E91 Straight Six Bearding

[ferrisbueller]

ATM said:

All cars like 99 if you ask me. I use the stuff always.

Its a shame you need to go rft on your wife's. I really hate them and bash them every chance I get. My e91 335i came with the Bridgestone 18 rft and it was really awful. It felt a lot lot better on go flat 17. My friend has a cheapo 320d e91 in soft se spec which has 16 rft and they are almost acceptable. The less low profile rft are less awful as a rule of thumb. So if you must go rft I'd say consider a size change to 17. The sport did come with a 17 option and they will fit over your brakes and they should be a bit cheaper too. You can therefore get away with doing this outside of telling your insurance company although I know these days most people tell them if they change air fresheners. I'd also go same size front and back as this will allow you to rotate tyres to even out wear. Wider rears are totally unnecessary and quite pricey in rft. Car will probably feel a bit less understeer although I doubt your wife will notice but hopefully if you get to drive it occasionally you will. She will also be able to bash into curbs without you wincing or threatening to divorce her depending on your OCD.

The common 17" option is staggered. Don't have the book handy to look at the others.

[ATM]

g3org3y said:

ATM said:

g3org3y said:

Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2

They come in Y (88) and W (92) flavour. The former are reportedly BMW spec according to Black Circles. (The latter, Merc spec)

I'd have thought the 88s with lower load index might have a slightly stiffer sidewall and as such more compliant ride?

Traditional go flat tyres are lighter and softer as the load index decreases and have softer sidewall. Surely if anything its similar with rft I'd say.

Sorry, my mistake. I meant, lower load index = softer. Early morning half asleep posting.

Edited by g3org3y on Tuesday 4th June 07:49

If you really want to geek out I think the us tyre sites list tyre weight. You could even try Goodyear themselves for advice. I'd go 88 personally. You could even think about 4 fronts so same size all round but that would mean buying 2 more front wheels really. Although I'm sensing my appeal to tinker doesn't stretch beyond my ramblings. Generally the 225 40 18 was a very widely used tyre size although obviously in rft that's diminished slightly. This generally means they're cheap to buy.

[ferrisbueller]

Wrong offset?

Is there any science or data behind the recommendations being made?

[ATM]

ferrisbueller said:

Wrong offset?

Is there any science or data behind the recommendations being made?

I'm no scientist. Let's leave the science to them.

I dont think offset is a concern. 4 fronts should fit no problem. Generally the rears have a higher offset if they are wider so it's hardly a fair comparison. The lesser models have 4 matching wheels. I ran 4 matching wheels on my e91 and it was fine. I run the same wheels now on my e61 but have added some bad boy spacers for aesthetics.

I find fronts on BMW cars always wear on the outside edge and rears the opposite. I like to rotate my tyres to get more even wear where possible.

My recent obsession is skinnier tyres. My e61 drove great on 225 all round. It's a much bigger and heavier and more powerful car.

Sometimes less is more. That's what I tell the ladies.

[ferrisbueller]

That's a "No" then.

[g3org3y]

ATM said:

g3org3y said:

ATM said:

g3org3y said:

Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2

They come in Y (88) and W (92) flavour. The former are reportedly BMW spec according to Black Circles. (The latter, Merc spec)

I'd have thought the 88s with lower load index might have a slightly stiffer sidewall and as such more compliant ride?

Traditional go flat tyres are lighter and softer as the load index decreases and have softer sidewall. Surely if anything its similar with rft I'd say.

Sorry, my mistake. I meant, lower load index = softer. Early morning half asleep posting.

Edited by g3org3y on Tuesday 4th June 07:49

If you really want to geek out I think the us tyre sites list tyre weight. You could even try Goodyear themselves for advice. I'd go 88 personally. You could even think about 4 fronts so same size all round but that would mean buying 2 more front wheels really. Although I'm sensing my appeal to tinker doesn't stretch beyond my ramblings. Generally the 225 40 18 was a very widely used tyre size although obviously in rft that's diminished slightly. This generally means they're cheap to buy.

Currently on the car I've got Bridgestone RE050A all round, they are 225/40 R18 (88W) at the front and 255/35 R18 (90Y) at the back.

The OS front has some wear on the inner edge and the car slightly pulls, so I suspect the tracking is out.

