[Gypsyking]

Gentlemen,

First of all I want to thank you for all the knowledge that I have gained in last couple of months going over various threads concerning the F10 (5 Series). In a week or so I will be picking up a 2015 535i x Drive M sport that has 33,000 miles on the clock. This will be my first BMW.

The car comes with M434 wheels (8.5Jx20” Front & 9JX20” Rear). Currently it has 245/35R20 (F) & 275/30R20(R) Bridgestone Potenza RE050A tires. The tread depth in front is 8mm (10/32”) & 5mm (6/32”) on the rear tires.

I’m a light footed driver & would like to know how much life these tires have left in them? I’m considering Michelin Pilot Sport 4S as replacement in the near future. For the rear tires I would like to opt for 285/30R20 instead of the stock size. Would these tires fit without any problem such as rubbing? Additionally on account of the larger circumference, how much speedometer error am I likely to see? Besides how will a non-stock tire size (Rear) affect the AWD drive system if at all? There is also the option of Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+ which is an All Season Ultra High Performance Tire. How is your experience with these tires?

Thank you very much for your time & help in advance.

[.BMW.]

285/30-20 is no problem to fit without rubbing on F10.

But your issue would be the rear 9x20" wheels. 275 is the widest tire you can fit on those.

[remmib]

With xDrive it's important to keeping the diameter of the front and rear tires the same to avoid problem with the transfer box.

[Gypsyking]

Originally Posted by remmib

With xDrive it's important to keeping the diameter of the front and rear tires the same to avoid problem with the transfer box.

That's interesting indeed.

I assume the car came from the factory with this staggered tire set up.

As per Tire Rack the rolling diameter of the front tires (245/35R20) is 26.8" while that of the rear tires (275/30R20) is 26.5". The difference in rolling diameter is 1.13 percent. I guess BMW is okay with that & by corollary difference of 1 percent in rolling diameter does not put adverse effect on the AWD system.

[remmib]

Originally Posted by Gypsyking

That's interesting indeed.

I assume the car came from the factory with this staggered tire set up.

As per Tire Rack the rolling diameter of the front tires (245/35R20) is 26.8" while that of the rear tires (275/30R20) is 26.5". The difference in rolling diameter is 1.13 percent. I guess BMW is okay with that & by corollary difference of 1 percent in rolling diameter does not put adverse effect on the AWD system.

All BMWs comes with star marked tires from the factory. These are what you can call OEM tires, and they're made for and approved by BMW.

And as I understand it, the staggered tire setups on xDrive models are made so they have the same circumstances, even if they in theory should have an one point something percent difference.

[Gypsyking]

Okay, new problem. The pictures that were sent to me (the car is 700 miles away) had two cuts on the sidewall on one of front tires. As far as I know sidewall cuts cannot be repaired. Should I be asking for the two front tires to be replaced?

[cdmulders]

That tire needs to be replaced. Because it is xDrive, it might also make sense to have both front tires replaced, assuming the old ones are fairly worn.

I'm running 245/40/19 and 275/35/19 tires on my stock xDrive with no problems. For a 20" wheel, 245/35/20 and 285/30/20 are actually a better fit vis-a-vis diameter and circumference. Check out this link. Nevertheless, because your rear wheel is only 9" wide, and as has been said before, you probably cannot go with a 285mm wide tire, so stick with 275mm per your original setup.

Depending on where you are with negotiation and if you do plan on replacing these tires with Michelin P4S or similar, then I'd probably ask for a bit more off of the price of the car vice asking them to replace the tires, and then replace all four with the Michelin non runflat tires. The ride improvement and handling on Michelin tires (I have Pilot Super Sport vice the newer P4S) is very noticeable.

[Gypsyking]

Greetings gents,

I have picked up a 2016 535i x-Drive about 6 weeks ago. The car has 18,000 miles on the clock and comes with Bridgestone Potenza RE 05 RFTs all around. The car has staggered set with 245/35 R20 in front and 275/30R 20 on rear on M434 wheels.



Though there is 6/32" tread on front and 5/32" on rear tires; I plan to change over to non RFTs. After reading up a lot on the forum & elsewhere I'm thinking of going to a square set up with 255/35 R20 set up with Continental Extreme Contact DWS 06.

This will result in 0.5 inch increase in rolling diameter which is 1.8% increase above the stock set up.

The primary objective of this change is two fold; one - to improve the ride quality & two - to increase the side wall height in order to save the wheels from potential damage on our less than perfect Calgary roads.

How much is this likely to affect the steering & suspension geometry if at all. I'm not concerned about the effect on the x-Drive as the rolling diameter is going to be the same all around.

I must also mention that I had thought of going to a 19 inch wheel set up however I'm in no mood to spend another $4,000 on wheels and tires (I'm in Canada) especially in light of the fact that the car is going to be parked in the winter.

Please share your thoughts on the proposed set up.
Thank you.

[cdmulders]

I can't see any issues with your proposed setup. The only minor point is that the rear tire will look a little more stretched than the front, but this is in my humble opinion a non-issue.

How do you like your F10 so far, and if you don't mind me asking, where abouts in Canada are you located?

Cheers.

[Gypsyking]

Originally Posted by cdmulders

I can't see any issues with your proposed setup. The only minor point is that the rear tire will look a little more stretched than the front, but this is in my humble opinion a non-issue.

How do you like your F10 so far, and if you don't mind me asking, where abouts in Canada are you located?

Cheers.

Thank you for your response.
As I have mentioned in my post, I'm based out of Calgary.

It is not a daily driver so I end up driving it only on the weekends.

I like the car, especially the surge of power if you step on it even a little bit and that can be trouble if you have overzealous cops in your vicinity. The ride is harsh (probably attributable to RFTs and those rubber band thin tires) but I love the speeds at which you can take the curves. I really have to watch for those small potholes and I can not bring myself to leave the car at a public parking . I have put all of 300 miles (480 kms) on it in last six weeks so can not comment on long term ownership however I can say that I will keep this car for at least 4 more years (maybe longer). Sometimes I go into the garage to look at it & I almost always look back at it when I park it somewhere else (very sparingly). The seats are great & the transmission is one of the quickest 8 speed auto boxes that I've driven (barring the 2020 M340i x-Drive that I test drove a couple of months ago).

I'm planning to drive it to Salt Spring Islands in early September that will give the car a chance to stretch its legs.

I think being the part of this forum and see the passion of BMW owners also contributes to the ownership experience.

Bottom line; I love the car...

[wcr3d]

I hope you have read enough to know when you switch you are giving up something for another. Like you mentioned, cornering speed.
Though I have found you just need to remember during the time of takes to get fimilair with the new feel.