Cost: From a lot to to much.
Difficulty:
It is time for you to break your piggy bank and buy your BMW E34 or E32 a new set of wheels. Larger wheel with low profile tire make the steering response quicker and lateral stability better. Tire choice is crutial to keep odometer and speedometer changes negligible.
There are two ways to do it: buying a brand new set of wheel at
Discount tires or
Tire rack or buying a set of larger wheels from another BMW.
What fits my E34 or E32:
None of the 3 series wheels fit (except E30 M3), nor the Z3.
If you want to use E39 wheels (hub center = 74mm) you will need hubcentric rings (parts# A670 from tirerack @$4.00 ea).
Hubcentric rings for fitting E39 rims.
Any E23, E24, E28, E31, E32, E38 and E60 will fit your E34 without any modification along with E30 M3.
You need to be careful with E31 wheels... the fronts are generally et10-et13, putting the wheels further outward. They will work but will alter the suspension geometry and widths 235mm or greater may rub at full steering wheel lock.
3-series wheels can be used on the E34 with 20mm hubcentric spacers and longer bolts. I have seen it done although I would not use such large spacers on my own car. (Thank you Rob L.)
16" E38 wheels. By Drew Z.:
16" rims from an E38 ('95-01) 7 series will fit the E34 but may require spacers in the front. A BBS-style cross-spoke wheel is available (from the 740) and a forged alpina-like "multi-spoke" wheel (from the 750). Both wheels are 16x8 with 23mm offset.
These wheels fit fine a stock 530iT with 225/55/16 Dunlop SP5000's but rubbed the front on the lowered '90 535i (enough to remove the dirt, not the paint from the strut towers).
Micah O'C. used the same size wheels and tires Brigestone KDWS's. They rubbed the front strut towers enough to remove some paint and some of the lettering from the tires.
A small spacer might be required depending on E34 model and tire choice. 5 mm spacers are not hubcentric and may cause some shimmy. A 10mm hubcentric spacer will probably work and will reduce the likelihood of shimmy. A 3mm spacer may work without shimmy because it will provide more room on the hub for the of the wheel to mount on. 5mm spacers milled down to 3mm might do the work if you can't find a 3mm spacer for sale. When using spacers don't forget to use longer lug bolts.
Will E34 M5 18" rims fit my E34?
Those are the BMW M Parallel (Styling 37 M).These are an e34 1995 M5 specific fit, and the parts # ‘s from BMW are the following:
Front: 36 11 2 227 931 (8X18) 20mm offset
Rear: 36 11 2 227 933 (9X18) 22mm offset
You can use 245-40-18 tire for the front and 265-35-18 for the rear.
525iX 4x4 cars - Pierre-Yves Keldermans drives a Touring one, bought in Belgium.
The 525iX does have a lot of specific parts, so it has a specific type of wheels ; the only "BMW accepted" wheel/tyre size is 225-55-16 (95V) on a 7.5-16-ET54 wheel (Style 6 alloy or std. iron).
As you see, the ET54 is very different from the other E34's.
I found the "Style 6" not to be my prefered style, so I kept those alloys for winter tyres and begun to look for 17" with an ET54 ... with no luck as it is very specific to the iX. :-(
Finally, I looked at the Alpina version of the iX, called "B10 3.0 Allrad". Alpina sells nice 17" alloys for the iX but the price is VERY nice also ... so I had to find something else.
The interesting thing I got from Alpina is that their wheels for the 525iX/B10 Allrad are 17-8-ET46, with 235-45-17 (front wheels only) and 245-45-17 (front and/or rear wheels).
ET46 ! Looks like at lot of E46 3-series have such wheels, and some E36 wheels also exist in 17-8.5-ET41.
Some calculations showed me that 17-8-ET46 and 17-8.5-ET41 would fit perfectly on my car with a lot beheviour changes on the road, so in the summer I'm now driving with M3 wheels and 235-45-17.
One extra remark : the 525iX is noticiably heavier than a E36 and probably E46, so the alloys must be strong enough.
Wheel specifications:
Hub center diametre: 72.5 mm
Number of bolts: 5
Pattern: 120 mm (See picture)
Offset (ET): 20mm
The offset is the distance from the hub mounting surface to the centerline of the wheel. Wrong offset = bad handling.
An ET22 wheel is further in toward the centerline of the car than an ET20 by 2mm. ET13 wheels are 7mm further out than the OE E34 wheels.
Wheel/tire combination15x7" Wheels (OEM)
205/65-15
225/60-15
16x7.5" Wheels:
215/55-16
225/55-16
17x7 - 7.5 - 8 - 8.5" Wheels:
235/45-17
255/40-17
18x8.5" Wheels:
235/40-18
245/40-18
265/35-18
19x9" Wheels:
245/35-19
275/30-19
Popular upgrades in blue
Always tighten the bolts following this diagram
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