My plan was probably to replace the fronts as a pair so I thought I'd take the opportunity to make the switch to another brand (hence the consideration for Goodyear Eagle F1s).

I used to run 225 45 R17s all round on my E36 (Alpina Softlines). I wonder if they'd fit as winter wheels, perhaps the offset is quite different for the E90? I know they would have been fine on the E46.

[13aines]

stevesuk said:

As our E91 gets older (14 years old this year), and not being handy with the spanners - I tend to worry when I see the sign of anything that might potentially lead to a repair bill that exceeds the value of the car.

Latest one - some yellow residue found on the tip of the float that sits in the coolant reservoir (the pointy end - the bit that sticks out the top to indicate the level). Not a load of it ... just enough to coat the very tip of the float.

I'm thinking oil contamination of coolant, possible head gasket issue (although it must be minor)

I read that under certain circumstance, not to worry if you get some gunge under oil filler cap - but it's not normal for the coolant reservoir?

Anyone had anything similar before?

Could your oil filter housing be leaking? I don't know enough about the different engines, but the N54 can show signs of head-gasket failure due to traces of oil in the coolant, but it's often because a gasket in the oil filter housing is leaking.

[stevesuk]

13aines said:

Could your oil filter housing be leaking? I don't know enough about the different engines, but the N54 can show signs of head-gasket failure due to traces of oil in the coolant, but it's often because a gasket in the oil filter housing is leaking.

Thanks - funnily enough, we recently had a load of gaskets replaced due to oil leaks (valve cover, oil cooler, oil filter housing... from memory). I wonder if when replacing the gasket, a small amount of oil found its way in to the coolant, and its working its way out through the system. I'll have to keep an eye on it.

Before we had the gaskets replaced, there was no sign of any coolant contamination, but plenty of sign of oil around the engine bay

If it continues to appear, I guess they may not have fitted the gasket correctly (or a part is faulty) - but its always an enormous pain trying to prove stuff like that.

Edited by stevesuk on Tuesday 4th June 11:38

[ATM]

g3org3y said:

ATM said:

g3org3y said:

ATM said:

g3org3y said:

Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2

They come in Y (88) and W (92) flavour. The former are reportedly BMW spec according to Black Circles. (The latter, Merc spec)

I'd have thought the 88s with lower load index might have a slightly stiffer sidewall and as such more compliant ride?

Traditional go flat tyres are lighter and softer as the load index decreases and have softer sidewall. Surely if anything its similar with rft I'd say.

Sorry, my mistake. I meant, lower load index = softer. Early morning half asleep posting.

Edited by g3org3y on Tuesday 4th June 07:49

If you really want to geek out I think the us tyre sites list tyre weight. You could even try Goodyear themselves for advice. I'd go 88 personally. You could even think about 4 fronts so same size all round but that would mean buying 2 more front wheels really. Although I'm sensing my appeal to tinker doesn't stretch beyond my ramblings. Generally the 225 40 18 was a very widely used tyre size although obviously in rft that's diminished slightly. This generally means they're cheap to buy.

Currently on the car I've got Bridgestone RE050A all round, they are 225/40 R18 (88W) at the front and 255/35 R18 (90Y) at the back.

The OS front has some wear on the inner edge and the car slightly pulls, so I suspect the tracking is out.

My plan was probably to replace the fronts as a pair so I thought I'd take the opportunity to make the switch to another brand (hence the consideration for Goodyear Eagle F1s).

I used to run 225 45 R17s all round on my E36 (Alpina Softlines). I wonder if they'd fit as winter wheels, perhaps the offset is quite different for the E90? I know they would have been fine on the E46.

They will definitely fit. I'd try one first and see if you already have them. I have a set of 17 inch wheels and I bought them off a guy who ran then on his e36 before me. I think the 17 alpina sport lines might look quite retro cool.

[ferrisbueller]

E91 Wheel Options

http://www.bmminiparts.com/CategoryDiagrams.aspx?M...

BMW Wheel Back Catalogue

https://www.bmwoemwheels.com/en/rim-models/bmw?pag...

[g3org3y]

ATM said:

They will definitely fit. I'd try one first and see if you already have them. I have a set of 17 inch wheels and I bought them off a guy who ran then on his e36 before me. I think the 17 alpina sport lines might look quite retro cool.

Alpina Softlines are lovely wheels. They're worth more to me as a usable set of wheels than selling them onwards and then trying to buy a different E90 specific set.

