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18" Wheels & Tires, Read Before Buying !

19K views 34 replies 16 participants last post by  Hansie 
#1 · (Edited)
It's a common mistake for a forum member to install Heavy 18" wheels & tires on their Non-M Bimmer. Most guys never think about the consequences of adding 10 to 20% in unsprung weight when they're shopping for their new 18's. Then once their new heavy 18's are installed they wonder why they're Bimmer feels Dull & Under Powered like it just lost 20 HP. This Dull & Sluggish feeling is Especially noticed on the smaller motor chassis like 323, 325, and ALL Xi Bimmers. The key to making your new 18" wheels & tires feel great is to make them lighter than the stock OE wheels & tires that are coming off your Bimmer. In many cases it's possible to achieve a 10 to 15% unsprung weight reduction even when on a budget, this 10 to 15% reduction will yield Great Benefits to the chassis in both handling & acceleration. Another key ingredient is to buy a Square Setup, a square setup means that all your new 18" wheels are exactly the same size & all the new tires are the same size. With a square setup your Bimmer will handle better plus you'll now be able to rotate your tires front to rear to achieve better tire wear.

My "Go To" lightweight tire is the Continental brand, then sometimes Hankook & others when they make a lightweight option. My current three favorite choices are 1) Continental DWS 06 Ultra High Performance All-Season, 2) Hankook Ventus V12 EV02 which is a Max Performance Summer, & 3) Continental DW which is a Max Performance Summer, None of these tires are rated number 1 in their class, but all are considered excellent choices & get very high marks in different tire tests, not to mention that they are highly rated by the customers that purchase them. The main reason I like them so much & recommend them to E46Fanatics members is they're typically the lightest possible tire you can buy, if you were to look at any independent tire test where there's a Top 10 list, the Continental tires are almost always going to be the lightweight tire champ.

The trick to picking your 18" wheels & keeping them light is to Not go to big on the wheel width & tire width. I would recommend keeping your wheel width at 8" & choosing a 215/40-18 tire size. Besides all of the previously mentioned things, a typical 18 x 8" and 215/40-18 can be very cost effective vs their bigger and heavier 18" cousins. Here are 17 decent wheel choices from forum sponsor Tire Rack in a 18 x 8", the price point of these 17 different wheels ranges from $128 to $175 with a weight between roughly ~20 lbs to ~22 lbs.

Tire Rack wheels: (Enter) Diameter = 18", Weight = 19 to 21 lbs, Sort By = Lowest to Highest.
https://www.tirerack.com/wheels/res...Coupe&autoYear=2003&autoModClar=Sport+Package

Now when we add a 215/40-18 XL* Continental DWS 06 (All-Season) at 18.6 lbs, Hankook Ventus V12 EV02 (Summer) at 19 lbs, and the Continental DW (Summer) at 19.4 lbs we get the Amazing Unsprung Weight of ~38.6 lbs to ~41.4 lbs, with an average weight of roughly ~40 lbs per 18" wheel & tire. When you mount & drive 18" wheels & tires that weigh in at roughly 40 lbs, you'll be AMAZED at how Great & Nimble your Bimmer now feels.

Last but not least: Remember that a slightly smaller set of high grip tires like the 215/40-18's I've posted will be equal to OR outperform a larger set of "Less" performance oriented high mileage tires.

Here is a picture of a Non-M E46 running 18 x 8" ET22 with 215/40-18 tires.


Rob43



* When purchasing a 215/40-18, They MUST be an XL Load Range tire to meet your needed load requirements.
 

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#4 ·
Both choices will work well.

225/40-18 = ~25.1" Overall Diameter

215/40-18 = ~24.8" Overall Diameter

Besides the great probability of less tire weight with a 215/40-18, there's also roughly a 1% Better performance gear ratio with the 215/40-18. Certainly 1% is not something to get excited about, but all of these things add up; The net result ends up being better driving pleasure.

So why don't you narrow it down to a few choices that you're interested in & then give links to those tires on forum sponsor tire rack, I'll look them over & give you some thoughts.



Rob43
 
#7 ·
The tires I found the lightest tires I went for in my area Lake Tahoe Nv our the 225/40R18 Falken pro G4 a/s coming in at 22lbs. With the the style 67 ( 24.2508lbs) rims the total weight is about 46 lbs each rim and tire.
The stock style 17inch 44 rim comes little over (23.00lbs)
Rob43 I hope I did ok..
 
#8 ·
Well...

I get ~24.7 lbs for a style 67 wheel that's 18x8" (11.23kg X 2.2 = ~24.7), assuming that the Falkens are ~22.0 lbs you should be at 46.7 lbs. But I always like to add 1 lbs extra because that's how these wheels & tires end up, so figure roughly ~47.5 to ~48 lbs if you weighed them on an accurate digital bathroom scale.

Certainly that's better that the typical 49 to 52 lbs 18" wheel & tire weight range.



Rob43
 
#10 ·
Here's some good info I found within this forum but I believe the weight is for wheel minus the tire:

Style 68
17 X 7.5 front with 225/45/17 offset ET 41 - 9.50Kg
17 X 8.5 front with 245/40/17 offset ET 50 - 9.92Kg

Style 72
18 X 8 front with 225/40/18 offset ET 47 - 10.27kg
18 X 8.5 front with 255/35/18 offset ET 50 - 11.78kg

Style 135
18 X 8 front with 225/40/18 offset ET 47 - 11.23kg
18 X 8.5 front with 255/35/18 offset ET 50 - 11.93Kg
 
#12 ·
Yep, those are all just wheel weights....

