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Just changed to winter tyres & 17 alloys - WHAT A REVELATION!

Alloy wheels and tyre discussion
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djstan
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Just changed to winter tyres & 17 alloys - WHAT A REVELATION!

Post by djstan » Sat Feb 11, 2017 2:01 pm

I'm absolutely gobsmacked! In my preparation to drive to the Alps in a couple of weeks, I've just changed my wheels from 19" 326 wheels (Goodyear F1s on the rear, OEM RFTs on the front) to 17" 290 wheels with Nokian WR D4 winter tyres on.

WHAT A REVELATION!

I've only driven about 20 miles on them so far, but the ride is so much quieter and smoother! Such a dramatic change!

At the moment corners seem a bit more wobbly, but I think that is down to the pressures - so far I'm using the guide inside the drivers door which has 17" M&S tyres as 2.4 bar front, 2.9 bar rear.
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Just changed to winter tyres & 17 alloys - WHAT A REVELATION!

Post by Ewazix » Sat Feb 11, 2017 2:16 pm

Probably more to do with being non-RFT's than wheel size or winters, I took the RFT's off my E85 and transformed the car and deliberately ordered my new Mini on non-RFT's as the test drive in a Mini with RFT's was bone-rattling. I've had several sets of winters for various cars and they will get a bit soggy once temperatures get over say 10 dec C and are definitely not 'sporting', but feel great in the right conditions :thumbsup:
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Just changed to winter tyres & 17 alloys - WHAT A REVELATION!

Post by mr wilks » Sat Feb 11, 2017 2:16 pm

djstan wrote:I'm absolutely gobsmacked! In my preparation to drive to the Alps in a couple of weeks, I've just changed my wheels from 19" 326 wheels (Goodyear F1s on the rear, OEM RFTs on the front) to 17" 290 wheels with Nokian WR D4 winter tyres on.

WHAT A REVELATION!

I've only driven about 20 miles on them so far, but the ride is so much quieter and smoother! Such a dramatic change!

At the moment corners seem a bit more wobbly, but I think that is down to the pressures - so far I'm using the guide inside the drivers door which has 17" M&S tyres as 2.4 bar front, 2.9 bar rear.
What size tyres on the 17s ? It stands to reason 17inch winters from 19inch performance summers won't enhance your cornering capacity but dropping those pressures should make the car feel less skittish , 42Psi (rear )is high for any tyre on any car , id try it around 37/38psi . 33/34 fronts providing you have gone for staggered rubber :thumbsup:
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Just changed to winter tyres & 17 alloys - WHAT A REVELATION!

Post by djstan » Sat Feb 11, 2017 6:59 pm

mr wilks wrote:
djstan wrote:I'm absolutely gobsmacked! In my preparation to drive to the Alps in a couple of weeks, I've just changed my wheels from 19" 326 wheels (Goodyear F1s on the rear, OEM RFTs on the front) to 17" 290 wheels with Nokian WR D4 winter tyres on.

WHAT A REVELATION!

I've only driven about 20 miles on them so far, but the ride is so much quieter and smoother! Such a dramatic change!

At the moment corners seem a bit more wobbly, but I think that is down to the pressures - so far I'm using the guide inside the drivers door which has 17" M&S tyres as 2.4 bar front, 2.9 bar rear.
What size tyres on the 17s ? It stands to reason 17inch winters from 19inch performance summers won't enhance your cornering capacity but dropping those pressures should make the car feel less skittish , 42Psi (rear )is high for any tyre on any car , id try it around 37/38psi . 33/34 fronts providing you have gone for staggered rubber :thumbsup:
Not gone for staggered, no, as my understanding was that 17" winters are 225/45 all round?!

Have I got that wrong? :o
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Just changed to winter tyres & 17 alloys - WHAT A REVELATION!

Post by AlfaScozzesi » Sat Feb 11, 2017 9:37 pm

My Winters are the same sizes as my Summers (staggered) and are great for the snow and the grip they give is good if not like Summer tyres which they cannot match or be expected to.

