Bought a set of style 261 wheels for my 540iT and have spacer questions

[hungry4cheese]

Hi all,

I just bought a set of style 261 wheels, which are stock on the e87 1-series cars (http://www.bmwstylewheels.com/bmw/261) to replace my not so modern looking style 33 wheels (http://www.bmwstylewheels.com/bmw/33). Wheels came with tires and all and should look really nice when on there. Couple of issues which I knew ahead of time:

The style 261s are staggered at 18x7.5 and 18x8.5, which is fine, except that they have crazy offsets. The fronts are et49 and the rears are et52. Drastically different from the stock et20. Also the hub is 72.56mm and not 74.1mm, which is fine because this brings me to why I'm here: I need help figuring out what size spacers to get. There are spacers available that convert the 74.1mm hub size to 72.56mm. I was thinking that'd I'd want to get my wheels back to as close as possible to et20. Given doing the math and stuff that I hope I'm thinking about correctly, et49 - 20 leaves us with 29mm spacer to get back to et20 in the front and et52 - 20 leaves us with 32mm spacer. These are wishful sizes. So I was thinking maybe a 25mm spacer in front and a 30mm spacer in back. That would leave me with et24 in the front and et22 in the back. My concern is that 30mm spacers are huge, and that the fronts would be 4mm further in and the rears 2mm further in. But I may be thinking of this completely wrong.

Maybe you guys with experience swapping wheels onto these cars could help me out with this one. Thanks!

[hungry4cheese]

I've put them on my e46 until I figure this out. They look really nice on it . See attached

20180915_172607.jpg

[amancuso]

The offsets and the hub size are wrong for an e39. They will only work with hubcentric spacers. Even then you'd need really BIG spacers. We're talking at least 25mm or better still 30mm to bring the fitment within spec.the 2/4mm difference won't be too bad, but if you're going for look they won't look nice sunken in the wheel well, but will work. Also when adding spacers you bring the chance for vibrations/shimmy.

Best of luck!

[JimLev]

Don't forget you will need longer lug bolts too.

[BimmerBreaker]

Leave em on the e46. They look great on that car

They look a little weird on the e39 imo, prob because its a much larger car

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Agree, those rims don’t match the timeless looks of the E39 at all.

[hungry4cheese]

I agree with the timeless look of the e39, but these multi spoke wheels are aging fast in style (see photo). I could try to put the original style 68 wheels (http://www.bmwstylewheels.com/bmw/68) from the e46 (see other photo) on the wagon, but I face similar concerns with the spacers. Yes they would need 25 - 30mm hub size adapting spacers. They exist and if they're hubcentric on both ends I don't think they'd shimmy. What do you guys recommend wheel wise then - the options are severely limited if we throw out all of the other stock bmw wheels and I'm not ready to spend a fortune on the e39 m5 set.

IMG-20180915-WA0031.jpg 20180915_171207.jpg

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Keep it simple, stick with E39 wheels. My 540 has style 65’s, I love them. My 528 wagon has style 66 square 8”, I bent one of my 9” tears, had two spare 8”, which is why I’m running square. I actually love the 66’s just as much as the 65’s. I got 15mm spacers on the wagon and I love the look, and I have no vibration whatsoever. Got my spacers from Titan Wheel Accesories. Best deal for 4 15mm spacers, best part, they’re made in Michigan.

https://www.titanwheelaccessories.co...-wheel-spacers

[DennisCooper]

Hi,

As per above, get some E39 specific wheels if you tend to only like OEM choices or, get some much better looking, classier aftermarket wheels known to work well and look fantastic if you like to be different from the crowd. I personally fall in the latter catagory, I also really dislike the style 65's that so many E39 guys love! they look way too fussy for the elegant and classy design of the E39 chassis.

Other benefits will be as above, no need to spend extra money on spacers, adapters and longer bolts, saving all the extra faff as well.

Take a look in the specific Touring subsection for Touring's with various wheel sets on them. To give you some inspiration, here's my Touring;





Cheers, Dennis!

[hungry4cheese]

Wow @DennisCooper those are super nice looking wheels on your touring! Also love the mtech bumpers. I have a set for the front, but they're still the wrong color.. On my todo list to get that painted! I wonder how much after market wheels like that run? I always figured that stock wheels were usually easier to fit, but the e39 makes that extra hard being weird with offset and center bore. I guess those style 261s will stay on the e46 then. They do look good there for sure. The spacers being so enormous do scare me a bit if I was to fit them on the e39. @BimmrMeUpSnotty I do like the style 65s quite a bit and if I could find a good deal on them then I'd probably snag that. They seem to be out of my budget range here on the Seattle Craigslist. The style 66s are kind of like a less fancy style 65s. I do like them, but the one pair that is up on craigslist I find just a bit too expensive for those wheels especially since I got a better deal on the style 261s, which are larger and have the m sticker. I'll check out the wheels section on here then if nobody really has any other options except "wheels that came on an e39 from the factory" or "aftermarket".