norsecarnut

I agree. Remember, mine are 18"x8.5" ET 29 oem m3 wheels, no spacers, no drop, but similar to the effect of a drop, I have the larger 245/45x18 tires. See here again for reference. (side photos are fairly useless in this question)


As you can see at the front, that's about the max without rubbing on hard turns or simply poking out and looking silly. If I were dropped, it would be running into the top of the fender for sure. The rear however could take a 10mm and be fine but loaded heavy on trips I think I've heard the tire scrub the fender liner upon hitting a good dip at speed. It's only momentary of course due to the auto leveling air suspension.

norsecarnut

but this doesn't need a drop in my opinion:



front looks plenty tight and clean even gap concentrically

v_therussian

Definitely no drop needed there If I had a wagon, I would've prolly gone that same route with mine - you get to keep the more compliant ride of the stock suspension, and the look of filled-in fender wells

norsecarnut

thanks!

what's this concave thing you mentioned earlier?

constant

My contribution to this thread: test fitting a 10" rear wheel on a 2008 535xi wagon.

Wheel specs: 19x10", ET25 offset. No tire on rim due to test fit. I also mocked up some tire profile templates out of cardboard to see what size tire would fit best. From the mock ups, I would most likely choose a 265/30 or 275/30 tire. I made up a template of the 275/35R19 tire, which is a slightly taller sidewall some people run. On an ET25 rim, I think this is a no-go.

Thought these pics might help anyone looking to fit an aggressive, wide wheel & tire on the rear of your xi. I would say an ET30-ET35 19x10" wheel would be just about perfect on the rear of an xi, the ET25 will require a fender roll and a slight stretch on the rear tire.

Wheel mounted:


Wheel lowered to compressed (normal) ride height:


Inner fender clearance:


Approx 2.5 fingers of clearance on the inside (maybe 1.25" or so):


View from behind:


View from above:


View underneath:


Rear quarter view:


Checking tire profile of 265/30R19:


w/ 275/30R19:


w/ 275/35R19 (+1 sidewall height) May be too risky, tire would likely hit fender on big bumps:

norsecarnut

most important to me would be seeing the inside upper edge where the tire is going to scrub the heck out of the fender liner. The 2" at the rim is fine but the fender liner tapers in and then when the suspension is compressed it will get even tighter, while lowered off the jack, and then more when hitting dips in the road.

nice idea with the tire template.

10" at et25 is out further than I would have expected.

constant

The pics were taken at full compression. The wheel was sitting on a plastic block, while the entire car was lowered all the way down. The entire weight of the car was on the wheel at the time. Unless you were to hit a massive bump, this is actually slightly lower than you "normally" ride.

The xi wagon has the advantage of rear air suspension, so I could always raise the height slightly by adjusting the sensor arm also.

With all 3 templates, none would rub on the inner liner. But then again, this is with an ET25 where there's about 1.5" of clearance on the inside.

constant

If you want to make your own tire templates, just type in some tire sizes into the calculator here: http://www.1010tires.com/tiresizecalculator.asp

The tire width and sidewall heights (in inches & mm) will be listed for the tire sizes you choose.

franco5

Hey Lug - sorry for the dumb question but what is the difference between the CS7 and the SF-71??? I got a set of one of these last yr and loved the way they looked but kinda disappointed with them. Typical pothole story but in my opinion the hole wasn't really that big etc. Well long story shot - bent the sh@t out of my right front and actually split the rear resulting in about a 1 and a half in split. Anyway here are a couple of pics of mine (sorry about the pic quality, as I've been playing with Photoshop and I think I got a little carried away with adjustments etc...) BTW - sorry if the pics dont post - I havent posted in a while and not sure if I did it correctly...

The HOOF

New guy here with a new to me 08 535xi with the sport package (staggered 18s stock susp.) I've read all 39 pages a couple of times. Great info.

I would prefer not to lower my car yet but want new skins.

So options:

1) 19s staggered w/ 4x4 look. How bad is it in person? A couple more pics please

2) #1 and increase the side wall. I saw the pics. Not bad.

3) 20s. Some where in this thread someone mentioned 20s would fill up the wheel gap better. Is that true? Could anyone post
a picture w/ 20s no drop on an xi. I have seen a coupe pics but not sure if they were stock susp or not.

Thanks