Then add the tire weight + 1* lbs = Your Actual Real World Total



Rob43



* I've often found that this extra 1 lbs rule holds true when adding up accurate wheel & tire weight. Example: 20 lbs wheel + 20 lbs tire = 41 lbs
 
#16 ·
Here's some good info I found within this forum but I believe the weight is for wheel minus the tire:

Style 68
17 X 7.5 front with 225/45/17 offset ET 41 - 9.50Kg
17 X 8.5 front with 245/40/17 offset ET 50 - 9.92Kg
If I'm derailing the thread asking a question about style 68s,which are 17s, I'll start another thread.
I'm staggered and want squared, conflicting opinions on whether to put the fronts on the back, or visa versa. I understand spacers may need to be installed. I know Rob knows [emoji3]. Want the best street handling, I could care less about stance. Springs are Eibach Pro Kit on sports suspension.


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk
 
#20 ·
Wow, im at 37 lbs with my 17" set of wheels! [emoji15] we consider it here lightweight and everybody goes crazy about the fact that I went from 18 to 17 inch wheels. Btw I'm using the oz allegeritas with Dunlop Sport maxx rt 2. Not the lightest piece of rubber but with a lot of grip.

I'd love the Enkei T6S but they have no permission here :(


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#27 ·
#24 ·
Rob, tire pressures have always confused me on the e46.

What's the recommendation for a square 245/40/17 setup? Street driven with just the driver.
Are the tire pressures recommended by BMW dependent on the tread width AND the axle placement, or only the tread width? Ie does a square tire setup dictate equal tire pressures? The engineer in me says that the axle weights are the same, and the tread width is the same, therefor for equal contact patches I'd want equal tire pressures. But I also know the suspension geometry plays a huge role here.
 
#25 ·
Certainly there are many variables to this...

A square tire & wheel setup doesn't necessarily mean you need to run a square psi number on your E46 chassis, typically anything between ~32 to ~38 psi will work well. So I'd recommend playing around with what feels good to you, I typically like roughly a 2 to 3 psi difference between F&R. Maybe try 34 front & 36 rear, but like I said, you need to figure out what feels best for you.



Rob43
 
#29 ·
Oh man, fitment... now we're talking. LOL! It's what kept me paid when I was finishing my Master's... but BMWs always made me spend money. Some of the most difficult to roll, but it also made me gain an appreciation for the brand that I never really had before. Very, very solid... Almost annoyingly well-made cars.

Finding someone who will do a good job on fender rolling/pulling without making your car look like trash is going to be the hard part. I run a company that specializes in near 0 external evidence fender pulling and rolling. I just abhor the look of poorly rolled fenders.

Tough choice is deciding if you want big tires or wide wheels. square sidewall tires are going to require some shaving (Cut, pull, seal, and tuck) while mild to moderate stretch can allow quite a bit more freedom of wheel choice.

There's a reason guys stretch the tires, and while many people hate it, it really does open up your choice to wheels. As an experiment, I ran 245/35s on 10" wide wheels for 3 years with not a single issue. Within reason, a slight stretch is perfectly safe depending on how you will be using your car. 225/40s on 10.5s is silly proposition though.

google divani-kingston to see some pics.
 
#30 ·
As an aside, since I'm in here...

Reach in and feel inside your rear fender lip. if there is a rubbery feeling "filler" inside the fender lip, the amount of room that can be created in your wheel well will be a bit more limited.

I have yet to figure out the consistency with which BMW applied that "sooper goop" as I called it years ago, LOL! In some E46s the rear fender lip was just basically an upward curled piece of sheet metal, like every other manufacturer. However, there were times when I ran across both coupes and sedans that had a rubberized filler inside the fender lips. I have no clue the reason this was or if it was done during manufacturing or at dealers. It being a weather resistant application seems stupid because it wasn't like it was a bedliner... it wasn't completely tight to the metal surface, which allowed water to get behind it and could rust out a fender pretty badly.

I just never could figure out the years and consistency this goop was applied. If you guys have any knowledge about it, it would be great to at least put this bit of trivia behind me. I'm pretty sure you guys already know its technical name, LOL!
 
#32 ·
Overall it's preference. 17" is often considered ideal, 19" really pushes the weight threshold beyond what's ideal for unsprung weight. Ride quality also suffers as the tire profile gets smaller. I've had 17, 18, and 19" wheels and personally prefer the look of the 18". The 17" isn't a bad look, by any means, and performs well as it usually bumps up the tire width from the stock 16". 19" is a tough fitment on a non-M for the proper look, and it's just too little tire for the quality of roads where I live.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 
#33 · (Edited)
Shepacksheat, I believe it is mostly preference of look. But you also have to consider ride and performance. So I agree with yjsaabman, in that 17" are actually the sweet spot. Because with the 17's, you still have a very comfortable ride, they look ten times better than the stock 16's, with a much more aggressive stance, and they perform well. The 18" wheels look a little bit better, but they perform worse, and give a harsh ride. 19" wheels look over-done; starting to get a bit ghetto.
Actually, for my money, the 17's are the perfect compromise. I like this style of wheels a lot better. And they are all 21ulb wheels, with the Continental tires on it.
 

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#35 ·
18x8 ET38 with 245-40-18 Continental contact 6
Nice fit. Some fat tyres helps to cope with speed bumps and clumsy road repairs.
Speedo is off : 100 is 102 according to the GPS.Sorry officer.
The 245 is replacing 225, both 40's. the higher side walls of the 245 makes the front feel more planted and even comfortable.
No more understeer too.
Its feels a tad less lively , not a reel probleem, its a 330i.
Its not a race car, to heavy, great daily sporter.

 
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