mine, all round the widest part of the sidewall, roughly the centre of the rims, sits on a line 15mm inside the top of the extent of the whell arch.

As others suggest, I think you have a wrong front rim on your car.There should be a part number, rears are different offset
If BMW cant tell the difference, maybe an alignment shop will

 

[MagicCarpet]

double post deleted

 

[sipabit]

Sorry, but can you clarify your question? I'm not too clear on what you're suggesting/asking. I have 15mm spacers up front, same on both sides. 20mm in the rear, both sides.

When you look at the car, the car's pokey side is less pokey. it's flush with the fender while the passenger side one is tucked a bit. With the 20mm up front the driver side really did poke out past the fender which was a lot more obvious (although BMW techs and manager seem to be blind to it, even though other BMW staff there admitted they could clearly see it). I'm @funcentric on IG if you want to see a video of it.

Unfortunately the alignment guys said she couldn't see it either. I don't know. It seems super obvious to me when it was on 20mm spacers up front and less obvious now but still noticeable if I'm looking at it. Maybe the folks I'm working with are just in denial b/c they don't want to be responsible for having caused it (although I never accused anyone) or they're worried they'll demand that I fix it. I think anything off from their normal procedure throws them off. A bit annoying.

I'm sure if you looked at it as a non-partial 3rd party, you would recognize what I'm talking about. Anyway, I'll look into the rim idea.

 

[MagicCarpet]

When you said your front track increased by 15mm I think you made a typo and it would be 30mm if you fitted two spacers, like the rear 40mm = 2x 20mm.

BMW technical training I01 Chassis and suspension ST1403a lists the Rex rims as front 5J x 19(or 20) offset = 43 and rear 5.5J x 19(or 20) offset = 53
This document gives you the track widths and the geometry too so you can check with a string to see if the wheels sit the correct place
428, 429 and 430 rims look to have a different direction pattern left / right so that makes 4 individual part nos. for the rims

Actually the rear are offset inward so a rear rim up front should protrude less
I saw the pictures you posted and they did look wrong - I suppose a warped fender is possible but the build tolerances on i3 seem very close and repeatable

 

[sipabit]

You're completely right. I did have a typo. Thanks for spotting that. I corrected it above.

Thanks for also assessing the offsets and taking the time to watch the video. That's helpful. Much appreciated.