M235i Winter Wheels/Tyres

[Nezquick]

Does anyone know what size/type of winter wheel and tyre combo will fit on an M235i? The ones from BMW are hugely expensive and whilst there are lots of BMW winter sets on eBay I'm not sure what will fit and what won't.

Going out in the car this morning with it showing -3 degrees made me rather aware that it'd be safer to get some on now.

Thanks

[nickfrog]

Look on the BMW winter wheel configurator as it will tell you what wheels actually fit your big calipers, which is the main constraint. I went for one of the 17' for the M135i/M235i (Style 381 as it's 7.5' and takes 225 tyres square) for a variety of reasons:

- taller sidewalls so better traction and less chance of damage
- lighter wheels
- cheaper wheels and tyres

I found my wheels for £200 on ebay (as new) and fitted 4 new Nokian D4s at £69 each (Tyreleader). I have the TPMS alloy valves so had to buy 4 of them on ebay.de at £100. Still very cheap overall.

Edited by nickfrog on Tuesday 19th January 12:01

[Nezquick]

Great - thanks for your help.

Do they make a huge difference in this crappy weather?

[nickfrog]

I don't know !! I still haven't fitted them as my "personal" threshold is about 2 deg, which we only just started breaching lately and temps look like going back up.

The Supersport are past their optimum in this weather despite 6mm+ and things can get hairy on my b road commute so as I am WFH today, I might fit them for the sake of it in a minute though...

I would expect a significant gain in traction and lat grip on past experience.

Edited by nickfrog on Tuesday 19th January 12:05

[jillXvince]

Hi, i purchased Pirelli Sottozero's from the online line tyre firm Oponeo. My car is the M135i, same wheel sizes as 235i. I went for non run flats and bought a Genuine Bmw mobility system for £90. I have to say the difference was really noticeable, very secure road holding on cold and wet days. One thing to bear in mind is that I found that some national size tyre fitters won't put conventional tyres on run flat rims even though there's no technical reason why not, even your tyre pressure sensors will still work.

[nickfrog]

Bit stupid of them as the M135i comes with non-RFTs as std unless you specify RFTs (why would u do that ) and in which case the wheels are the same anyway.

[jillXvince]

At the time of ordering the car I thought it was the sensible option to choose run flats as the car is used by my other half, however the problem has been getting run flat winters in the staggered sizes, So I thought no problem I'll buy a mobility kit and fit conventional winter tyres, to be told by many tyre fitters they won't fit them. ...some say that the rims have an extra bead or something to stop the run flats coming off when deflated....they all seem to make the answers up as they go along!

[VerySideways]

Whether you order the M235i with runflats or conventional tyres, the wheels supplied are exactly the same.
Try mentioning that to your tyre fitter...

[anonymous-user]

jillXvince said:

At the time of ordering the car I thought it was the sensible option to choose run flats as the car is used by my other half, however the problem has been getting run flat winters in the staggered sizes, So I thought no problem I'll buy a mobility kit and fit conventional winter tyres, to be told by many tyre fitters they won't fit them. ...some say that the rims have an extra bead or something to stop the run flats coming off when deflated....they all seem to make the answers up as they go along!

As said, it's all bks. BMW rims do have an 'asymmetric hump' on the bead area of the rim to help in preventing a deflated tyre rolling into the wheel well but they've had them for years, regardless of tyre type.

On the same rim, RFTs would be less likely to roll into the well than non RFTs, due to their design; the AH helps more with non RFTs.

[jillXvince]

All said and done I've now been running the Sottozeros a while now, can recommend Oponeo online tyres , good delivery and very good price although they do tend to fluctuate in price from September onwards. Pirrelli seem to be the only manufacturer making 245/35/18 rears.