Winter tyres and rims combo

L

Little Monster

Member
Hi all

Newbie here. Paid the deposit for my 2010 3.0i Sdrive today. I wanted a Z4 when I bought my current car 6 years ago. I've finally managed to justify the splurge in my head. Whoop! Whoop!

It has 19" rims on it at the moment with crazy thin low profile tyres. I can't see me keeping those due to the pot holes in the UK, so think I'll move to 18 inch in the summer. I'm just getting them to throw some winter tyres on before I collect and was ready to go to 18" but they've said I'll need to go to 17". If you go on the BMW website, the winter tyre configuration gadget suggests the same. Does anyone know anything about this? It feels like a huge step, moving from 19" to 17".

Thanks muchly

LM :driving:
 
Yes the standard BMW winter tyre package for the E89 are the 17s usually style 290 with winter runflats.

http://www.alloywheelsdirect.net/bmw_alloy_wheels/z4_e89_alloys/17_bmw_290_wheel_1417

I doubt they will do you winters on 18s. I guess the option if affordable is go with the 17s and in the meantime sell your 19s to budget for the 18s for summer use, however if you stick with BMW alloys etc its all going to be £££s with the tyres if new. Personally there is very little difference in ride comfort between the 18s and 19s with runflats so I would stick with your 19s. I regretted not getting the 19s when I ordered the car, they look at tad better.

Other option is collect the Zed and keep the 19s for summer and look for some aftermarket or secondhand 18s and fit standard winter rubber on.

Tim.
 
Thanks Tim. It looks like I have found some brand new 17" 290s for £1480 incl tyres and vat on the lot. Probably not the most amazing deal but not bad and I am far too excited about getting the car to wait any longer while I look! :) Yes, summer would be a case of keeping the 19" or switching them to 18". I will stick the 19" set on in the summer, when it arrives, and see how I can on with them. If they don't rattle my teeth too much, I'll keep them.
 
Little Monster said:
Thanks Tim. It looks like I have found some brand new 17" 290s for £1480 incl tyres and vat on the lot. Probably not the most amazing deal but not bad and I am far too excited about getting the car to wait any longer while I look! :) Yes, summer would be a case of keeping the 19" or switching them to 18". I will stick the 19" set on in the summer, when it arrives, and see how I can on with them. If they don't rattle my teeth too much, I'll keep them.
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Thats not a bad price to be honest, I think when I enquired at my dealer they were around 1700 quid. I didn't want to risk the Z4 without some proper rubber on during the winter months so ended up getting some cheap rims and all season tyres for my Z3 and take the Z4 off the road. I wasn't happy either that BMW effectively wanted 60 quid over a season to swap the wheels and store them....cheeky :o

Tim.
 
TitanTim said:
-----I wasn't happy either that BMW effectively wanted 60 quid over a season to swap the wheels and store them....cheeky :o
Remember that £60 is only 1/2 Hour (ish) labour and they have to store a set of wheels for a year - so when you do the sums its not that bad. It is business after all and there not in it to be friends!
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ronk said:
TitanTim said:
-----I wasn't happy either that BMW effectively wanted 60 quid over a season to swap the wheels and store them....cheeky :o
Remember that £60 is only 1/2 Hour (ish) labour and they have to store a set of wheels for a year - so when you do the sums its not that bad. It is business after all and there not in it to be friends!
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Click to expand...
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It's a little inconsistent though as some dealers don't charge for storage and others do :cry:

Tim.
 
TitanTim said:
It's a little inconsistent though as some dealers don't charge for storage and others do :cry:
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I suppose if you buy from them you could negotiate very hard!
 
when I bought winter wheels/tyres for our 1'ers a few years back (bought 2 sets...then changed one of the 1'ers for a Z4!) they offered to swap the wheels over and store for free the first time round.

I then swapped them over myself for a couple of years having bought a jack etc. Now I take them to Kwik fit to swap over - last year they didnt charge, this year the car needed new tyres anyway on the fronts, so they balanced everything as well. There was a charge included somewhere, but said they will swap them back over for free.

Storage isnt an issue....sit them in corner of garage.
 
mr wilks said:
Don,t forget the pics when you get the keys :) with the 17,s or 19,s , we don,t mind :thumbsup:
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Consider it done. :-) If I can find my black roller skates, I'll line the car up with my black Ducati and the black roller skates - the whole fleet. 8)
 
I have 19" performance 269 summer wheels and 19" M3 CSL winter wheels.
Don't reduce the rim-size - why you want to have an ugly car during the winter period? Tires are available for both periods.

