Z4 ride quality

M

mike-wymondham

New member
Sold my Z3 last year, now have a 2003 2.5 Z4 on 18inch runflats. I think I'm going to lose all my teeth. Most of my motoring is on "B" country roads, the Z3 on 16" wheels coped well, but the Z4 was not designed for our country roads, it's what I've concluded anyway. Reading tests on the new Z4, they have addressed this problem. I have fitted a set of 16 inch standard BMW wheels on, and again these are runflats, I haven't tried this wheel/tyre combination yet, but I have changed the appearance of the car, and not for the better. My dilemma is, would I be better off retaining the 18 inch wheels, and fitting non runflat tyres, keeping the 16 inch wheels with run flats, or keeping the 16 inch wheels with non runflat tyres. Anybody out there who has incurred a similar problem and resolved it. cheers Mike.
 
Many on here (myself included) ditched the runflats for normal tyres, and the ride quality way better. Still on the firm side but more absorbing over bumps and poor surfaces, and no tramlining which I had issue with.

Welcome btw :)
 
Welcome to the forum.

1) retain the 18's and ditch the run flats

2) retain the 18's and change run flats. (My Pirelli seem far better than the Bridgestone)

3) keep the 16's and put winter rubber on them

Dan
 
I found the Bridgestones, hard, noisy and damned right dangerous in the wet, swapped to some Dunlop Sport Maxx and the difference is un real
 
DPG said:
Welcome to the forum.

1) retain the 18's and ditch the run flats

2) retain the 18's and change run flats. (My Pirelli seem far better than the Bridgestone)

3) keep the 16's and put winter rubber on them

Dan
Click to expand...

x2
 
Thanks everyone, the unanimous opinion is ditch the runflats. I did manage to pick up a Z3 16 inch spacesaver the other week, and it does fit front and back, and in the boot as well.
 
Must say I've got a set of 3 series 16 in which I use now an again and certainly give the best ride quality, just look boring compared to the 18 in I've got.:D
M

Sent from my GT-N8010 using Tapatalk
 
18s with non RFTs (I'm running Vredsteins) definitely give a much better even ride that the 16" RFTs mine came with. It's never going to be great given that the seats are pretty much on the rear axle, but I find mine now doesn't get unsettled apart from on the very worst of roads.

Also if the ride is *really* bad then you might have a broken rear spring (or two). As I didn't know any better I drove mine around like that for the first four months... even passing an MOT in that time. Painful!
 
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