[MEGA]

BBS CH/CK alloys are stunning. I'm really really going to miss mine...

[spirocheter]

Originally Posted by AFN1980

Hi guys I am thinking of going down this route but what do you do if you get a flat tyre as non of these tryes are run flats and as there is no spare in the car. Please excuse my ignorance.

No worries, check out the 'mobility kit thread' where the subject is being discussed. The slime make of goo, can be washed out of the tyre when professionally fixed, which I don't believe the Holts kind can be (I think you have to bin 'tyre weld fixed' tyres), mind, run flats generally need to be binned also.

Another thing I am going to buy are four hi-vis jackets for the whole family, they really can save your life. I always carry at least one decent torch in the car, and carry a Gore-Tex bivvy bag, spare mobile on different network, sleeping bag, survival rashions, water and a shovel throughout the winter, oh and salopettes, storm jacket, winter boots, maps and compasses and goggles and a very warm hat! Crazy may be, but if I'm stranded I'm not going to die! I drive a lot through quite remote areas, certainly it gets really remote over some of the roads I drive when there is snow (yes, I also have a 4*4 with winter Tyres)! Now you thought you were crazy!?

[spirocheter]

Thanks by the way. Nice look on the car B33M3R, that color looks superb. A good refurb is hard to find for the right money. Anybody else got any pics, Mega?

[chris_s1]

Originally Posted by spirocheter

Anybody else got any pics, Mega?

OK, here's my 18" Style 189 wheels refurbished in gloss black with Falken HS439 winters fitted, all ready to go on when the weather gets worse.

Only question is - which centre caps? OEM (Pic 2) or black and white (Pic 3).

And yes I know I need some tyre dressing on there

[335iLondon]

Oem!

[spirocheter]

Looking good Chris_s1. I prefer black and white centre caps personally (I presume you've got black lines and black kidney grilles) - those'll look mean (in a good way). Pics please when mounted on car!

[gIzzE]

How are you lot finding the Falken winters? Have you put them on yet?

Just that they never seem to get good reviews. I know everyone seems a fan of Falkens on here, but they are not even that cheap. They are around £135 each looking around, where as you can buy some Winter Sport 4ds for around £155 each and they have come in the top 3 of so many tyres testes from all different countries.

Just wondering what to order.

[B33M3R]

Originally Posted by gIzzE

How are you lot finding the Falken winters? Have you put them on yet?

Just that they never seem to get good reviews. I know everyone seems a fan of Falkens on here, but they are not even that cheap. They are around £135 each looking around, where as you can buy some Winter Sport 4ds for around £155 each and they have come in the top 3 of so many tyres testes from all different countries.

Just wondering what to order.

Not stuck them on yet but it's drawing close. Just need to order some wheel sealant which, I'll probably do tomorrow, then they'll be going on. Temperatures dropping pretty rapidly. I'm hoping for good things as, like you say, they're not the cheapest option !

[chris_s1]

Same here, not put them on yet.

[AFN1980]

Hi Guys, Thanks for all thr responses on the Tyre goo etc. At least I know what to do if i go down the route of non run flats.

The other question I have is what size tyres are you all running for winter? 225/40/18 all round or 225/40/18 front and 255/35/18 rears?

I don't mind the the drive of the run flats to be honest with you. Was thinking of getting these tyres for winter. They are run flat.

PIRELLI 255/35R18 94V WINTER 240 SOTTOZERO SERIE II. RUNFLAT
PIRELLI 225/40R18 94V WINTER 240 SOTTOZERO SERIE II. RUNFLAT

I know they are expensive but would be better for my wife when she is driving and I don't want her to get stuck with our 10 month old on a cold winter night. I know we can call BMW out but its the waiting time and an angry baby! lol

The question is do i go 225 all round or 225 and 255. Any more advice would be great.

Thanks

[B33M3R]

There's other threads on this but IMO I'd say keep it staggered. 225's on 8.5j wheels look stretched to me. Also if you're unfortunate enough to have a spill I'd bet money an insurance company would cry 'non-standard fitment' caused/contributed etc.

