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Winter Tyres

Alloy wheels and tyre discussion
Gilberto
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Re: Winter Tyres

Post by Gilberto » Thu Sep 22, 2011 9:26 pm

Cheers for the review. How do they look on? Do they looked stretched? Any photos?
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Hark
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Re: Winter Tyres

Post by Hark » Thu Sep 22, 2011 9:28 pm

Look stretched. Think VW low riders lol

No pictures sorry. Currently stacked in the back, not fitted for this winter yet.
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Gilberto
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Re: Winter Tyres

Post by Gilberto » Thu Sep 22, 2011 9:48 pm

I'll maybe go for the 245's on the back to give the wheels some more protection.
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Re: Winter Tyres

Post by Hark » Thu Sep 22, 2011 9:50 pm

Gilberto wrote:I'll maybe go for the 245's on the back to give the wheels some more protection.
If the car ever sells I'll sell the ones I have.
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Darren M
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Re: Winter Tyres

Post by Darren M » Thu Sep 22, 2011 10:03 pm

Hark wrote: Only thing with the 225 width is I picked up two kerb marks from pot holes. I do use mine daily though.
On inspection of mine (225 all round) at the end of winter,and noticed before this time, an observation I made was that my rear wheels picked up a few decent sized stone chips on the exposed rim, visible of course when quite close up only but now I know they're there it catches my eye :). However, note that I covered many miles with the tyres on at high speeds (90% motorway, the other 10% mostly fast country roads). So using the narrower rears 'could' result in more frequent refurbs needed, or ideally have a second set of wheels for the winter only using the narrower tyres.

Another general interesting observation I made was this. When I first fitted the Winter tyres it seemed to improve the ride comfort when compared to the worn Conti M3's I took off. However as the winter tyres wore down (and as the temps rose - might or might not be related)I noticed more vibration, sometimes as if I could feel the individual sipes during rotation on some road surfaces (grainy kind of feel?). In fact I also started hearing an annoying vibration coming from the boot.WHen I replaced the winter tyres which by this time the rears had about 3.5mm tread left and all the winter tread had gone, the ride comfort was much better with new Conti M3's on and the annoying boot vibration has completely gone and has never come back! I had my boot replaced during the year and thought this was the cause of the annoying vibration in the boot but at actually it wasn't, the noise disappeared with the Conti M3's back on.

If anyone only has one set of wheels I would be tempted to use winter tyres in the summer tyre size (225 and 255), or possible one profile down, so same sizes as the 3.0Si 18" normal tyre sizes (225*40 and 255*35).If have two sets of OEM sized wheels then have one set with the BMW recommended winter tyre size. ANother option would be to have a set of 8" wide wheels all round (preferably using an offset not requiring the need for spacers) and run the BMW recommended winter tyre size on those.

I highly recommend winter tyres though! This year I might just run the Conti M3's through winter as I won't need to be so mobile. I have two Conti 830P tyres in the BMW recommended size (225*40*18) that I used on the front of my car that have plently of tread left (approx 3.5mm to 4mm winter tread equalling about 7.5mm total tread!), anyone fancy taking these off my hands for a reasonable price and can collect from my Mon-Fri home in West Berkshire please let me know.Alternatively I could deliver or meet along the M4 corridor between say Newbury and Bristol Mon-Fri. Not managed to transport them back to main home so taking up space in the corner of my kitchen at the moment!
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Re: Winter Tyres

Post by cj_eds » Fri Oct 07, 2011 5:45 pm

Right. It's now been a fortnight since I ordered the wheels & tyres mentioned earlier in this thread - and I've not even had a dispatch date yet. Payment not taken off the credit card, and despite prompting them twice for a dispatch date they're been non-committal. At this point in time I'd definitely not recommend mytyres.co.uk. Least they could do is give me an estimated time!

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Re: Winter Tyres

Post by Gilberto » Fri Oct 07, 2011 5:55 pm

Thats no use, mine were delivered within 48hrs of placing an order on the MLR. Did you go for the Yokohama's?
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Re: Winter Tyres

Post by Hark » Fri Oct 07, 2011 10:28 pm

I've bought 2 sets of ebay now.

