[whosagrubb]

So I grew my fleet this week! My E90 328, which I've owned for the last 8 years, is getting up in miles and let me down a week ago. I'd been holding off on searching for it's replacement, but I realized it was time. She's not going anywhere BTW, it'll be my daughters car soon enough.

I tossed around plenty of options. Should I scratch my itch for a M3? Sadly, I need something more practical that I can easily fit a hockey bag into. How about a SUV? As much as I wanted to like something like a X5M or Audi SQ5, I'm so used to a RWD 6MT E90. Either would have given me the utility value, but I wanted a car. Golf R? I really wanted one of those to work, but too small.

I thought and researched about what to do until I remembered a BMW test drive event where I had driven a 428i Gran Coupe and remembered loving the car. Anyway, a quick search later and a Estoril Blue 435i popped up in my area that was perfect! 3 years off lease with just over 11k on the clock and pretty much loaded: M Sport, Dynamic Handling Pack, M Sport Brakes, Technology Pack, Driver Assistance Pack, Cold Weather Pack, LED Lighting Pack, etc..

I found it right before I was supposed to get on a plane for a business trip so I had to wait a week to go see it, but I was pretty much sold once I had the chance to drive it.

Now she's home, and I'm starting to think about one thing: Winter. The car was ordered with 19" 442M wheels, and being up in NJ I'm going to need snows. I was shopping winter wheel and tire packages, but then I came up with an idea..

My E90 is currently wearing a staggered set of 18" 193M wheels. Since I'm giving the car to my daughter, I had planned to pull them and put the original 17's on it. I got to thinking, why not refinish the 193M wheels and use them for winters on the new car? 18's will clear the brakes, but there's the question of offset.

The 442M (oops, not 440M) wheels on the car currently are 8x19 ET36 front and 8.5x19 ET47 rear. The 193M wheels are 8x18 ET34 and 8.5x18 ET37. I'm not really worried about the fronts, but the rear offset obviously pushes the wheel out a little further. I'm going to try and mount one tomorrow to look at clearance, but any thoughts from the group if that's going to be problematic? I plan to run a narrower tire on the rear (225 v. 255) which *should* help?

I also noticed Tire Rack lists a possible wheel size of 18x9 ET39 for the rear of the car. Closer in offset to the stock wheel, but also wider. Is my logic correct to assume the wider wheel would affect offset too?

Anyway, pics of the new ride never hurt!

[ynguldyn]

Larger offset puts the wheel deeper. You need to make sure there's space on the inside between the wheel and the suspension bits, and there's no guarantee it would clear.

225 on 8.5" is not the best idea either.

[jnecr]

Standard F30 fitment for 8.5" wide wheels is ET47, you sure those 440Ms are ET37 on the back?

Edit: upon further searching I believe those are 442M wheels and the offsets are ET47 in the back. I can't find any 442M wheels with ET37 offset for the wider rear wheels.

[whosagrubb]

Oops! I botched the wheel details above. Besides listing the current wheels as 440Ms instead of 442M, I swapped the offsets of the 18's and 19's. I corrected the original post now to make it more clear.

Originally Posted by ynguldyn

Larger offset puts the wheel deeper. You need to make sure there's space on the inside between the wheel and the suspension bits, and there's no guarantee it would clear.

225 on 8.5" is not the best idea either.

I would be going from a 19" wheel with a 47mm offset to a 18" wheel with a 37mm offset. I'm worried about clearance with the bodywork in this case. Then again Tire Rack will sell you a 18x9 with a 39mm offset. Obviously that would center the wheel deeper into the car, but the fact that it's .5" wider it should protrude further than the 8.5".

The easy answer here is I'm going to bolt one up and see what my clearances look like. I own them already, so that's easy. I just want to make 100% sure it's going to work before I send them off to be refinished.

As for the tire, I've heard some mixed reviews there. I could still run a 255 rear, but narrower is obviously better for snow traction. Is the difference between the 255 and 225 that much better though?

[ynguldyn]

OK, so for your corrected inputs the wheel goes 10mm out, while the tire's outside edge is 12.5mm in. Basically these two things will cancel each other out. The tire/wheel width mismatch would be the only concern.

Don't go wide for winters.

[metallicpea]

Originally Posted by whosagrubb

Oops! I botched the wheel details above. Besides listing the current wheels as 440Ms instead of 442M, I swapped the offsets of the 18's and 19's. I corrected the original post now to make it more clear.



I would be going from a 19" wheel with a 47mm offset to a 18" wheel with a 37mm offset. I'm worried about clearance with the bodywork in this case. Then again Tire Rack will sell you a 18x9 with a 39mm offset. Obviously that would center the wheel deeper into the car, but the fact that it's .5" wider it should protrude further than the 8.5".

The easy answer here is I'm going to bolt one up and see what my clearances look like. I own them already, so that's easy. I just want to make 100% sure it's going to work before I send them off to be refinished.

As for the tire, I've heard some mixed reviews there. I could still run a 255 rear, but narrower is obviously better for snow traction. Is the difference between the 255 and 225 that much better though?

You want narrow for winter. but even better, you could source a pair of take offs so that you could run a square set-up and rotate them to get the longest life out of your winters.

[whosagrubb]

So it looks like the offsets should be fine, but consensus says 225 tires on the 8.5" wheels is a non-starter. Finding a few front wheels run a square setup is possible, but now we're getting expensive. As much as I'd love to run OEM BMW wheels, considering I'd have to buy two more and refinish the wheels before putting tires on them, it's more economical to do a package from Tire Rack and call it a day.

Anyone have experience with Sparco wheels?

[Canadian eh!]

If you are going new at Tirerack, I highly recommend the Rial x10 wheel. Just ordered a set with Pirelli sottozero 3 tires and they take a factory center cap and run standard factory lug bolts with no spacer rings and are a full OE fitment. I am still waiting on the car, but they look completely factory. They are made in Poland by a German company to German TUV specs and rial is an OEM manufacturer for the German brands as well. I had a set of the Rial Salerno on my last 2 BMW’s which also take a centre cap etc. And the quality is high, no finish issues in 5 winters on two cars, but they are 17’s so needed a new set to clear the big blues on my new ride.

Congrats on the car, it looks awesome!

[whosagrubb]

Thanks for the tip! I wish I had the same experience with the Rial wheels though. I've been running a set of the Rial Salerno on my E90 for the last few seasons. You're spot on with the fit and finish, but I somehow managed to significantly bend all of them in the time I've owned them. Two of them badly enough to warrant replacement.

I did end up springing for the package they recommended, which was the Pirelli sottozero on BBS SR wheels. A little more than I had planned to spend, but I figured I can make up the difference by selling the 193M wheels I has planned to use!

[Canadian eh!]

Originally Posted by whosagrubb

Thanks for the tip! I wish I had the same experience with the Rial wheels though. I've been running a set of the Rial Salerno on my E90 for the last few seasons. You're spot on with the fit and finish, but I somehow managed to significantly bend all of them in the time I've owned them. Two of them badly enough to warrant replacement.

I did end up springing for the package they recommended, which was the Pirelli sottozero on BBS SR wheels. A little more than I had planned to spend, but I figured I can make up the difference by selling the 193M wheels I has planned to use!

With BBS in the budget, you certainly can’t go wrong! Enjoy !