82gaja

Hi everyone,

I have recently acquired an 08 535xi.
Put on some 20" staggered (mine already had staggered 18" from the factory)
running 245/35/20 and 275/30/20 (same width as my factory set up)
I am getting intermittent 'traction' light come on especially upon rolling from standing or hard/sharp cornering
when the light flickers, of course the car slows down, I back off the throttle then everything's fine.
So far... I've been driving around with DTC off so I don't have to deal with the traction light.

Anyone with staggered 20" set up on Xi AWD model with similar 'traction' issues??

I know I should have gone to 245/30 and 275/25/20 as I went up 2 sizes from factory but with H&R, I wanted more 'meaty' tires... Also, still rolling sizes are within 1% difference which I thought was minimal.. no??

thanks in advance for any insights, inputs.

Jon

Anzafin

I'm not sure but could it be because of the slight difference in overall diameter between the front and rear tyre?

Front: Overall Diameter: 26.75 in / 679.45 mm
Rear: Overall Diameter: 26.49 in / 672.84 mm

0.26" / 6.61mm is not much though...

- Antti -

edit: Or then the rubbers might rotate/move/turn on the wheel if they are recently mounted. On the other hand, this could appear on a hard acceleration only.

sachal007

what, why would u put staggered on xi? I thought all the wheels have to have same overall diameter or it will damage the all wheel drive system.

82gaja

Thanks Antti for the info
Yeah... my thoughts were same...
not sure why with such a minute difference, it throws off the light???

82gaja

Mine came from factory with staggered 18"
245/40/18 and 275/35/18
factory sport 18" wheels option
overall rolling diameter is almost identical front to back even though they are staggered.

I did some search and other forum members with Xi have successfully ran staggered 19's or 20's with no issues.

not sure why I'm getting traction lights sporadically...

any other insights??

545felix

crappier tires than you had on the 18s?

sachal007

yeah what tires are u using? are they all the same brand?

82gaja

Different brands.
Fronts were Continental Extreme Contact, forgot the rears but they were brands I was unfamiliar with...
I would have never done that myself but...I bought them like that from a friend who had them on his F10 535i xDrive.
I didn't know they were different brands until they were dropped off at my house
Treads were very similar in design though.
Could this be the cause???

82gaja

Different brands.
Fronts were Continental Extreme Contact, forgot the rears but they were brands I was unfamiliar with...
I would have never done that myself but...I bought them like that from a friend who had them on his F10 535i xDrive.
I didn't know they were different brands until they were dropped off at my house
Treads were very similar in design though.
Could this be the cause???

545felix

tread design is only one aspect of a tire's characteristics. The compound used is also very important. I'd say your problem lies in the fact you've got different brands on each rear tire of questionable quality.