I have a set of staggered sport package wheels/tires (225/45-17 front & 245/40-17 rear) from a 2003 330i that I am contemplating installing on my '04 325xi touring. Can anyone tell me what consequences; if any, there will be if these are fitted? I see that the current sport package E90 series cars with x-drive have staggered wheels, and wondered why them and not the E46's?
Hi, I have been told that it's a bad idea to run staggered wheels on xi's. I dont remember exactly why..... I think it puts added strain on the front components? I wonder if you should just look for a set of either front or rear style m68's in whatever size and offset your oem rims came. That way you get the look you want, and dont have to worry about causing any problems by running a staggered set. Let us know what you decide to do! Good luck, Brad
If you run stagger, make sure that the tires are almost exactly the same rolling radius or you can cause great harm to your 4wd components!
Good question I have a 2004 330xi, and I went through all these question and answer sessions. Unfortunately, I came up with no real solid answers. There is the standard answer: "We don't recommend it", even though the Europeans and Canadians have been doing it on their factory delivered cars for years, and as you found out, the newer cars with Xdrive and sport packages have staggered wheels. And then there is the, "You can if you want to" answer. The question you have to ask yourself, is do you want to. Fact: These cars in general are harder to take care than your average car. Fact no 2: The all wheel drive cars are actually slightly harder to take care of that their rear wheel drive siblings. It's just simply the fact there are twice as many moving parts down there, since there are 4 wheels pulling rather than 2. There are parts on these cars, all BMW's in fact, that will break, very predictably. No one will ever say about a BMW, "I drove mine for 250,000 miles without a single repair..." It just doesn't happen, but the rewards are great. So, you CAN put staggered wheels on. You and your conscience just have to be confident that when things do break, you won't second guess your decision. I believe people say not to stagger simply because there is a chance it may put more strain on the system, but people still do it. I chose not to stagger for the simple reason that you can still rotate the tires front to back. I chose the CSL replicas from VMR, the 18's that they recommended. I went with 235's front and rear. I love the handling, and I love the ability to rotate every few thousand miles myself. I have had them almost 30,000 miles and they are wearing great and I still have probably 5-10k more wear left. Oh, and by the way, I got the Eagle F1's and they actually work great in the snow! (tirerack and everyone else would not recommend that either...) of course I am in Richmond which basically never gets snow anyway... PS I would say my next set of tires will be the 225's and not the 235's, though.
from what I have read, staggered wheels dont have the same diameter. And since you will be running different sizes tires as well, they also dont have the same diameter. They are very close, but fractions of an inch different, and that goes for the tires and wheels. That alone could cause a problem with the xi drivetrain components.
