Hi

I have an E61 525 2004 with lovelly 18 inch BMW sports wheels and 245 x 40 x 18 run on flat tyres. The car has idrive which monitors the tyre pressure. I dont like the ride of the run on flat tyres as it is very hard. I have just bought an E46 330 2003 also with lovelly 18 inch BMW MV2 sport alloys with 245 x 40 x 18 normal tyres. I am thinking of swapping the wheels over between the cars. They are exactly the same size wheel and tyre so there should be no problems with fit or speedo etc, but my question is will the idrive tyre pressure monitor system still work with the diferent wheels and tyres?

 

As long as the other set of wheels also have TPMS sensors, you just have to sync them to the car when you put the new wheels on using iDrive. Quite simple.

 

Unless you have the european system which uses the ABS sensors. Then there are no TPMS sensors and you only have to reset the idrive telling the pressure is ok.

 

Canada is same, in terms of using ABS for flat tire monitoring as of a few years ago. But US has mandated TPMS for years. I heard newer Cdn cars might be getting TPMS too, but not sure.

 

Verify the offset - you may find that the 3 series wheels have a much higher offset (that's why many xi owners swap wheels from them to the e60). Unless the offset is too extreme (in which case they won't work) you may also need spacers for them to fit properly.

3 series typical offset 50/47:
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...29&hg=36&fg=15

5 series typical offset 20/18
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...13&hg=36&fg=15

 

Thanks for the info - did not think about the offset.... I will check at the weekend.