wheel size question

[archiboy24]

has anyone tried fitting 18x8.5 ET32 wheels to their S2? Would they fit or would they be too wide?

[Mark Halligan]

I have 18 x 8.5 inch ET32 BBS split rims fitted with 225x40 Bridgestones and have no problems with fouling, although think you might if you went to 235's or the car was lowered a lot. Here's a picture of the steering arm clearance, which is what you have to watch, I just took it, sorry its not too good but its pissing with rain out there at the moment .

Probably best to get a test fitting at your tyre/wheel shop first.

Cheers,

Mark.

[archiboy24]

Thanks Mark, that's helpful. Do you have a larger image of your car that I can see?

[Lee]

Hi

There is probably nothing in this post to help you but this is some additional info for Avant owners.

18x8.5 with ET32 would stick out on an avant. I fitted the largest (width wise) I could to mine although I could have gone to 19" at the expense of ride. I run 235/40 Goodyear Eagle GS-D3 (withdrawn from production now) and my rims have an ET of 35. Ideally it should be ET34 to clear the front steering arm and the upright at the rear. The rear upright loops over the top of the Avant's rear wheel to a small wishbone sitting just above the tyre. This is what makes it tight on the Avant. I run spacers to get them to fit and will be replacing my rear 3mm one for a 1mm spacer (bespoke) in a few weeks. I use 6mm at the front so that it doesn't look too silly due to the wide rear track. 3mm was the thinnest I could get at the time at short notice for the back. I would actually recomend not going above 225/40R18 if you have an avant. However I will be sticking to my current size as I know I can still get Bridgestone S0-2 tyres in that size. Amazing tyres they are and still available as a BMW OEM fitment!!

ET32 is a strange offset. Is that Mercedes wheel by any chance? You can fit them, as they have 5x120 PCD but the hub centre is about 66mm instead of the required 57.1mm. Custom hub boss adaptors are required to get these to fit properly. I looked into this because I really fancied a set of phatt Lorinser alloys. Couldn't find any secondhand so I went with my second choice (OZ Vela).

None of this is relevant to Coupe owners but additional info for avant owners.

Lee

BTW with the tyre size and brand I have fitted now, my speedo is accurate to within 1 mph from about 100 to just under 150mph.

[s2avant]

Lee,

I spotted your Velas at CC. I was toying with cleaning one to see how they looked in silver They're the same wheels I've been offered except they are fitted with 225/45 tyres. Any experience with this size?

I'm drifting towards the 18" S8 Avus wheels but would need some enormous spacers. Ideally it would be the New A8 19's but I don't think I could put up with the ride quality.

Ben

[Doug_RS2]

All i'm going to say is try before you buy as I thought I claculated everything out and there are differences in differnet manufacturers wheels and tyres, etc.

S8 18s wheels would look good though - go for them.

Are the new A8 ones the multi spoke( >9) thingies - look very edgey ? Not sure about them.

19s ride quality isn't too bad - from what I remember

[Lee]

Just got the car back from repainting my RS2 front bumper because, originally, the colour match was not good enough. The garage fully valeted my car for me. It is the first time it has been cleaned this year, I think!! The wheels look good in silver, I have to admit, but I am a lazy sod. The front wheels are back to the same colour as at Coombe after about 50 miles on the road but that is just my driving style!! If we get good weather I might run a wet sponge over it this weekend to take some decent photos. It looks much better when clean as the Pearl paint shows through aswell

I know that Paul (Vagparts) runs 225 wide tyres on 18" rims on an Avant. Not sure of the sidewall ratio. Paul, any comments mate?

HTH

Lee

[Lee]

All quoted sizes are nominal and are interpreted differently by all of the wheel and tyre manufacturers. I use www.tirerack.com to compare tyre section widths, revs per mile, test results etc. It is not a fantastic site to navigate but it leads to loads of info if you can get to the right areas. Search by tyre, not car, and you'll get what you are looking for (it took a while to get used to the site). The size information is collated from manufacturers themselves and there is a huge amount of subjective opinions from tyre users. It is no good reading entries about people tyre opinions when they have only tried one brand in a particular size....it's the feedback from those people that have compared many tyres that can yield some more informative opinions (and surprises).

