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

[djstan]

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.

 

[Ewazix]

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

 

[mr wilks]

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

 

[djstan]

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

Not gone for staggered, no, as my understanding was that 17" winters are 225/45 all round?!

Have I got that wrong?

 

[AlfaScozzesi]

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.

 

[Mr Tidy]

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

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! :?

 

[kis]

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

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.

 

[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

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"

 

[Mr Tidy]

[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"

Oh right, I see what you meant.

The pressures recommended for my 16 inch winters are lower than for the staggered 17 inch summers - presumably for that reason!

 

[Frankie169]

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?

 

[Mr Tidy]

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!

 

[philbo909]

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

 

[Anonymous]

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