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Wheel spacers, or not?

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Old Oct 16, 2025 | 06:24 PM
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Default Wheel spacers, or not?

I broke a rear studon my base C6. As I see it, I have two possibilities, replace the stud (which means hours of working tearing down the rear suspension) or putting a 20mm thick rear wheel spacer on the rear hubs.
I've read a number of discussions here on spacers. General consensus seems to prefer not to use spacers and I understand the logic behind it. But it is a matter of high much load the spacer can take in lateral force. I'm not going to track my car so, to me, a spacer seems an easy way around the repair of the stud. I do plan to use a forged spacer.
Any thoughts here (or something I may not have considered) would be appreciated.
Thanks, Randy
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Old Oct 16, 2025 | 08:02 PM
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Spacer or no spacer has nothing to do with fixing your stud.
Fix your stud an then put adapters on if you want some poke
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Old Oct 16, 2025 | 08:19 PM
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Let me clarify, with a broken stud I can grind the remaining studs down to clear off-set type spacers (see photo) rather than using pass through type blanks. This way I will not have to remove anything other than the wheels to perform the modifications.
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Old Oct 16, 2025 | 08:34 PM
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I really don’t understand your point on fixing the stud vs adding adapters.

If you once had 5 studs, and now you have 4, adding adapters does not fix your issue. Your weak point is still being down a stud, just no one will see it is the difference because the adapter is offset and covering it

PS: I am well aware of what wheel adapters are. I ran them
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Old Oct 17, 2025 | 12:21 AM
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More clarification. 4 studs are normal. One stud is sheared about 10mm from the end. If I use the mentioned spacers I will grind all the studs flush to the top surface of the spacer. Problem solved...
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Old Oct 17, 2025 | 07:46 AM
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Originally Posted by AptosC6
More clarification. 4 studs are normal. One stud is sheared about 10mm from the end. If I use the mentioned spacers I will grind all the studs flush to the top surface of the spacer. Problem solved...

ok, well in that case, you dont need adapters either. As long as the nut threads on the stud and holds the wheel on it’s fine.
That 10mm may just end up being the end nipples.

i zipped those off my front hubs when i had adapters, and now I don’t have adapters and my it’s thread on and hold my current wheels on fine.

IE: none of this matters and these are 2 separate topics.
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Old Oct 17, 2025 | 09:48 AM
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I am not sure if I am totally following here, but if you throw a 20mm spacer (ie. adaptor) on there you still are going to want to have all 5 studs long enough to properly bolt it on. Do you have enough left on the broken stud to do that?

I have 20mm adaptors on my car with no issues. And it looks great. I don't track though.
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Old Oct 17, 2025 | 11:28 AM
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OP:
Maybe this video will help you visualize how much stud is left over when you put 20mm adapters on and just in general how the car will look


Updates and Stancing my Riced out C6 GrandSport
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