I agree with Doug. If you can, try before you buy. I couldn't because I bought them brand new to order and I accepted the risks. From data obtained from tirerack and some guesses on shoulder radius, I got exactly what I expected. It did help that I spent a long time measuring the suspension to check travel clearances. All of the tyre places told me not to go above 225 for an 80 Avant. I did it anyway because I am an independant thinker (or is that just plain ignorant?) and blatantly ignored them...worked out OK for me. Not all 235 tyres would have given me same results.

[Lee]

Ben,

I searched for 6 months for S8 18" alloys. Missed a few sets because I found them just too late. They were my number 1 choice and was even scouring www.mobile.de and contemplating collecting a set from Germany.

I still want a set as they are super cool but am not sure about tyres on the 8.5" rim for the avant without doing more calculations. Seen many german S2 Coupes with them fitted though but they generally like their rims sticking out with undersized tyre widths so they use oversixed spacers (or small offsets if available)! No reason why you shouldn't get the look and stance that MarkH has achieved with his 8.5 rims on a Coupe with 18" Avus wheels.

HTH, Lee

[audiman]

My old mans friend has a 3.7Q A8 with 20" nine-spokes. Yes 20"!!!!!!!!!!!
Got me thinking, so if the brakes from his car fit, do the wheels?? Next time he comes round he may be leaving with some ****** old 16" rims on his car.


LOL

[Doug_RS2]

Those 20 inch wheels will fit but I'll be impressed if you can find some 20inch tyres to with them - When I was looking a them, I couldn't find tyres less than 255 wide - no way you would get them under standard arches/suspension.

I had to get a few mm machined off the 19s at the front

[Mark Halligan]

Lee wrote:
ET32 is a strange offset. Is that Mercedes wheel by any chance? You can fit them, as they have 5x120 PCD but the hub centre is about 66mm instead of the required 57.1mm. Custom hub boss adaptors are required to get these to fit properly.

Yep your right, BBS wheels come with adaptors to fit the hub, as they are I think they are on the limit and 235's would probably foul.

Here's a pic of the adaptors.

Mark.

[Doug_RS2]

Originally posted by Lee
ET32 is a strange offset. Is that Mercedes wheel by any chance? You can fit them, as they have 5x120 PCD

You do mean 5 x 112 PCD?? Or is that difference OK?

And I have had 8.5" X18 ET32 AZEV wheels on my car with 225/40X18 Toyo T1-S tyres. Never rubbed - it was standard suspension on the car.

[Lee]

Oops. Thanks Doug. It was a typo. I should have said 5x112. Had 5x130 on the brain thinking about something else and was touch typing again so typed something strange!!

I run 235 tyres and they miss all suspension components. I have had the occasional rubbing but only during big compressions on spirited driving on highly undulating roads. The contact areas were the inner wheel arches front and rear so we are talking about quite large suspension travel events anyway. Usually the result of nearing 'takeoff' (all wheels off the ground) on yumps in the road and the resulting 'touchdown'. Never in every day use unless I had a quarter ton of crap in the trunk. Again, this will not be the case for all 235 tyres as they are all different sizes in reality.

Lee

[Vagsport]

Got a call from my bodyshop, my man reckons I need spacers of at least 2.5" thickness to clear suspension components! DOH!! :eek2: Seems massive, considering the S8 alloys (8.5" x 20") have an ET of 45. Mark .H has wheels 8.5" x 18" ET 32, with 225 tyres. My tyres are 255/35 ZR 20, so I would have thought I would need a spacer of 10 - 15mm to give me an ET of 35 - 30. (Am I right? not sure how it works) Perhaps Mark . H or Doug could shed some light on this?