F31 335d x-drive winter tyre options

[DocSteve]

Hi,

Anyone any experience with this? I am thinking of switching to winters and I don't want runflats (currently on non-RFT Michelin PSS). At the moment it's a staggered 18 setup with 225/45 on the front and 255/40 rears. It would give me more options (and would be cheaper) if I moved to 225/45 all round for the winter but I'm not sure what that might do to the dynamics, especially if the winter is not particularly severe as per previous years. I want to keep the same rims.

I don't really want to open a discussion about whether winter tyres are worth it or not please, but if anyone has any advice and/or experience relating to the above I'd be interested.

Thanks
Steve

[Maracus]

I run 225/50/17s all round on my F31 328i. They're Pirelli RFTs.

Normally have the staggered 19s with non RFT Dunlop Sport Maxx.

EDIT to add- Minimum 18" if you have the M Sport brakes.

Edited by Maracus on Friday 21st October 21:26

[AlasdairMc]

Can't help with the non-RFT options, but I got a set of Sottozeroes on BMW alloys in 225/45/r18 from a guy on eBay and the F30 forums. From memory I paid around £1200 I think, and it's a lot easier to swap the wheels than the tyres.

[335d]

DocSteve said:

Hi,

Anyone any experience with this? I am thinking of switching to winters and I don't want runflats (currently on non-RFT Michelin PSS). At the moment it's a staggered 18 setup with 225/45 on the front and 255/40 rears. It would give me more options (and would be cheaper) if I moved to 225/45 all round for the winter but I'm not sure what that might do to the dynamics, especially if the winter is not particularly severe as per previous years. I want to keep the same rims.

I don't really want to open a discussion about whether winter tyres are worth it or not please, but if anyone has any advice and/or experience relating to the above I'd be interested.

Thanks
Steve

I also run staggered 19" MPSS summers, just for reference.

I bought the official square set of 225/45/18 BMW* marked Pirelli SottoZero winters, although mine are runflat. With hindsight I would probably have gone for a staggered 255 225 set, knowing how they behave. I find that the rear bias of the 335d can cause the rear to step out on the winter set earlier than I would expect. Clearly I shouldn't expect the same grip as MPSS, but even the staggered Potenza runflats which came with the car didn't do this.

It isn't all bad. Once you know about it, it does provide some RWD-style drift which can be fun, but I would choose a staggered set if choosing again.

[DocSteve]

335d said:

I also run staggered 19" MPSS summers, just for reference.

I bought the official square set of 225/45/18 BMW* marked Pirelli SottoZero winters, although mine are runflat. With hindsight I would probably have gone for a staggered 255 225 set, knowing how they behave. I find that the rear bias of the 335d can cause the rear to step out on the winter set earlier than I would expect. Clearly I shouldn't expect the same grip as MPSS, but even the staggered Potenza runflats which came with the car didn't do this.

It isn't all bad. Once you know about it, it does provide some RWD-style drift which can be fun, but I would choose a staggered set if choosing again.

Thanks - that's helpful. I thought that may well be the case as the rear bias is quite noticeable especially with the DSC switched completely off. I have in any case decided to go with the non-RFT Sottozero 3s on 225/45/18 all round and will see how it goes.... Should be an interesting experiment whatever the weather ends up doing!

[DocSteve]

DocSteve said:

335d said:

I also run staggered 19" MPSS summers, just for reference.

I bought the official square set of 225/45/18 BMW* marked Pirelli SottoZero winters, although mine are runflat. With hindsight I would probably have gone for a staggered 255 225 set, knowing how they behave. I find that the rear bias of the 335d can cause the rear to step out on the winter set earlier than I would expect. Clearly I shouldn't expect the same grip as MPSS, but even the staggered Potenza runflats which came with the car didn't do this.

It isn't all bad. Once you know about it, it does provide some RWD-style drift which can be fun, but I would choose a staggered set if choosing again.

Thanks - that's helpful. I thought that may well be the case as the rear bias is quite noticeable especially with the DSC switched completely off. I have in any case decided to go with the non-RFT Sottozero 3s on 225/45/18 all round and will see how it goes.... Should be an interesting experiment whatever the weather ends up doing!

Well, so far the 225/45/18 non-RFT Sottozeros all round seem to be pretty good. I've had a few winter tyres on different performance cars but the Sottozeros seem to be the best so far. Admittedly I've not had to use them in anger that often although I did do a cross-country trip in a Golf R through snow, slush and ice in very cold temperatures up to Scotland on a deliberately selected B road route and they excelled. Vredestein Wintrac Extremes were good on a Focus ST down in the Austrian winter but on cold/wet roads in the UK the compromise was noticeable.

There is an obvious difference between the MPSS and these which as you say is to be expected but I wouldn't think the wider rears would be much better on the Sottozeros. I wonder if the runflats exhibit different characteristics.

[ian in lancs]

I managed to get a set of two year old BMW oe X3 wnhells with Pirelli soto rft tyres with 4-5mm tread for £450. Very happy with that!

[335d]

DocSteve said:

Well, so far the 225/45/18 non-RFT Sottozeros all round seem to be pretty good. I've had a few winter tyres on different performance cars but the Sottozeros seem to be the best so far. Admittedly I've not had to use them in anger that often although I did do a cross-country trip in a Golf R through snow, slush and ice in very cold temperatures up to Scotland on a deliberately selected B road route and they excelled. Vredestein Wintrac Extremes were good on a Focus ST down in the Austrian winter but on cold/wet roads in the UK the compromise was noticeable.

There is an obvious difference between the MPSS and these which as you say is to be expected but I wouldn't think the wider rears would be much better on the Sottozeros. I wonder if the runflats exhibit different characteristics.

Glad they are working well. I think mine are Sottozero 2s, so it could also be that your 3s are a better tyre. It is only when asking a lot of them that my rears feel like they could do with being a little wider, specifically damp roundabouts on fast dual carriageways where the car is on rails with staggered MPSS, but needs more care with my winters.

I have only had these winter tyres for 2 seasons so far, both of them pretty mild, so not yet had a chance to give them a serious winter test.

[DocSteve]

335d said:

DocSteve said:

Well, so far the 225/45/18 non-RFT Sottozeros all round seem to be pretty good. I've had a few winter tyres on different performance cars but the Sottozeros seem to be the best so far. Admittedly I've not had to use them in anger that often although I did do a cross-country trip in a Golf R through snow, slush and ice in very cold temperatures up to Scotland on a deliberately selected B road route and they excelled. Vredestein Wintrac Extremes were good on a Focus ST down in the Austrian winter but on cold/wet roads in the UK the compromise was noticeable.

There is an obvious difference between the MPSS and these which as you say is to be expected but I wouldn't think the wider rears would be much better on the Sottozeros. I wonder if the runflats exhibit different characteristics.

Glad they are working well. I think mine are Sottozero 2s, so it could also be that your 3s are a better tyre. It is only when asking a lot of them that my rears feel like they could do with being a little wider, specifically damp roundabouts on fast dual carriageways where the car is on rails with staggered MPSS, but needs more care with my winters.

I have only had these winter tyres for 2 seasons so far, both of them pretty mild, so not yet had a chance to give them a serious winter test.

Hi - you're right, mine are the 3s although the ones I had on the Golf were 2s; that said, the two cars are very different as the Golf was front biased. The MPSS tyres are great - I use track rubber on my MX5 and the MPSS are not far off those in terms of grip in the dry yet they still perform pretty well in the wet. I still wonder if wider winters would help that much in terms of grip on damp cold surfaces. It's probably a test that needs to be done!

Steve