Don't think I've ever seen an E90 on Softlines though. Always on the later styles:

[Mr Tidy]

g3org3y said:

Alpina Softlines are lovely wheels. They're worth more to me as a usable set of wheels than selling them onwards and then trying to buy a different E90 specific set.

Don't think I've ever seen an E90 on Softlines though. Always on the later styles:

My 330i is an SE, so has Style 158 wheels that are the same front and rear - 8J x 17. You need at least 17s on a 330 to clear the bigger front brakes!

These were the OEM alternatives:- http://www.alloywheelsdirect.net/bmw_alloy_wheels/...

But Sport models generally came on staggered 18s (8J front and 8.5J rear).

Older Alpina designs probably don't work on an E90, because they'd sit too far into the wheelarches - unless you added spacers!

The offsets are totally different from E46 era BMWs. E46 18s were 8J x 18 ET 47 on the front and 8.5J x 18 ET50 on the rear.

Whereas E9* 18s are 8J x 18 ET 34 on the front and 8.5J x 18 ET37 on the rear.

If in any doubt you can just put the details into here:- https://www.willtheyfit.com/

[g3org3y]

Mr Tidy said:

g3org3y said:

Alpina Softlines are lovely wheels. They're worth more to me as a usable set of wheels than selling them onwards and then trying to buy a different E90 specific set.

Don't think I've ever seen an E90 on Softlines though. Always on the later styles:

My 330i is an SE, so has Style 158 wheels that are the same front and rear - 8J x 17. You need at least 17s on a 330 to clear the bigger front brakes!

These were the OEM alternatives:- http://www.alloywheelsdirect.net/bmw_alloy_wheels/...

But Sport models generally came on staggered 18s (8J front and 8.5J rear).

Older Alpina designs probably don't work on an E90, because they'd sit too far into the wheelarches - unless you added spacers!

The offsets are totally different from E46 era BMWs. E46 18s were 8J x 18 ET 47 on the front and 8.5J x 18 ET50 on the rear.

Whereas E9* 18s are 8J x 18 ET 34 on the front and 8.5J x 18 ET37 on the rear.

If in any doubt you can just put the details into here:- https://www.willtheyfit.com/

Thanks for your help (again!) Mr Tidy.

Haynes manual delivered today (hopefully won't need to use too much). Also got some new wipers all round. In addition I've ordered the proper BMW OE screenwash as I understand these newer models are much more prone to blocking if using non OEM stuff.

[gizlaroc]

A decent 12mm spacer would get them in the right place, if you don't mind spacers.

[ATM]

Alpina wheels might already have a higher offset than standard BMW wheels. Surely someone needs to check their offset first.

[gizlaroc]

17" softlines for E36/46 were 46mm.

They used the same part number, 36 11 163, for the E34 xdrive as well I think, had a D at the end of the part number but the only difference was load rating.

[gizlaroc]

I should add, the official e90 softline had a 20mm offset on the 8" wide front rim by the way, so fare more aggressive than the standard E90 wheels.

[ferrisbueller]

gizlaroc said:

17" softlines for E36/46 were 46mm.

They used the same part number, 36 11 163, for the E34 xdrive as well I think, had a D at the end of the part number but the only difference was load rating.

http://www.alloywheelsdirect.net/bmw_alloy_wheels/3_series_e36_saloon_alloys/17_alpina_classic_c95_softline_wheel_87

Was there a square set, too?

[g3org3y]

Here's the specs of the Softlines (all 4 are the same), offset 46 it seems.



(Excuse the 'foliage', the old Christmas wreath was left on the pile of Alpinas in the garage and disintegrated when I picked it up to put in the bin!)

gizlaroc said:

17" softlines for E36/46 were 46mm.

You da man.

gizlaroc said:

A decent 12mm spacer would get them in the right place, if you don't mind spacers.

Spacers are certainly cheaper than buying a whole new set of wheels.

What are the cons?

Edited by g3org3y on Wednesday 5th June 21:07

[Mr Tidy]

g3org3y said:

Spacers are certainly cheaper than buying a whole new set of wheels.

What are the cons?

Edited by g3org3y on Wednesday 5th June 21:07

Well maybe, maybe not!

If you get replacements for a good price and sell your wheels for a good price the overall cost may actually give you a profit - without any need for spacers!