Get em on dude...Snow rubber is as much for cold as they are for snow & ice!

17" should be just fine

 

Why won't this set-up work for xi?

 

The sport A7's may not come in the correct offset needed for an XI. You just need to buy a wheels that fits an XI, and I'm sure there is a tire that will work.

And yes, snow tires are not only for snow, I try to take the summers off once the temp is consistenly below 40.

 

Nice rims but the car is kind of ugly. No offense.

 

Ok, not to hijack the thread - but since we are on the topic of 18" snows... just had mine put on. They were a PITA to find used (thanks Troy). These are the BMW approved wheel/tire combo for the M5 (BMW style 184 with Michelin Alpins). One challenge I have is that my M5 seems to always look like a 4x4 due to the wheel/tire gap on the fronts (and boy did it get worse with the 18s....).

 

I just put the exact same set of 18" Sport Edition A7's with Dunlop 3D tires on my ride as Rick (Midwest BMW) and I already miss my 19" summer tires.

I think Tirerack screwed up my balance because I have a slight shimmy in the steering wheel now. JUST WHAT I NEED!

Vibration follows me wherever I go. I am going to try and rotate the back to front (on 1 side first) to see if that works better. In the meantime, I wonder if TR will pay for another balance. I had ZERO vibration on my summer tires/wheels.

Anyway, they look decent enough and ride ok....def can feel you are riding on something other than summer tires, though. I am now looking forward to some snow to see how well they perform.





And look what I found on this old camera I haven't used in months. I never saw these pics till now.

 

Dave -- I miss the summer shoes too...I'm glad we went 18's though.

17's would have looked more out of whack with the aero trim

Now get that damn thing balanced and your money from tirerack

 

i bought 4 wheel totes and 4 wheel felts for $71 shipped from afterthoughtsauto. real nice stuff. works real well.

 

Well, I swapped the left side wheels, front to back & vice versa, and the shimmy in front is pretty much gone, but now I am feeling the results in my seat, which would make sense. But at least I narrowed down which wheel was out of sync, but I am still going to have all 4 balanced again.

On a separate note, is it me or do winter sport tires ride harsh as hell?! The ride feels like my M5's EDC in full Sport mode....harsh! I am not sure if I am supposed to lower the pressures or not from the usual summer figures? They came from TR with 32 lbs. in each, but I bumped them up to 36 lbs. I think I am going to drop them back down to see if that helps.

I miss my summer tires so much, and it's only been 3 days. On the bright side, I only have about 4.5 months to go!

 

looking good mate.................especially the tyres, they have some tread on them.......!