A (Possibly) Stupid Question On Tyres/Alloys

[daveco]

I have 18'' alloys on my car (e46 325ci sport) with 225 tyres all round; can the rear alloys take a wider tyre size? I would be looking at the usual 255 width the sport take.

And before I get shot down for having unnecessarily wide tyres on an underpowered car the tyres are a non brand and aesthetically it just doesn't look right.

[Gizmo!]

How wide are the rims? 255 tyres on 6" rims probably won't work.

[daveco]

Gizmo! said:

How wide are the rims? 255 tyres on 6" rims probably won't work.

They seem to fit the 225 tyres perfectly

[daveco]

• cough*

[jon-]

What's the profile of the 225 tyres? If they're a low profile tyre like at 35, we can probably get the rim width a lot more accurately than we could if they're a 225/65 18 for instance.

[daveco]

jon- said:

What's the profile of the 225 tyres? If they're a low profile tyre like at 35, we can probably get the rim width a lot more accurately than we could if they're a 225/65 18 for instance.

They are 225/35's

[jon-]

The recommended alloy size for a 225/35 18 is a 7.5" to 9" wheel.

If they're 7.5" wide wheels you couldn't realistically go any wider, but a 245/35 will sit on an 8" alloy and a 255/35 will go on an 8.5" wheel.

[itz_baseline]

I run larger tyres on the standard rims for both the front and back without any issues:

Front = stardard 205/40/18 but I run 215/35/18
Rear = stardard 245/40/18 but I run 255/35/18

Opens up a whole new range of tyres for me by changing the size a little.

EFA

Edited by itz_baseline on Friday 5th March 15:53

[JapaneseMercedes]

Hopefully this might help - http://www.etyres.co.uk/tyre-size-calculator.htm

[Vee]

daveco said:

I have 18'' alloys on my car (e46 325ci sport) with 225 tyres all round; can the rear alloys take a wider tyre size? I would be looking at the usual 255 width the sport take.

And before I get shot down for having unnecessarily wide tyres on an underpowered car the tyres are a non brand and aesthetically it just doesn't look right.

Your car SHOULD have wider rear tyres . . . if it has the original wheels.
I think the rears are 9J and the fronts 8J. It should be stamped on the inside of the wheel.
Have a look - you may have the wrong tyres on at the moment ?

[daveco]

Thanks for the info chaps, the car has E60 M5 replica alloys; they were on the car when I bought it last December. I always thought that the alloy could not take anything but one tyre size but according to that tyre width calculator I can go up to 245.

[jon-]

daveco said:

Thanks for the info chaps, the car has E60 M5 replica alloys; they were on the car when I bought it last December. I always thought that the alloy could not take anything but one tyre size but according to that tyre width calculator I can go up to 245.

No, please read my post. That tyre width calculator does not account from rim width, it's just comparing rolling radius. You can only go to a 245 if your alloy is 8" wide.

[GreigM]

You need to go out and find the width of the rim - without this anything else is guessing - the etyres calculator is answering a different question and is a bit of a red herring. The width will be stamped on the rim - it'll be a number like 6, 6.5, 7, 8 etc and may be followed by J - i.e. 7J

Once you have this you only have 1 part of the answer - as with this you will figure out if the tyre will physically fit on the rim. After you know this you need to figure if the tyre+rim will now fit back on the car - or will it rub somewhere or alter your speedometer reading - this is where the etyres calculator comes in.

[matt 2LT]

i thought the E46 18's came with wider rears as standard?

mine are:

fronts: 225/40/18

rears: 255/35/18


i would stick with the 225's though, as the rears seem to be twice the price as the fronts.

[E30M3SE]

daveco said:

I have 18'' alloys on my car (e46 325ci sport) with 225 tyres all round; can the rear alloys take a wider tyre size? I would be looking at the usual 255 width the sport take.

And before I get shot down for having unnecessarily wide tyres on an underpowered car the tyres are a non brand and aesthetically it just doesn't look right.

If the car is Sport with the 18" styling 135 alloys they from factory this would have been fitted with 8j front and 8.5j rear alloys, running 225/40 and 255/35 tyres repectively.

Is this the wheel on the car?

[daveco]

E30M3SE said:

daveco said:

I have 18'' alloys on my car (e46 325ci sport) with 225 tyres all round; can the rear alloys take a wider tyre size? I would be looking at the usual 255 width the sport take.