BOth delivered in 48 hours.
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Re: Winter Tyres

Post by aerobod » Sat Oct 08, 2011 8:58 pm

Just replaced my original set of Pirelli Sottozero 240 winter tyres that I'd worn out in 30,000km over the past 3 winters with a new set of Sottozero 240 Serie 2. Highly recommended for the very variable winter conditions we get here in Western Canada. The 11mm higher sidewall on a 225/45-18 tyre gives an edge in ground clearance and pothole protection, compared with the BMW recommended 225/40-18, if you don't need the clearance for chains.

Using a dedicated winter wheel will pay for itself in about 4 winters, assuming the avoidance of 8 tyre change-overs costing £20 each wheel (using a better tyre fitter with good hunter balancing equipment or equivalent and an attention to detail that prevents scratched wheels), leading to a budget of £160 per wheel for some 18x8" winter wheels. I use an 18x8" winter wheel with a 40mm offset on my Z4M, with 20mm spacers on the rear (allows front to back tyre rotation by swapping the spacers).
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Re: Winter Tyres

Post by Franzino » Wed Oct 12, 2011 2:22 am

IMO the oem Z4M rear wheels are too wide to fit a good set of winter tyres. Wide tyres are useless in snow and really cold (wet) weather. I have a set of oem dubbelspoke 164M wheels (+ 225/40/18 Continental winter tyres). It's the winter set-up that BMW delivers for the Z4M and e46 M3. They are great!

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Re: Winter Tyres

Post by Lower » Wed Oct 12, 2011 10:36 am

Interesting review of winter tyres in this month's evo magazine.

They review the performance of winter tyres on snow but also in wet and dry conditions and compare them to each other and a reference summer tyre.
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Re: Winter Tyres

Post by dgm » Wed Oct 12, 2011 7:13 pm

Franzino wrote:IMO the oem Z4M rear wheels are too wide to fit a good set of winter tyres. Wide tyres are useless in snow and really cold (wet) weather. I have a set of oem dubbelspoke 164M wheels (+ 225/40/18 Continental winter tyres). It's the winter set-up that BMW delivers for the Z4M and e46 M3. They are great!
Interesting. What sizes of wide winter tyres have you tried? I run 265/30/19 Vredestein winters on the rear of mine and have found them excellent in just the conditions you describe.

Am I correct in thinking that BMW recommends the narrower set up partly to allow the fitting of snow chains if necessary?
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Re: Winter Tyres

Post by WLH » Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:12 pm

dgm wrote:Interesting. What sizes of wide winter tyres have you tried? I run 265/30/19 Vredestein winters on the rear of mine and have found them excellent in just the conditions you describe.

Am I correct in thinking that BMW recommends the narrower set up partly to allow the fitting of snow chains if necessary?
I was told by my local dealer that unless you are going to use chains there was no reason to use the lower profile tire. On my ///M I run stock size winter tires both front and rear and have never had any issue with getting good traction in cold, wet or snow conditions.
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Re: Winter Tyres

Post by dgm » Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:04 pm

WLH wrote:
dgm wrote:Interesting. What sizes of wide winter tyres have you tried? I run 265/30/19 Vredestein winters on the rear of mine and have found them excellent in just the conditions you describe.

Am I correct in thinking that BMW recommends the narrower set up partly to allow the fitting of snow chains if necessary?
I was told by my local dealer that unless you are going to use chains there was no reason to use the lower profile tire. On my ///M I run stock size winter tires both front and rear and have never had any issue with getting good traction in cold, wet or snow conditions.
Exactly my experience, with the exception that I run the standard sizes for 19" CSL's (standard that is for the M3 CSL).

That's why I was asking what wider tyres Franzino has tried that are so poor in the snow and cold.
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Re: Winter Tyres

Post by WLH » Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:26 pm

dgm wrote:Exactly my experience, with the exception that I run the standard sizes for 19" CSL's (standard that is for the M3 CSL).

That's why I was asking what wider tyres Franzino has tried that are so poor in the snow and cold.
I know that the conventional wisdom is a narrow tire is better for snow and that might well be in deep snow. However, I won't venture out in snow more that say 4 inches or 10 cm in depth. On my first 2 Z4's I ran 17 X 8 inch rims with 225/45-17 winter tires and that combination worked very well. On my ///M my winter rims are 8 X 18 front and 9 X 18 rear. I run 225/45-18 front and 255/40-18 rear with Blizzak LM-60's and this actually is even a little superior to setup I had on my previous Zed's. I suspect the reason for this is improvements in winter tires over the years and perhaps the M locking differential might be a factor as well. I would not want to say that the wider rear tire is any better but in my experience it's not any worse either.
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