2008.528xi can you put a staggered set of a 550i without hurting the drivetrain or handling? Thank you ahead

 

No they won't negatively affect the handling or drivetrain. The problem you will encounter is the offset. If they are off of a RWD 550 the offset is too low, they will rub.

 

There are some finer points. You can have a staggered setup, but the tires must all be of similar rolling diameter. If they aren't you end up with two problems. First, just like messing with tire sizes can mess up the speedometer, they can also mess with ABS, stability control, etc. Second, there is a transfer case. Differing rolling diameters will cause the transfer case to work harder that it is designed to work.

The 2008 owners manual is in the INFO section of this site. The manual specifically allows the following set ups. Using the tire calculator http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/infoTireMath.do I get the following:

245/45 R 17 - 785.33 revs/mile
225/50 R 17 - 779.95 revs/mile
245/40 R 18 - 784.25 revs/mile

front: 245/40 R 18 - 784.25 revs/mile
rear: 275/35 R 18 - 788.47 revs/mile

As you can see, the staggered setup is about 4 revolutions per mile different from front to rear.