Wheel Spacers - Copper Grease?

[walejase]

Hey Guys,

 

Just a quick one, i've had a set of hubcentric spacers arrive today. 12mm up front and 20mm rear.

 

Should I be applying any copper grease to the surface of the hub or on the extended bolts at all?

[Huxley vRS]

I used to coat my spacers to stop the salt from the road attacking the finish.

 

Some will be along shortly to tell you not to use copper on alloy blah blah.

[walejase]

Yeah that's what I was thinking to stop the salt. Also I guess it makes it easier to remove them if needed?

[Huxley vRS]

Exactly

[Johnno92]

I've got 17mm up front and 20mm rear, never used copper grease myself and not had any issues as of yet..

[DanHam]

I gave mine a coat of copper grease, never did any harm.

[coskev]

I always use a very thin smear on all wheels, and clean up the mating faces with a flap disc in the grinder to ensure they mount flat etc

[felicia16v]

not a good idea to coat the mating surfaces with anything, especially grease, if you are worried about corrosion then they should be adodised or you cold paint them but not on the mating surface.

[coskev]

not a good idea to coat the mating surfaces with anything, especially grease, if you are worried about corrosion then they should be adodised or you cold paint them but not on the mating surface.

 

Why is it not a good idea?

[Breezy_Pete]

Why is it not a good idea?

 

Wheel bolts are designed to operate in tension, not shear. What prevents them going into shear is friction between the wheel and the brake disc - caused by the tension in the wheel bolts  pulling the two surfaces together - preventing relative rotation between the two.  If you grease that area you radically reduce the coefficient of friction.

[coskev]

Wheel bolts are designed to operate in tension, not shear. What prevents them going into shear is friction between the wheel and the brake disc - caused by the tension in the wheel bolts  pulling the two surfaces together - preventing relative rotation between the two.  If you grease that area you radically reduce the coefficient of friction.

 

Ah right,thats the theory.

 

Been doing it to all my cars for 20 years and was taught to do it when I worked in the garage,and no wheels lost so I'll be carrying on doing it!

 

But have seen lots of alloys that won't come off hubs without the use of a big hammer due to corrosion between the two.

[felicia16v]

Um yea why would you want to lubricate the mating surfaces it is not like the alloy is going to weld itself to the steel hub, the reason for stuck wheels is a rusty spigot which should be cleaned and lubed NOT the mating surface but as you said it is your wheel as long as it don't come off and kill someone all good..

don't forget the extra forces involved with spacers too the wheel studs have more force on them if they are longer.

I have seen wheels come loose (and 1 come off completly) from being powdercoated on the mating face

get a spacer and try it on the hub completly clean and dry and try to turn it, it should drag and try to turn the hub too, then cover it in grease and try it again and see how much easier it moves and all that extra loss of friction is more that the wheel studs have to cope with instead.

The vag wheel studs are overengineered at 14mm but still....

[vaguel]

Putting copper grease in the spacer-hub face makes no difference whatsoever.

 

And i can vouch for the powdercoat in the wheel where the bolt sits, had a big issue in my previous car after fitting a refurb'd set of 18's, the bolts kept getting loose every 2-3 days. After a couple of weeks i just took them off and cleaned the powdercoat off them holes and had no issues again.

[coskev]

Um yea why would you want to lubricate the mating surfaces it is not like the alloy is going to weld itself to the steel hub, the reason for stuck wheels is a rusty spigot which should be cleaned and lubed NOT the mating surface but as you said it is your wheel as long as it don't come off and kill someone all good..

don't forget the extra forces involved with spacers too the wheel studs have more force on them if they are longer.

I have seen wheels come loose (and 1 come off completly) from being powdercoated on the mating face

get a spacer and try it on the hub completly clean and dry and try to turn it, it should drag and try to turn the hub too, then cover it in grease and try it again and see how much easier it moves and all that extra loss of friction is more that the wheel studs have to cope with instead.

The vag wheel studs are overengineered at 14mm but still....

 

Its the reaction of the alloy to the steel that causes them to stick,that white powdery stuff you get,which does affect the mating faces.

[eric87]

Maybe I should rub down my powdercoated mating face then :/

[coskev]

Maybe I should rub down my powdercoated mating face then :/

 

Deffo yeah, flap disc in a grinder I find best for the job

[vaguel]

Maybe I should rub down my powdercoated mating face then :/

Yeah mate, you should. All i done on mine was apply some paint stripper with a little brush and wash it off afterwards. It never came loose again.

[BlockABoots]

So you want to put cooper grease between the hub and spacer NOT the spacer and alloy wheel??

[sepulchrave]

23 minutes ago, BlockABoots said:

So you want to put cooper grease between the hub and spacer NOT the spacer and alloy wheel??

 

Five years ago he did, yes, please check thread age first rather than trying to raise the dead, ok 

[BlockABoots]

4 minutes ago, sepulchrave said:

 

Five years ago he did, yes, please check thread age first rather than trying to raise the dead, ok 

 

surely its better to resurrect an old thread rather than starting a brand new one on the same subject!?

[sepulchrave]

10 minutes ago, BlockABoots said:

 

surely its better to resurrect an old thread rather than starting a brand new one on the same subject!?

 

I missed your question, if you have one then it's much better to start your own thread.

Most of the posters in this one will have moved on and can't answer you