I'm waiting to see the new colour in the flesh because as you know I always fancied your colour when I first saw the pics on another forum and if I am to replace my car I would feel a bit daft getting the same colour, although I do love my Carbon Black.

 

Let's examine this for a second:

18" tyres for E60:
FRONT AXLE 245/40R18 93W
REAR AXLE 275/35R18 95W

19" tyres for E60:
FRONT AXLE 245/35R19 93Y
REAR AXLE 275/30R19 96Y

It seems to me that the load rating of the 19" 275 tyre exceeds the load rating of the 18" 275 tyre, and this in turn is higher than the load rating of the 18" 245 tyre. Has anybody received a written response from BMW about 19" or 18x9" wheels on E61?

 

<duplicate post removed>

 

Not in a legally sound sense, but the recommendation from BMW is by default to use only 18" wheels as maximum on the E61. The "only" OEM 19" for the E60-series are the 172M and there BMW says it's not for the Touring, only for the sedan.

Yes yes..., there are other trims that fits the E60-series such as the 166, but they are not officially part of the recommended E60. An M5 is after all not an E60...

 

In the first E60 owners manuals there was a causion for RF 18" tyres:
Very freely phrased: "They may brake your car on bad roads."

As we know, even the LCI 550i (E60 or E61) comes in EU with OEM 17" 225/50 RF tyres
Sport models have 245/40 18" RF's.

 

125/128/179/190 are all 19" OEM for E60 non-M5 vehicles. The point is that the claim from BMW (if it indeed came from there) about tyre load indices, is in fact a fallacy, as I showed from the tyre specs above.

Interesting point about the warning in the car manual..

 

E60 - yes, but does it also include E61...?

 

In writing from BMW - I wish.

The problem I had with the "18" only" recommendation, and the refusal of BMW technical (via the dealer) to condone BMW 19" wheels on the e61, was that they were quite happy to sell you 19 and 20" ACS and Alpina wheels. It was when exploring this anomally that I was advised (again via the dealer after ALOT of perserverance) that they came with a sticker for the handbook restricting the load capacity of the vehicle - possibly TUV related but I could be wrong.

It is the only convincing argument I have heard, although it doesn't directly explain why they allow staggered wheel fitments to the e60 but not the e61.

Life would be so much simpler if they would simply publish a "no, because..."

 

I believe you're on to it, Blingo. Technically speaking the E61 could take both 19" and 20", but regulatory constraints stops BMW to sell such wheels. And although you could add a sticker in a manual, it would still not help you through the T?V if the tyre load didn't matched the prescribed load in the papers. So instead of taking the fight with T?V, BMW happily moves over and let the individual owner take it instead...

 

That makes sense to me, and also probably explains why they won't give a straight answer.

And the fact that larger tyres are available with high load ratings is so much the better