[chris_s1]

Originally Posted by B33M3R

There's other threads on this but IMO I'd say keep it staggered. 225's on 8.5j wheels look stretched to me. Also if you're unfortunate enough to have a spill I'd bet money an insurance company would cry 'non-standard fitment' caused/contributed etc.

+1

[AFN1980]

Originally Posted by B33M3R

There's other threads on this but IMO I'd say keep it staggered. 225's on 8.5j wheels look stretched to me. Also if you're unfortunate enough to have a spill I'd bet money an insurance company would cry 'non-standard fitment' caused/contributed etc.

Thanks guys. I will place the order today. Will take a few days and then need to get them swapped over onto my current rims.

Cheers

[spirocheter]

Originally Posted by AFN1980

Hi Guys, Thanks for all thr responses on the Tyre goo etc. At least I know what to do if i go down the route of non run flats.

The other question I have is what size tyres are you all running for winter? 225/40/18 all round or 225/40/18 front and 255/35/18 rears?

I don't mind the the drive of the run flats to be honest with you. Was thinking of getting these tyres for winter. They are run flat.

PIRELLI 255/35R18 94V WINTER 240 SOTTOZERO SERIE II. RUNFLAT
PIRELLI 225/40R18 94V WINTER 240 SOTTOZERO SERIE II. RUNFLAT

I know they are expensive but would be better for my wife when she is driving and I don't want her to get stuck with our 10 month old on a cold winter night. I know we can call BMW out but its the waiting time and an angry baby! lol

The question is do i go 225 all round or 225 and 255. Any more advice would be great.

Thanks

I'd go staggered too, good choice of tyre, they've got good write ups (the wear rate is quite high but if you can live with that I can see the argument for the run flats, they are much better than they used to be, and it's only a few hundred pounds difference, set against other motoring costs not very much in scheme of things)

[rich1068]

Originally Posted by AFN1980

Thanks guys. I will place the order today. Will take a few days and then need to get them swapped over onto my current rims.

Cheers

You might be out of luck. Pirelli told me a few months ago that they weren't producing this tyre this year.

Dear Richard,

Thank you for your patience while we have been dealing with your enquiry.

We can confirm that there are no plans to produce this size at the moment for August or early September, it seems unlikely that this tyre will go into production this year.

We will however keep your enquiry and inform you if the situation changes.

Regards
Amy

Things may have changed but if not it'll be last years stock.

[B33M3R]

Ok, the winter wheels went on today after spending yesterday afternoon applying several coats of Poorboys Wheel Sealant. Lovely finish but a bloody laborious task applying it. Hopefully should offer a bit of protection through the winter months though!

Ideally I'd have held off for a few more weeks before putting them on but the wife’s due in about a week so. As such I doubt I'll get much time to mess about with the car this side of Christmas and they won’t do me much good stacked in the garage if the temperature drops!



I didn't notice at the time but the remnants of the snow foam on the drive's given it a bit of a festive appearance don't you think?

The photo doesn't really show it but in the flesh the refurbed MV3’s are actually quite noticeably darker than the standard Sport Plus Ferric Grey. If I'm honest I think they look better in my opinion.

What was a bit of a surprise though was, given it's only ten months old and done about 12000 miles, just how stuck on the original wheels were. The centre hubs where they meet the wheels were quite corroded. The visible outer hubs of the brake discs themselves aren't really corroded at all but the centre inside hubs, directly behind where the BMW centre cap covers, were surprisingly corroded for such a new car?

I've actually wire brushed them out now and applied a light coating of copper grease to stop this and also stop the winters binding on as well. I know there's differing views on doing this and it even appears that BMW don't lube anything from new, even the threads of the wheel bolts are fitted dry. I've left these though so as not to affect torque settings.

I was always taught to copper grease wheel hubs wherever the wheel meets to prevent this, so have taken the decision to do so from now on. I would recommend anyone who hasn't done so, even on a brand new car, consider doing this sooner rather than later. If I'd have known early on I'd have had the wheels off and done it when I got it.

For anyone wondering, like I was, it appears the correct torque settings for the wheel bolts on the E90 are 120NM. All but the wheel on which I had a puncture repaired appeared to be at this setting. The repaired one must have been done up with a scaffold pole though as the bolts were pretty tight! I've gone with the OE pressure 2.3bar front 2.7bar rear and in case of any punctures I've invested in a bottle of Tyre Slime and a Ring electric tyre inflator for the boot.

