gorillamunch

I just ordered an 08, M Sport and was wondering if anyone has direct experience with both lowering and the 19" assymetrical 172 wheels. Thanks,

C's Bimmer

H&R sells a set for the xi wagons. I would assume it will fit the 535xiT too. Check out www.allsprings.com. However, make sure you get the springs for the wagon and NOT the sedan. There are 2 "xi" sets. I have these springs on my car and absolutely love them. The ride and the stance is so much better than stock and I had the Sport Package on my xi too. Unfortunately, our xi cars (sport package or not) has the car sitting 14mm higher than the standard RWD sport package E60's.

As for the 172's fitting your car, I don't think you can do it, due to the high offset of the xi models. The 172 has the same set up as the OEM 166 M5 wheels which will NOT fit on our xi cars. The xi offset runs ET 43 at all 4 corners. The 172's run an offset of ET 18 in the front and ET 32 in the rear (staggered). If you were to mount these on your car, the wheels would stick out WAY beyond the wheel wells, making the car look terrible.

To figure out what wheels would work well and with which offsets, use this tool:

http://www.1010tires.com/WheelOffsetCalculator.asp

Lastly, as an FYI, the 3 series has a high offset. If you want 19's, look into 3 series wheels instead. You can check out E46 or E90 wheels. Just make sure the ceter bore size is 72.51. Not sure what the 3 series center bore size is...

As you can see from my pix, I went with the 19", staggered M3 CSL wheels. They fit perfectly!

Hope this helps and good luck!

gorillamunch

Interesting. I am getting out of an '04 330xi M-Sport on which I had H&R lowering spring installed - the ride quality, however, was terrible and I had the springs removed and the stock ones put back in. I suspect it was because the shocks weren't beefy enough to handle the spings, as the ride was extremely jumpy, and I didn't want to shell out for the shocks. What ride quality differences have you noticed?

I like the CSL M3 wheel choice. What size are they? Thanks,

Chief F1 Fan

I'm guessin 19's by his sig