<Misc>Re: E36 wheels and advice (Long)

["Marc Plante" <marc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Donn:

Some of what you feel is the suspension (body roll and some turn in), but
tires will make a big difference in the stick and turn in.

If you're not stuck on absolute performance, you can get away with 15"
wheels and get a decent driving experience.  There are decent tires
available in a 205/60-15 including Yokohama AVSIs and I think Dunlop SP
8000s can still be found.  Realize though, that the more extreme tires
(Potenza S02s, Yokohama Nexus) aren't available in a 15" size that I know
of.  Realize that 16" tires will cost a chunk more (like $160-$200 nicer
tires vs about $100-$120 for good 15" tires.  It depends on how rabid you
want your street driving experience to be.

If you're driving on the Michelin Energys, you're not losing a lot selling
them for whatever you can get if you're looking for performance.  There are
used tire stores that might give you enough to mount your new tires (Not buy
them, just *mount* them).  They're a fairly mediocre handling tire.  New
Yokohama AVSIs will run about $90 a corner in a 205/60-15, and you can find
Blizzaks pretty cheap now if you scrounge the Roundel (people moving out of
snow country dumping their wheels).  beware that Blizzaks lose a the
majority of their snow goodness halfway through the tread depth.

You've got to decide if you want 16" rims.  I got a set of 16" BBS RZs in
great shape for $500 this spring from the Roundel.  They had some rubber
left on them (D60s Ugh!) I'm using up.  Next set of tires will cost about
$600.  When buying rims, pay attention to offset, particularly if you're
ever going to lower the car.  Not sure about the top and bottom thresholds
of acceptible offset.  If they came off an E36(i.e. 323 take-offs) you
should be OK, but be sure.  Check with a local wheel retailer to get the
range.  Offset is stamped on the outside of the wheel in the hub area.

If you want to stay with 15,"  I'd say keep what you got and get new summer
tires.  Buy now if you can't stand the handling or wait til next spring if
you want to save cash.

Unless you upgrade to 16" wheels, bottom feed for the Blizzaks (or other
snow tires) on steel or stock BMW alloy (cheaper) rims.  there are people
leaving the snow belt selling them in the Roundel pretty regularly.
Probably best to do it now while sellers are plentiful compared to buyers.
If you upgrade, you can obviously use your original wheels for snows, though
you may end up with a used wheel/tire combo cheaper than new snow tires
alone would cost.  That would leave you with 15" track/autox wheels.


Marc Plante
E36 325i, 104k
Alexandria, VA
mailto:Marc@domain.elided

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