First impressions after a twenty mile drive reveal no immediate horrors. They are noticeably squirmy and the car is nowhere near as sharp as usual, which I'm putting down to the fact they are new on, not scrubbed in at all and also operating out of their proper temperature range. (It was 14 degrees when I went out). Also, in all fairness, they are actually a mid range winter tyre and the only tyres I can actually draw comparison with on this car are the OE Michelin PS2's!

I was expecting them to be noisier given some of the other reviews of Falken’s but I couldn’t say I've noticed any difference from the PS2's. They may even be quieter so perhaps it is only Falken's summer tyres that suffer from this characteristic??

What is noticeable though is the ride is much nicer, not as jarring, no doubt as they are not run flats. I took a bit of spirited drive down a undulating local road which really shows up the PS2's hard walls and the ride this time was great! It's like a different car so it really will be decision time on whether or not to ditch the run flats come time to fit new summers.

Now, I really shouldn’t have done it with the tyres so new and slippy but I had a bit of a play at trying to get the car out of shape, just to see if it was going to do anything unpredictable while the wife's out and about in it for the next few hundred miles. What I must say though is despite driving like a bit of a tool how impressed I am with the BM's stability control systems. Of course it won't save you from the laws of physics it really is very good

[gIzzE]

Most winter tyres are quieter than summers.

[Martin 335d]

I'm supposed to be fitting my winters today but I think I'll hold off and get the wheels refurbished first and do them next weekend I'm unsure

[B33M3R]

Originally Posted by Martin 335d

I'm supposed to be fitting my winters today but I think I'll hold off and get the wheels refurbished first and do them next weekend I'm unsure

Well if you decide to go the refurb route you could do worse than go for a light Antracite. Looks great on Black IMO

[ALF_E90]

Another person sold on the ride quality benefits of non-RFT tyres having tried them first as winters, it seems. Personally I do worry about the puncture side of things, but even as a high mileage driver (30k+ pa at the moment) punctures are a very rare thing and always a PITA whatever tyres you are running. I have a compressor and good and I also wonder just how many people these days can even change a wheel by the side of the road - especially given that they seem to fuse onThe Passat V6 estate I had as a tow car when I was racing was the last car I had with a full size spare and that was a relief as I never fancied towing 1000kg of tralier, Caterham and spare wheels etc on a space saver! If I was still towing now I think I'd stick with runflats.

As someone in this thread said, 17" wheels with runflats actually feel pretty decent - I did a couple of thousand miles in a loan 318d SE saloon thus equipped and it felt good (utterly miserable engine aside). I personally went the whole hog and ditched the (optional, on my mere "boat handling" SE) 18" staggered wheels for 17x8 all round, which is the standard size, on the basis of how much better the car felt on the winters. There are a lot of benefits from the lighter wheel/tyre package, and the narrower tyres too, and if you get through a set a year at least then paying £100 a corner for premium (summer) rubber is a mnassive bonus too, much better IMHO than compromising with mid-range staggered 18's on price grounds. But I'm clearly a lot less anal than most of you M-Sporters, I would never refurbish winter wheels, they are covered in grot the whole time, especially if you regularly do 500-1000 mile weeks.

For me my winters utterly proved their worth last year - and little of that was on snow and ice. In cool to cold damp conditions they are streets ahead of summer tyres and are far from terrible even in dry sunny conditions when the temperature is 17 degrees or so, as it was in March before I swapped them back. And when I went back to summer tyres I had some serious moments on cool damp roads before I readjusted to just how much less grip was around when the temperature got well into single figures. Wear was minimal too.

[Frosticles]

Just going down this route myself at the mo. Got some almost new Continental Winter Contacts still with 8mm tread. Will be fitting them to some BBS CH Replica motorsport wheels in staggered configuration. Tyres are all 225/40/18 though.

[Danny.B.]

Car looks fantastic!!! Ive ordered my winter tyres this morning, bottled it didnt i!

Gone for the Falkens also.