Downsizing wheels

W

WHITEDUN

New member
Just joined and had a look around at the various threads about wheels but was wondering if anyone has actually downsized their wheels to improve the ride and handling?

Had my '03 plate Z4 2.5 a few months now and its fitted with 18" wheels (non BMW to be fair) which are non staggered. I previously had a Mazda RX8 which had standard 18" wheels and to be honest the ride on the Z4 is pretty damn poor in comparison (and I am being polite at that). The wheels look nice, but I would consider downsizing to 17' or even 16' if I was confident it would improve the ride as I mainly interested in performance. The tyres on it are some cheap crap so I am wanting to decide whether to change the wheels before I fork out for decent tyres.

Just to clarify I am not wanting this so I can cruise along in comfort, its just I am fed up of having to slow down or wrestle dangerously with the wheel when I have a blast down the local country roads. The Mazda flew down those roads confidently even with the bumps and potholes despite having 18's.

Sorry, there are probably a lot of topics in this one thread (eg. staggered vs non staggered and also wheel sizes).
 
Personally I don't think downsizing will help much, I had 17's on my Zed for years and changed to 19's last year, the ride has always been very firm and has not suffered that much in change. The biggest change came from initially ditching the OEM Bridgestones RFT's for Non-RFT Falken 452's (a forum favourite).

Also fitting Eibach springs despite dropping the car 30mm from standard or 15 if on M suspension seemed to improve the initial hit (for want of a better expression)

If you have cheap tyres I would put forward that they are possibly the biggest problem, but I think most people on here would agree the Zed is not an easy car to drive quickly especially on bumpy roads.

I'd invest in decent rubber and take it from there.
 
I've got 17s on my 53 plate 2.5SE and it was a real handful with tram lining and bump steer, I've just ditched the OEM runflats for Falkens and it's a different car, problems eliminated.

From my experience with larger sizes on other cars coming down only an inch can make a difference, but if you are on runflats that will be the cause. Once sorted with a BALANCED spring/height/wheel/tyre set-up the Z4 can be a very neat drive :driving:
 
As the last posters have said ditch the Runflats,have done it myself and improved the Zed no end and i'm running 18" 108 :thumbsup:
 
Given your Zed is a 2,5 '03 it should be on standard suspension. This is a little more compliant and 15mm higher than the optional sport (standard on 3.0's)

Check that you in fact have the standard and not asport or aftermarket as that makes a fair difference.

As noted above everyone who wants improved ride swaps out the RFT's, if indeed the cheap one's fitted are RFT's

IMHO changing down to 17's won't make much difference, except as a track car (unsprung weight, etc.)

If after all these checks and changes your not happy then sadly you got the wrong car. The Z4 is a sports car and it's part of the package that many of us seek.
 
Ive just taken off my 18" with michilin ps2 runflat and fitted 16" off my old E46 for the winter with KUMHO K31 ( OK THEY DONT LOOK AS GOOD BUT ARE EASIER TO MAINTAIN THRU THE WINTER AND THE TYRES HAVE MORE GRIP THAN PS2) one thing i have noticed, very little difference in ride between these non runflats and the PS2 runflats ,concidering iv'e gone from 18" to 16" ........just my opinion :driving:
 
Believe me they are rubbish down here, as said before the difference between BRIDGESTONE and MICHELIN is day and night :rofl:
 
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