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[brian.toth]

Does anyone here just swap their tires for winter/summer rather than buy a set of wheels for each season?

For my MX-5, I purchased a matching set of wheels for winter. This made changing them very easy obviously and actually cost more than wheels for the BMW would.

This last fall, my business got hit with unexpected taxes and I skipped the winter wheels and just put nice winter tires on the OEM wheels. I had every intention on buying either another set of the OEM 264 wheels or something else nice for the summer, but at this point I'm not sure if I intend to keep the car more than another year.

Are there any downsides to just remounting the tires on the same wheels other than potential scratches and left over marks from the wheel weights? Wasn't sure if I was overlooking something else that might sway me back towards investing in the wheels.

Thanks.

[aerobod]

Originally Posted by brian.toth

Does anyone here just swap their tires for winter/summer rather than buy a set of wheels for each season?

For my MX-5, I purchased a matching set of wheels for winter. This made changing them very easy obviously and actually cost more than wheels for the BMW would.

This last fall, my business got hit with unexpected taxes and I skipped the winter wheels and just put nice winter tires on the OEM wheels. I had every intention on buying either another set of the OEM 264 wheels or something else nice for the summer, but at this point I'm not sure if I intend to keep the car more than another year.

Are there any downsides to just remounting the tires on the same wheels other than potential scratches and left over marks from the wheel weights? Wasn't sure if I was overlooking something else that might sway me back towards investing in the wheels.

Thanks.

i know several people who do that twice a year on their BMWs without a problem, usually those who lease. Within 3 to 4 years it normally pays to have another set of alloy rims due to the switchover costs.

[Dackelone]

You do not want an 18 inch snow tire. yea... they make them... and yes, people do run them on this list... but the proper size snow tire for a 135i is a 205/50HR17 on 7jx17 wheels.

You always want the tallest and skinniest snow tires possible. We can only go down to 17 inch wheels bc of our big front brakes. And seven inch wide wheels is as narrow as we can go. The above size is what BMW says to use.

Besides... I would not want some tire monkey to be jamming on my wheels twice a year! Too much chance of them damaging a wheel. RFTs have really stiff sidewalls... and they are dam hard to install/destall on the rims. Plus some people with 3ers have reported wheel damages from tire installs.

Good Luck

[brian.toth]

Originally Posted by Dackelone

You do not want an 18 inch snow tire. yea... they make them... and yes, people do run them on this list... but the proper size snow tire for a 135i is a 205/50HR17 on 7jx17 wheels.

You always want the tallest and skinniest snow tires possible. We can only go down to 17 inch wheels bc of our big front brakes. And seven inch wide wheels is as narrow as we can go. The above size is what BMW says to use.

Just incase anyone else reads this regarding the winter wheels. My Pirelli Sottozero RFTs in the stock 215 & 245 18" size where absolutely fantastic this last winter in Cleveland. Highly recommended and keeps the car looking good during the 6 months of winter here. (BMW of course wouldn't sell them to me.)

[brian.toth]

Originally Posted by aerobod

i know several people who do that twice a year on their BMWs without a problem, usually those who lease. Within 3 to 4 years it normally pays to have another set of alloy rims due to the switchover costs.

Thanks for the confirmation. That would make sense with a short lease too. I'm still on the fence about it, looking at a couple sets of used wheels as a compromise, but thanks for the reply.

[Feyd]

I'd just buy a cheap set and sell them when you turn in the car. There will always be demand for used winter wheel/tire sets.

[aerobod]

Originally Posted by Dackelone

You always want the tallest and skinniest snow tires possible. We can only go down to 17 inch wheels bc of our big front brakes. And seven inch wide wheels is as narrow as we can go. The above size is what BMW says to use.

That is correct for a snow tyre, but not necessarily for a winter tyre. A snow tyre is designed just for use in deep wet snow or slush to cut through the snow to the road surface, but isn't as good as a wider winter tyre on ice. It depends on what winter conditions are prevalent in the area you use your car. Here we have much lighter snow, not too deep, lots of very cold and bare road and hard compacted snow that no tyre will cut through. In our winter conditions a wider tyre with a much wider track of sipes than a narrow tyre, provides better grip on these winter roads.

I've driven several hundred thousand kilometres on Western Canadian roads with winter tyres, wider ones work best here due to the lack of deep wet snow. I've tried 195 to 225 width tyres on various BMWs and other cars in the 1200 to 1500kg weight range, now I use 225 wide tyres all around on our 135i and Z4M.