spare tire info needed for my 1998 328is

[nickdu]

I' hoping someone might be able to shed some light on the spare tire for me. Also, I'm asking about my 1998 BMW 328is which I let my son take away to school so I don't have it here with me and thus going on little information.

He had it in to DiscountTire today to get some new summer tires. I believe the rims (wheels?) are not factory. The tires on those rims are 225/50 R16. He got a flat the other day and changed the flat tire with the spare. So today he was getting new summer tires plus I wanted to put a new winter tire on the spare. I purchased the same brand/size winter tire that I had on the car over this past winter. I think those were 215/50 R16 (Nokian). There were no issues getting the summer tires installed but when it came to putting the new winter tire on the spare my son said he was told they couldn't mount the new winter tire onto the spare because the spare rim was 15". So now I have a couple of questions:

1. Is that the rim that came stock with the car? I looked at the E36 owner's manual and I saw no mention of the spare rim size.
2. It would seem the car would have been a little lopsided with that spare on unless the aspect ratio of the spare tire was such that the OD of the tire was the same as my 16" tires.
3. Will a 16" rim fit in the spare tire cavity in the trunk should I decide to buy a new 16" rim for the spare tire?

Thanks,
Nick

[scooper]

stock spare was 15x6.5 ET47; tire size 185/65/15 or 205/60/15 x5
if your car had the sport package spare size would have been 16x7 ET41 225/50/16 x5

For a winter tire spare 185/65/15 is optimal since you can put chains on easily. For the 16 size you would want a 205/55/16. Chains would still fit.

If you're worried about the winter just get a set of all seasons though they are not as good in the winter as winter tires. You can rotate the 5th in. If you do a lot of driving in snowy winter get a full set of winter tires. Look at the bmw manual/booklet and research online.

[nickdu]

Thanks for the info. A couple follow up questions/comments.

a. You mention sport package, I have no idea whether I have it. I was under the impression that the 's' in 328is was for 'sport' and thus thinking I have the sport package. Though I'm sure the technicians at discount tire are correct when they told my son the spare rim was 15", so maybe I don't have the sport package.

b. I heard it mentioned many times that all season tires, while trying to be jack of all trades, is master of none. And while that goes without saying I guess, this car is very bad in snowy conditions and thus I want the best tire available for that. Even without the snow/ice, I'm told dedicated winter tires are much better than all season tires in the winter because the rubber stays much more pliable in the lower temperatures. I have a set of dedicated winter tires already for the car and thought it best to equip the spare with a winter tire as opposed to a summer tire.

c. If I use the 15" rim that I currently have, I guess I have to size the tire appropriately such that it's outside diameter is the same as the other tires, or as close as possible?

d. Do you know if any 16" rim would fit in the trunk cavity or is the "clamp down" mechanism tailored to the factory spare rim?

Thanks,
Nick

[scooper]

do a VIN search and it will tell you what your car came with. You can also see if you have sport seats, sport dampers/springs, sport anti sway bars. Your rims might be the sport package rims. See what I wrote before.

All seasons are master of none but they last longer than summer tires and work in the winter in a pinch. Some of them come close to summer performance tires and are a lot less noisy. Michelin, Pirelli, Conti, BFG, Bridgestone would be my choices.


Depending on your other rims yes try to match those wheel/tires for your spare. You can run 225/50/16 and get a 205/60/15 for the spare. Fine to run temporarily. Or maybe run 205/55/16 on all 4. Use some tire calculators to see what circumferences are. The stock 16x7 will fit even with a 225/50/16. Style 30.

[Nanniepoo]

In the US, on E36s, the 's' means coupe. Use bmwvin.com to decode your vin. Although, after nearly 20 years it's very possible you have a different spare tire than what the car came with, so I would just base it off of whatever is in the trunk.

Honestly....I would go as cheap as possible all season for a spare. Just use it to get you to a tire shop to fix/replace your normal tire.

My current car has a 16" rim in the trunk with some sort of all season on it. I have a full set of winter and summer wheels for my car. 16" are for winter tires, 17" for summer.

[jc43089]

The important thing is the overall diameter not the wheel diameter. The stock spare tire size will be plenty close in size to the 225/50R16. That is not an abnormal size for these cars. If you want to compare specs tirerack.com has specs on sizes for tires.

As far as the snow tire thing. I run Blizzaks in winter and would never go back to all seasons for snow driving. But your spare is just as likely to be used in the summer and only for a very short period of time no matter what so a cheap all season is good enough. Did the tire in the trunk not hold air anymore or why are you replacing it? A spare tire never sits out in the sun so they are usually in good condition even though very old.