At our 125i convertible we have 19" in the summer and 17" in the winter - this is such a huge difference...
But the 17" winter RFTs are much more unconfortable than the 19" non-RFTs. It is definately a question of the tires, not of the rim size.
 
nuebbes said:
I have 19" performance 269 summer wheels and 19" M3 CSL winter wheels.
Don't reduce the rim-size - why you want to have an ugly car during the winter period? Tires are available for both periods.

At our 125i convertible we have 19" in the summer and 17" in the winter - this is such a huge difference...
But the 17" winter RFTs are much more unconfortable than the 19" non-RFTs. It is definately a question of the tires, not of the rim size.
Click to expand...

I would debate that the 17" runflats are much more uncomfortable I bet there would be little in it against 19" standard rubber. I think 17s are fine on the Zed purely for winter use and it would be beneficial to have a narrower taller profile for winter use, just my take on it.

Tim.
 
nuebbes said:
I have 19" performance 269 summer wheels and 19" M3 CSL winter wheels.
Don't reduce the rim-size - why you want to have an ugly car during the winter period? Tires are available for both periods.

At our 125i convertible we have 19" in the summer and 17" in the winter - this is such a huge difference...
But the 17" winter RFTs are much more unconfortable than the 19" non-RFTs. It is definately a question of the tires, not of the rim size.
Click to expand...

I've been told by BMW that I need to go down to 17" to fit the winter tyres in. Extra rubber? Not sure why but I'm only doing it as I'm advised it's the right thing to do. I had assumed the 19" ones were run flat to be honest but maybe they aren't. Now I think of it, they're pretty low profile so maybe can't be run flat. I'd rather have safety over comfort anyway and run flats are shown to be safer.
 
Little Monster said:
nuebbes said:
I have 19" performance 269 summer wheels and 19" M3 CSL winter wheels.
Don't reduce the rim-size - why you want to have an ugly car during the winter period? Tires are available for both periods.

At our 125i convertible we have 19" in the summer and 17" in the winter - this is such a huge difference...
But the 17" winter RFTs are much more unconfortable than the 19" non-RFTs. It is definately a question of the tires, not of the rim size.
Click to expand...

I've been told by BMW that I need to go down to 17" to fit the winter tyres in. Extra rubber? Not sure why but I'm only doing it as I'm advised it's the right thing to do. I had assumed the 19" ones were run flat to be honest but maybe they aren't. Now I think of it, they're pretty low profile so maybe can't be run flat. I'd rather have safety over comfort anyway and run flats are shown to be safer.
Click to expand...

The 17's are the only option BMW do for winters on an E89 so thats why they suggest them, theyre are no other sizes available. The 17s will also be non staggered which is generally recommended for winter wheels and winter tyres will be runflats. All the summer tyres fitted as standard either 18s or 19s will be runflats.

Tim.
 
TitanTim said:
nuebbes said:
I have 19" performance 269 summer wheels and 19" M3 CSL winter wheels.
Don't reduce the rim-size - why you want to have an ugly car during the winter period? Tires are available for both periods.

At our 125i convertible we have 19" in the summer and 17" in the winter - this is such a huge difference...
But the 17" winter RFTs are much more unconfortable than the 19" non-RFTs. It is definately a question of the tires, not of the rim size.
Click to expand...

I would debate that the 17" runflats are much more uncomfortable I bet there would be little in it against 19" standard rubber. I think 17s are fine on the Zed purely for winter use and it would be beneficial to have a narrower taller profile for winter use, just my take on it.

Tim.
Click to expand...

The 17" RFTs are much harder than the 19" non-rft's - really!

Little Monster said:
nuebbes said:
I have 19" performance 269 summer wheels and 19" M3 CSL winter wheels.
Don't reduce the rim-size - why you want to have an ugly car during the winter period? Tires are available for both periods.

At our 125i convertible we have 19" in the summer and 17" in the winter - this is such a huge difference...
But the 17" winter RFTs are much more unconfortable than the 19" non-RFTs. It is definately a question of the tires, not of the rim size.
Click to expand...

I've been told by BMW that I need to go down to 17" to fit the winter tyres in. Extra rubber? Not sure why but I'm only doing it as I'm advised it's the right thing to do. I had assumed the 19" ones were run flat to be honest but maybe they aren't. Now I think of it, they're pretty low profile so maybe can't be run flat. I'd rather have safety over comfort anyway and run flats are shown to be safer.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, BMW has no big winter wheels for the Z4.
I had th 296s last winter season.
This season I changed to the M3 CSL wheels with 235/35 and 265/30.
I like them and Í would never go smaller again. Last season it was no problem to drive on snow with such big winter wheels.
 
Thanks Tim and Nuebbes.

My winter wheels won't be ready till mid Jan, as I'm having them powder coated (graphite grey probably) and the paint shop is shut till 6th Jan. (How DARE they!) So, I'm picking it up new years eve with the summer tyres on. yee haaaa :driving:
 
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