That said they can feel horrible when cornering enthusiastically with the "squirming" feeling as the load mounts up with the softer rubber. This is the softer blocks on the tyre rather than anything to do with tyre pressures and I have found and I have mine the same as my Summers.

Never had run flats but by all accounts the sooner you can get off them the better!

I normally run 34 rear and 32 at the front.

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Just changed to winter tyres & 17 alloys - WHAT A REVELATION!

Post by Mr Tidy » Mon Feb 13, 2017 2:02 am

mr wilks wrote:
What size tyres on the 17s ? It stands to reason 17inch winters from 19inch performance summers won't enhance your cornering capacity but dropping those pressures should make the car feel less skittish , 42Psi (rear )is high for any tyre on any car , id try it around 37/38psi . 33/34 fronts providing you have gone for staggered rubber :thumbsup:
Not sure I would agree with you there to be fair.

I've no experience of Z4s on anything other than Bridgestone RFTs, but I bought my E46 on staggered 17s (245/40 rears and 225/45 fronts) in November 2014 which stayed on it until in December 2015 when I bought a set of "square" 16s running 205/50 winter tyres. In damp/greasy winter conditions at low temperatures (below 5 degrees C) the winters corner much better than the summers did, as well as gripping far better when accelerating.

As my E46 doesn't have the TPWS both sets of tyres are non-RFT, and neither set is ditch-finders! The summers are Pirelli P-Zero, the winters are Michelin Alpin.

I'd happily admit once temperatures get above 10 degrees the winters don't grip nearly as well - the tricky part is knowing when to swap them! :?
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Just changed to winter tyres & 17 alloys - WHAT A REVELATION!

Post by kis » Tue Feb 14, 2017 11:44 am

[quote="Mr Tidy"][quote="mr wilks"]

What size tyres on the 17s ? It stands to reason 17inch winters from 19inch performance summers won't enhance your cornering capacity but dropping those pressures should make the car feel less skittish , 42Psi (rear )is high for any tyre on any car , id try it around 37/38psi . 33/34 fronts providing you have gone for staggered rubber :thumbsup:[/quote]

Not sure I would agree with you there to be fair.

[/quote]

I think [b]Mr Wilks [/b] is on about tyre profile and cornering performance? A lower profile will always increase your handling if you're going from say 16" to a 18" ... basically reducing your sidewall deflection. I think because of the winter/summer tyre swap and temperature, poor weather, etc it's skewed things slightly.
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Just changed to winter tyres & 17 alloys - WHAT A REVELATION!

Post by mr wilks » Tue Feb 14, 2017 6:34 pm

kis wrote:
Mr Tidy wrote:
mr wilks wrote:
What size tyres on the 17s ? It stands to reason 17inch winters from 19inch performance summers won't enhance your cornering capacity but dropping those pressures should make the car feel less skittish , 42Psi (rear )is high for any tyre on any car , id try it around 37/38psi . 33/34 fronts providing you have gone for staggered rubber :thumbsup:
Not sure I would agree with you there to be fair.
I think Mr Wilks is on about tyre profile and cornering performance? A lower profile will always increase your handling if you're going from say 16" to a 18" ... basically reducing your sidewall deflection. I think because of the winter/summer tyre swap and temperature, poor weather, etc it's skewed things slightly.
Indeed i was :wink: the taller sidewalls will always be felt going from 19s to 17s & if the pressures were very high then lowering them a little may help the car feel more "settled" :thumbsup:
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Just changed to winter tyres & 17 alloys - WHAT A REVELATION!

Post by Mr Tidy » Tue Feb 14, 2017 9:34 pm

mr wilks wrote:[Indeed i was :wink: the taller sidewalls will always be felt going from 19s to 17s & if the pressures were very high then lowering them a little may help the car feel more "settled" :thumbsup:
Oh right, I see what you meant. :thumbsup:

The pressures recommended for my 16 inch winters are lower than for the staggered 17 inch summers - presumably for that reason!
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Just changed to winter tyres & 17 alloys - WHAT A REVELATION!

