What are my wheels worth?
- Thread starter jamesgarbett
- Start date
At the summit of the picturesque fens
The fronts are alot less prone to cracking apparently so you could run 4 of those as an alternative. Thats how mine came. It only makes about 1mm of difference to the how far the wheels poke out. You can run a 255 tyre, thats how mine came and looks ok, but technically its a bit wide on an 8" wide rim so i'd probably only go to a 245
The 326 is a very good looking alloy and perfect for the E89 but that’s it !!!! If people want to waste money on these not fit for purpose wheels and think removing RFTs and adjusting tyre pressures will make these piles of crap fit for purpose then crack on literally because cracks is all you will get!!!! BMW should hang their heads in shame at producing these.
My and I quote not so very 326 lookalike alloys far exceed the build quality of the BMW crap they have replaced.
My and I quote not so very 326 lookalike alloys far exceed the build quality of the BMW crap they have replaced.
Scotland 🏴
Not defending the 326 alloy here... but I've had them on my E89 for 7 years without issue (touch wood and probably jinxed them now) replaced 296's which are also prone to cracking. I fancied buying a set of 19" 295's, but nearly every set of pre-owned ones I looked at the rears had been welded. So is it the case that all large BMW alloys are prone to cracking?
surely any wheel wearing a wafer-thin 30 profile and a run flat tyre isn't going to take kindly to a pothole... i've got a set of MV3s in my garage, one of those rears has been welded 3 times (!) and they're only 18"s with a 35 profile tyre.
i'd say perhaps BMW have a worse reputation than most as they were quite an early adopter of runflats, yet still want to run silly big wheels. personally, i'd avoid any 19" BMW wheel, be them 326s, 296s, 313s, even 225s have a bad rep. And if i had 18" BMW wheels, i'd ditch the runflats ASAP too.
Edit to add - looks like the largest wheel Mercedes offered on a c class of a similar year was an 18". Audi offered a 19" wheel on the A4, but that ran a relatively chunky 255/35/R19 tyre, whereas BMWs were on 255/30/R19.
i'd say perhaps BMW have a worse reputation than most as they were quite an early adopter of runflats, yet still want to run silly big wheels. personally, i'd avoid any 19" BMW wheel, be them 326s, 296s, 313s, even 225s have a bad rep. And if i had 18" BMW wheels, i'd ditch the runflats ASAP too.
Edit to add - looks like the largest wheel Mercedes offered on a c class of a similar year was an 18". Audi offered a 19" wheel on the A4, but that ran a relatively chunky 255/35/R19 tyre, whereas BMWs were on 255/30/R19.
The profile "number" is slightly irrelevant, as it is the percentage of the overall width of the tyre. Therefore on a 326 front with a 225mm width tyre, the 30 is 30% of 225 (67.5mm), whereas the rears being 255, it's 30% of that (76.5mm). So it can't be related to the thin profile, otherwise the fronts would suffer more? It has to be to do with the width of the wheel itself which makes sense as there is more unsupported structure.brillomaster said:
Pondrew said:
Not quite correct..on the E89 the fronts are one click up on profile size eg 35 front / 30 rear so the ‘meat’ is the sane height...there may be some logic to the width but 8j vs 8.5j doesn’t really sound much of an issue...I’ve heard as many fronts crack as rears, certainly on MBs and Audis..
Fair play (I didn't check)Ed.Straker said:
Probably just down to manufacturers sourcing their wheels from "Franz's cheap wheels of Munich", who have cnc milling machines set with a given program running 24/7 and getting 30 euros a piece for them. 
Pondrew said:Fair play (I didn't check)Ed.Straker said:
That covers bmw for charging £650 for a rear wheel then
:evil: :x Rob
With cast wheels you have a choice between heavy and weak. If they are small wheels with a decent amount of tyre then weakness isn't as much of a problem but the lightweight cast BMW wheels with run flat tyres are a bit of a disaster on British roads. After-market wheels mostly fix that with extra weight, any set of £600 alloys is going to be crap if it's gravity of low pressure cast, they might not crack as easily but they'll add a load of unsprung weight.
There's some decent flow formed wheels around which reduce the weight for a little extra monkey but nothing really comes close to getting a proper set of forged wheels. The downside of those is usually that they cost £3-4k per set. Luckily BMW make forged wheels for their high-end cars which people like to remove and sell off cheap. The 437M is a good example as they cost about the same as some lead circles from CMWheels but are forged and fit the Z4 perfectly.
There's some decent flow formed wheels around which reduce the weight for a little extra monkey but nothing really comes close to getting a proper set of forged wheels. The downside of those is usually that they cost £3-4k per set. Luckily BMW make forged wheels for their high-end cars which people like to remove and sell off cheap. The 437M is a good example as they cost about the same as some lead circles from CMWheels but are forged and fit the Z4 perfectly.
I just checked mine, just to be sure 
Some stupid f*cker has put the WRONG size tyres on the rears of mine!
I have 225/35/19 88Y Bridgestone Potenzas on the front and 255/35/19 92Y same on the rears! That means the rolling radius is way out between front and rear (nearly 10mm). Circumference difference is 65mm front to back.
Some stupid f*cker has put the WRONG size tyres on the rears of mine!
I have 225/35/19 88Y Bridgestone Potenzas on the front and 255/35/19 92Y same on the rears! That means the rolling radius is way out between front and rear (nearly 10mm). Circumference difference is 65mm front to back.
Pondrew said:Fair play (I didn't check)Ed.Straker said:
The problem is that they aren't CNC milled, rather just molten alloy poured into a mould.
Pondrew said:I just checked mine, just to be sure
Some stupid f*cker has put the WRONG size tyres on the rears of mine!
I have 225/35/19 88Y Bridgestone Potenzas on the front and 255/35/19 92Y same on the rears! That means the rolling radius is way out between front and rear (nearly 10mm). Circumference difference is 65mm front to back.
Why is it "wrong " ?
Bmw no longer fit 255 30 19 tyres so perhaps they realised they were pretty much alone amongst the other German manufacturers fitting 255 30 19 to a 9j rim .
You clearly haven't felt any noticeable impairment to handling ( why would you ) & another benefit along with comfort & wheel protection is the speedo will now be more accurate .
SV8Predator
Member
mr wilks said:
The higher rolling radius from factory spec makes the speedo more accurate? Explain!