I have a Focus ST Mk2, someone has fitted 20mm front lowering springs and 40mm rears. I don't have a problem with that really but they have also fitted spacers, I want to remove the spacers just to take a look and see if they look better however someone said they may have been put on for a reason.

Apart from the springs the car is standard, if you lower the Focus are the spacers just there for cosmetics or are they actually doing something on a lowered car to stop something catching/knocking etc?

If the car has the standard wheels and brakes the spacers are just installed for cosmetic reasons.

As standard the wheels are pretty far inside the wheel wells. By installing wheel spacers of the correct thickness the wheels will be (almost) flush with the bodywork which results in a much better / more aggressive look.

Other reason to install wheel spacers are:

* To obtain enough clearance between the brake caliper and the wheel. This is for example necessary for some aftermarket wheels or when a big brake kit is installed.
* To be able to install higher offset wheels. MK2.5 RS wheels for example can only be installed to a non RS when wheel spacers are used. Because of the Revoknuckle front suspension the MK2.5 RS wheels have a higher offset than any of the non RS wheels.

Cheers mate, yes seems cosmetic, there isn't any brake improvements and its the standard wheels. I had 4 new tyres fitted over the weekend and on my first run yesterday, proper run up the dual carriageway I had some vibration that wasn't there before, I am not sure if they haven't been balanced correctly or if its spacer related, I know they had a real job getting the wheel off the spacer, the hub part in the middle was quite wedged in there. Plus I lost a couple of wheel nuts which had the threads stripped.

The wheels are pretty flush, I measured very roughly about 20mm on the spacers

If they are hubcentric spacers they would not have to remove them to change tyres as they are mounted to the hub with extra bolts then the wheel is mounted to the bolts on the spacer. If they are basic spacers then it might be a case they have not refitted them properly which would cause vibration. I would take the wheel off and investigate then if all is well then it could be tyre related.

No they didn't remove the spacers, I meant to get the wheel off the spacer

In that case make sure there is a slight dab of copper grease in there and it will stop it sticking next time. Oh and as well as cosmetics with it being wider the rear especially with the spacers feels more planted especially round corners.

I am getting some new wheel bolts as a couple were knackered so will pull the wheel off and put some copper grease on when I change them