Mk3 Cavalier Owners Club | Vauxhall Cavalier Dot Com

so the cavalier is ET49, but let's say i want to fit a set of 18s that are ET38. how do i fit them so that they are a solid fit? spacers? dont know much about this tbh, never really chopped and changed wheels. pcd is 110 so i think thats more or less the same as the cav. just thinking aloud at this stage.

If you fit ET 38 then they are 11mm different to the standard vauxhall wheels. So they'll stick out more. (Widden the track of the car)

Spacers are used for example if you had a car with a ET of 35 asnd wanted to fit vauxhall wheels.
Vauxhall being 49ET would sit 15mm too far inside the arch and maybe catch the inner suspension, So fitting 15mm spacers to a 49ET would in theroy turn it into an ET35 wheel.

The only reason you fit spaces on a vauxhall would be if you wanted to widden the track (Ie fitted wider arches. or fitted a wider wheel and had issues of them hitting inside the of the suspension.

I hope that kind of makes sence.

If I understand it correctly the spacer takes it the other way making it a lower offset. Back in the late 80s early nineties Cars and Car Conversion always swore that anything other than ET49 or very close at least, messed the handling up badly on FWD Vauxhalls. The black V8 Capri I had was fitted with wheels that were a non standard offset, bump steer was awful on it.

i see, so a spacer pushes the wheels OUT from the hub? e.g. you have an offset of 30 and want it to be 49 so you add a spacer of 19mm? so there's no way of doing the same in reverse?

They have a negative offset so its -et 49 if you add a 10mm spacer it will be et -39

Only way to reduce the offset is to have material took from the hub of the wheel.

38 should be ok but your pushing it.

One of my cav's is on ET39's. The car is very low, and full of weight it does sometimes catch on the rear. So thats why bI'm swapping the springs for Eibachs. The extra clearance will be fine.

i think the wheels i have at the moment are thirty somethings, tbh i dont have any problems with them, but i wondered if i could do anything to make them a 'better' fit i.e. as if they were 49s

Only way to do that would be to shave some metal off the hub part of the alloys. But that would be expensive.

Steinmetz tunning used to sell alloys at ET35/39 so if they made too much difference I doubt a tunning company would sell them if they made a car handle badly or dangerously.

And Steinmetz use Eibach springs.

aye im on eibachs too. i have a nice new set of 17s to go on, at et49 too, so i'll probably stick with those but thanks for assisting with my understanding (was misadvised!)

i had set of momo arrows 17" with a et35 (vw)and they scuffed the arches when going over a bumpy road

Lets see the alloys your going to use. I do love the ones that are on. they make your car look as if it was a top spec factory option.

I love the way my car sits on the courtaney springs. But I'm not 21 anymore. I'm 31 and I want the car to be more comfy and usable day to day.
But I'm going to use the courtaneys on the cesaro. as that is a low miller show use car. (Well it will be when its finished)

HAIRIBO wrote:Lets see the alloys your going to use. I do love the ones that are on. they make your car look as if it was a top spec factory option.

cheers! they have grown on me to be honest. originally i thought they were a bit 'halfords' but they do suit the car. in honesty theyre in need of a bit of a refurb so when the new ones go on i'll probably try my hand at giving them a new lease of life. ultimately i will probably sell them.

HAIRIBO wrote:I love the way my car sits on the courtaney springs. But I'm not 21 anymore. I'm 31 and I want the car to be more comfy and usable day to day. But I'm going to use the courtaneys on the cesaro. as that is a low miller show use car. (Well it will be when its finished)

yeah i know what you mean. my cav was a nightmare when i got it, especially as i was so used to driving my wallowy omega around, but once id fitted new shocks on the back the car stopped fouling the arches and as theyre adjustable konis the ride is ok considering its dropped 35/40mm. will be even better when i put the front ones on. i'd like to drop the back end some more but will look at that nearer the time, maybe 60mms to help balance with the front end as it does sit a tad high. then again i could just fill the boot with bricks...