A while back there was a lot of discussion about the possibility of rust between spacers and wheels or wheel hubs.

I never got around to taking my spacers off to see if I had such a problem, I just hoped they would be OK

Then on Friday it came time to add my new 19" wheels, and this is what I found:

Interestingly enough the only rust was on the central ring where the spacer connects with the wheel hub. The Spacer would not budge clockwise or anti-clockwise, but by inserting a blunt (but thin) knife between the hub and spacer, going 360 degrees around, I was able to gently pry them apart.

I must admit that there was already some rust in this area when I initially mounted the spacers (which surprised me on a 3month old car.

There is still to date no such rust on the front wheels in the same location.

Note I use the word rust loosely - it is some sort of corrosion...

What I really was worried about was rust between the major contact areas of the spacer and wheel fittings, but there was none.

I have attached some before and after cleaning pics below.

 

I did not research your spacer specs. Are these 15mm? And do you run spacers on front??

 

Yes 15mm H&R spacers on the rear only.

 

Different metals in contact will produce a small electrical current which in turn causes corosion!!!

 

[quote name='mixterk' date='Sep 26 2005, 04:10 PM' post='175312']
Different metals in contact will produce a small electrical current which in turn causes corosion!!!
[/quote
This is the reason why in plumbing applications, the practice of connecting different metal pipes, such as copper and iron, is frowned upon, it causes the same reaction which results in corrosion, which in turn builds up in the pipes and eventually causes blockage, and water contamination! but back to our cars: What did you use to clean those spacers, and I wonder if I can use whatever it was you used to clean the wheel hub and wheel?

 

It's not all that uncommon with hubs found on many vehicles. A small amount of copper grease coating the parts that contact each other on the hub will make it easier to remove the space or wheel when you need to.

 

I have always wire brushed the hub then spread anti-seize -- even without spacers. With BMW's tight hub-centric design and different metals, corrosion there is common and wheels can be hard to remove.

An Audi guy told me the hot trick for folks at their forum is to use paste wax on hubs, spacers, and wheels, but the anti-seize has always worked fine for me.