Dude, if you have bad roads where you live, those wheels probably won't hold up too long. It has been discussed that replica 166s are very vulnerable. Many times.

Anyway, to answer your question (and I am suppressing a HUGE desire to tell you to search for yourself, because this subject has been covered on this forum a thousand times), if you have a square setup (same width fronts and rears), get 245/40/19 or 245/35/19. If you are getting staggered setup, you'll want to get 275/30 in the back and 245/35/19 up front. I'll let you get the offset thing on your own, because I believe in you

 

I agree, if bad roads are a concern, 19's are probably not the best choice, but at least put a larger tire on like the 245/40x19 or even a 255/40x19. Then you regain some safety as well as fill the fender gap.

The size of the E61 looks better with a larger tire diameter anyway.

 

Remember, the ideal or maximum ET number will be different depending on the rim width. An 8" rim can have a smaller ET number because the rim is narrower however a wider rim with the same Et will stick out more.

I have a bmw wheel 8.5" wide and ET 29 which works fine up front. The same wheel on the rear is still tucked in about .5" from flush.

 

You can see how in the front it's really very flush but the rear rim could be wider or have lower ET number and still be fine.

 

Look, I really appreciate you suppressing the desire, I'm being the horrible type of forum member that I detest on other forums... i just read so many conflicting bits of info on this subject that I can't decide what is true and what is BS, and I'm just ready to buy some wheel/tire combo as soon as I make a decision on whether to buy this damn extended warranty (just experienced total failure again of HPFP, injectors etc even after new design dealer-install recall event.) Now I'll go research whether staggered or square is best... I'm sure that argument is buried in this thread somewhere.

I figure these replica rims are so cheap I can afford to bend one and buy a new one.

The offset?... no clue as I don't know what style wheels I have, and what their offset is.. but you're right... with enough time spent here I'll figure it out.

 

learn about what you have so that you have a reference point before trying to replace them: http://felgenkatalog.auto-treff.com/

 

awesome, thanks for the link... this is a pic of my car... and the closest I could get to my rims seem to be the 246's here, initially they looked like the same to me, but upon closer inspection i realize these are not exactly the same.

 

Alexio,

Those look like style 189 rims from the E90 3 series. The 189 came with an 8" front (225) 34 offset and an 8.5" rear (255) 37 offset. Is that the set up you have? I was considering them for my car, I'm worried that 19" would be too aggressive for a daily drive + poor CA streets and freeways... By the way try the ultra racing strut bar for the front it is a really tight fit but has helped strengthen the front end.

 

that car looks so good with these wheels

 

Can you please confirm the part number of the HPFP that you're saying you last had installed, which failed? Was it the latest one, 13517616446? I'm really surprised if that's the case, since there's not been one reported failure of it yet on the E90 forums, where it's a really common issue. Previous versions all eventually failed, and there were posts about them. The previous one 13517613933 is supposedly as good, but I'm pretty sure I read of some of those failing too, before the 446 pump came out in Dec. 2010.

Here's the TSB on it.

SI B13 13 10.pdf

And the injectors, you're saying the same ones that got replaced (they only did one of mine under recall, as they first check them, and if they are from a certain production batch only (not just based on mfg date) then they replace them).

SI B13 14 10.pdf