Post by Frankie169 » Sat Aug 11, 2018 5:32 pm

Just reading this with interest, looking at a car on Wednesday with 290 wheels 17”, is there much difference in ride and handling between the 17,18” wheels regardless of tyres, the car is currently on run flats .

Also, you all seem to run winter tyres!!!! Does that mean you have 2 sets of wheels or just change all the tyres over to winter ones, seems a bit of a ball ache which I never thought about doing with my rep mobile 320i or all my previous cars or are run flats so awful that they are killers in cold wet conditions?
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Just changed to winter tyres & 17 alloys - WHAT A REVELATION!

Post by Mr Tidy » Sat Aug 11, 2018 10:00 pm

Sorry I can't help with your 1st question as I've only ever run my Z4 on 18" wheels.

But I remember my 1 Series (on 17" RFTs) being pretty much stranded in 2010. :(

Anyway I had an E46 as a daily and in late 2015 the temperature started dropping - I saw a set of wheels with winter tyres fitted for sale on here and thought it may be a plan to buy them! I generally used them from November to April, but we never really had much bad weather in the South East.

Anyway this March I replaced the E46 with an E91 that came with winter tyres fitted - which proved handy when the Beast from the East arrived! :lol: That convinced me that winters are the way to go if you have RWD and want to be able to use the car! (Regardless of whether you have RFTs or non-RFTs).

But I didn't want to run them all year, so I found a set of wheels with summer tyres on Gumtree a few months ago that are on it now. I got all four wheels with 2 decent Pirelli RFTs and 2 knackered ones for less than £200 - it cost me that just for 2 new Pirellis, so it seems to work out much cheaper to buy winters on rims than pay twice a year to have tyres swapped!
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Just changed to winter tyres & 17 alloys - WHAT A REVELATION!

Post by philbo909 » Sat Aug 11, 2018 10:13 pm

Frankie169 wrote: Sat Aug 11, 2018 5:32 pm Just reading this with interest, looking at a car on Wednesday with 290 wheels 17”, is there much difference in ride and handling between the 17,18” wheels regardless of tyres, the car is currently on run flats .

Also, you all seem to run winter tyres!!!! Does that mean you have 2 sets of wheels or just change all the tyres over to winter ones, seems a bit of a ball ache which I never thought about doing with my rep mobile 320i or all my previous cars or are run flats so awful that they are killers in cold wet conditions?
I've just switched to 17s on runflats from 18s without and the ride is horrendous, non run-flats is much nicer, even if it's a lower profile. Handling wise I haven't driven in anger but on the commute I haven't felt more/less tyre walk.
Run flats are stiff in summer and in winter even more so, so I'd imagine they are worse than standard tyres in the cold
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Just changed to winter tyres & 17 alloys - WHAT A REVELATION!

Post by Pbondar » Sun Aug 12, 2018 11:18 am

Frankie169 wrote: Sat Aug 11, 2018 5:32 pm Just reading this with interest, looking at a car on Wednesday with 290 wheels 17”, is there much difference in ride and handling between the 17,18” wheels regardless of tyres, the car is currently on run flats .

Also, you all seem to run winter tyres!!!! Does that mean you have 2 sets of wheels or just change all the tyres over to winter ones, seems a bit of a ball ache which I never thought about doing with my rep mobile 320i or all my previous cars or are run flats so awful that they are killers in cold wet conditions?
Hi I run 17” square winter and 17” asymmetric summer combos..

Non RFT....

Handling as far as I can tell is absolutely great..

I run Continentals for both summer and winter.

Only issue is that if you run the winters much above 7-8c they wear rapidly and then around 15c start to go off when pushed very hard...

Depends where you live and your pothole Richter scale...

We have lots of cold / damp winter days and big potholes..

I’m very happy with how it works..

Without doing an A B C comparison with different size wheels and probably different tyres you can’t definitively know...

Plus it depends which chassis you have...the M Sport chassis comes in for particular criticism for 19/runflats

:thumbsup:

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