And before I get shot down for having unnecessarily wide tyres on an underpowered car the tyres are a non brand and aesthetically it just doesn't look right.

If the car is Sport with the 18" styling 135 alloys they from factory this would have been fitted with 8j front and 8.5j rear alloys, running 225/40 and 255/35 tyres repectively.

Is this the wheel on the car?

[img] http://cdn.images.pistonheads.com/aimg/1517/151765... [/img]

This is the wheel type, slightly different to the MV2's

[img] http://www.dp-motorsport.co.uk/shop/images/m5.jpg [/img]

It has 225/40 tyres fitted on all four. Normally it wouldn't bother me but it doesn't look right.

[E30M3SE]

daveco said:

E30M3SE said:

daveco said:

I have 18'' alloys on my car (e46 325ci sport) with 225 tyres all round; can the rear alloys take a wider tyre size? I would be looking at the usual 255 width the sport take.

And before I get shot down for having unnecessarily wide tyres on an underpowered car the tyres are a non brand and aesthetically it just doesn't look right.

If the car is Sport with the 18" styling 135 alloys they from factory this would have been fitted with 8j front and 8.5j rear alloys, running 225/40 and 255/35 tyres repectively.

Is this the wheel on the car?

[img] http://cdn.images.pistonheads.com/aimg/1517/151765... [/img]

This is the wheel type, slightly different to the MV2's

[img] http://www.dp-motorsport.co.uk/shop/images/m5.jpg [/img]

It has 225/40 tyres fitted on all four. Normally it wouldn't bother me but it doesn't look right.

OK, guess it looks wrong because the offsets are not right and the wheels are not staggered.

[daveco]

GreigM said:

You need to go out and find the width of the rim - without this anything else is guessing - the etyres calculator is answering a different question and is a bit of a red herring. The width will be stamped on the rim - it'll be a number like 6, 6.5, 7, 8 etc and may be followed by J - i.e. 7J

Once you have this you only have 1 part of the answer - as with this you will figure out if the tyre will physically fit on the rim. After you know this you need to figure if the tyre+rim will now fit back on the car - or will it rub somewhere or alter your speedometer reading - this is where the etyres calculator comes in.

The alloy wheel width fits the tyres perfectly; so it must be a 6.5 inch alloy or close to that. I take it this size means a 255 width tyre is out of the question unless I were to replace the alloy wheel?

[jon-]

daveco said:

GreigM said:

You need to go out and find the width of the rim - without this anything else is guessing - the etyres calculator is answering a different question and is a bit of a red herring. The width will be stamped on the rim - it'll be a number like 6, 6.5, 7, 8 etc and may be followed by J - i.e. 7J

Once you have this you only have 1 part of the answer - as with this you will figure out if the tyre will physically fit on the rim. After you know this you need to figure if the tyre+rim will now fit back on the car - or will it rub somewhere or alter your speedometer reading - this is where the etyres calculator comes in.

The alloy wheel width fits the tyres perfectly; so it must be a 6.5 inch alloy or close to that. I take it this size means a 255 width tyre is out of the question unless I were to replace the alloy wheel?

I'd be surprised if it was as narrow as 6.5". Go and get the wheel off, it will take about 5 minutes and save you a lot of wondering.

For a 255 you'd need a 8.5" wheel to be optimum.

[daveco]

jon- said:

daveco said:

GreigM said:

You need to go out and find the width of the rim - without this anything else is guessing - the etyres calculator is answering a different question and is a bit of a red herring. The width will be stamped on the rim - it'll be a number like 6, 6.5, 7, 8 etc and may be followed by J - i.e. 7J

Once you have this you only have 1 part of the answer - as with this you will figure out if the tyre will physically fit on the rim. After you know this you need to figure if the tyre+rim will now fit back on the car - or will it rub somewhere or alter your speedometer reading - this is where the etyres calculator comes in.

The alloy wheel width fits the tyres perfectly; so it must be a 6.5 inch alloy or close to that. I take it this size means a 255 width tyre is out of the question unless I were to replace the alloy wheel?

I'd be surprised if it was as narrow as 6.5". Go and get the wheel off, it will take about 5 minutes and save you a lot of wondering.

For a 255 you'd need a 8.5" wheel to be optimum.

Done. It's a 7" alloy width. What can I go up to with this width?