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Thread: Need wheel help *HUGE NOOB*

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2018
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    Denver, CO
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    1999 BMW M3 Convertible

    Question Need wheel help *HUGE NOOB*

    I bought a 99 M3 convertible off craigslist the other day, and Im lookin to throw some new wheels on it.
    I know NOTHING about this topic. I would like some advice on what would fit my car and possibly some suggestions !
    Idk about all that staggered stuff, someone please educate me, I want a dumb easy answer, thanks
    All the info I know is the tire sizes (Front- 225 45 zr17 rear- 245 40 zr17)
    These are the wheels on it now:

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
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    Japan
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    11/88 E32 750iL+98 E36M3
    Moved to E36 M3 forum

    also see: Approved wheels and tires on page 115 http://www.e36.lt/docs/E36_Owners_Manual.pdf
    Last edited by shogun; 10-21-2018 at 03:18 AM.
    Shogun tricks and tips for the E32 series are HERE!

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
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    Austin, TX
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    S54 E36 M3, E32 740il
    This is a little like asking what you should make your kids for dinner tonight.

    There are so many options no one is just going to jump in and tell you what to make.

    You need to do a little homework and learn what offset is, understand how it works with wheel width, and then get a feel for what tire sizes are recommended for different wheel widths. You should also check out bmwstylewheels.com, which lists every BMW wheel style. You can look at specifics for any wheel out there, and can filter by class and model (3 Series, E36 for example). Here you should be able to learn what stock M3 sizes are so you can establish a general baseline.

    You need to learn what it means to roll a fender, and pull a fender, and what spacers are, and how much spacer different people think is ok to run in what conditions, and what it means to stretch a tire (and what the trade-offs of doing that are). And then you can top that off with learning how adding a little camber can make the wheel fit (and what the trade-off of doing that is).

    After you've done that, you can search for some of the wheel fitment mega-threads on here to see what people are trying to fit, and see what will and what won't fit. And the whole world of questionable fitments that you can MAKE fit with a roll, pull, spacer, tire stretch, etc. And you need to see what the range is for something that will fit but will rub. How much rubbing are you personally comfortable with?

    Once that's all done, you should know enough to find something that should be close enough we can offer some kind of opinion on it. And you need to think about what you're going for - looks, most tire you can fit, widest you can make work, hellaflush, stanced, race, etc (which would also be helpful for us to know).

    You could go to tire rack, put in your car, and just pick from what they suggest. You could go to apexraceparts and pick something you like in a fitment that is relatively close to the stock fitment (and call them to double check it will fit). Apex started by selling wheels for BMWs, but a lot of racers use them so they may have very aggressive fitments that would take a lot of work to make fit. But for most styles they should have something that would work.

    Well, now you know what you don't know. Time to fill in the gaps.

    -Josh: 1998 S54 E36 M3/4/6 with most of the easy stuff and most of the hard stuff. At least twice. 271k miles. 1994 E32 740il with nothing but some MPars. 93k miles.

  4. #4
    Join Date
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    1999 BMW M3 Coupe
    My only advice is to try to stick close to the factory offset, which is ET41 all around. You can get away with a lower offset in front, but not in the rear unless you get a skinnier wheel/tire or modify your fenders.

    I too run Apex wheels and like them. My pic below shows the 17x9's with 245's I run in the summer. That said, there are lots of options for both square and staggered setups in offsets which will fit. Just find what you like the best. Googling how wheel offset, tire width, and camber affects fitment will also help you.
    1999 M3/2/5 - Titanium Silver - Track/Weekend Toy


  5. #5
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    Leawood, KS
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    '17 Pilot
    When I had my M I liked the square set up, made tire rotating a lot easier. I had factory M contours in 8.5 width all around.

  6. #6
    Join Date
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    North Potomac, MD
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    2011 E90 328i
    If you just bought a 19 year old car, 'the other day', I would wait at least a couple of months before you change the wheels, which if your current wheels are round and straight, is your least important issue.

  7. #7
    Join Date
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    '97 BMW M3/2/5
    If you don't know anything maybe some terminology is a good place to start:

    You normally see setups described like this (I'll use my setup as an example):

    "Apex ARC-8 17x9.5 et35 with 245/40 squared"
    1. "Apex ARC-8": Apex Race Parts is the company name, ARC-8 is the wheel name.
    2. 17x9.5: The first number is the diameter of the rim in inches. The second number is the width of the rim in inches. So 17x9.5 is a 17" diameter wheel that is 9.5" wide.
    3. et35: "et" is often used to denote offset. Offset is the distance from the center line around the circumference of the rim to the hub (where the wheel attaches to the car). If the hub is to the outside of the centerline it has positive offset (less lip), if it is to the inside of the centerline (towards the inside of the car) then it has negative offset. As mentioned previously, the e36 OEM offset is +41mm.
    4. 245/40: The first number is the width of the tire in mm. The second is the profile (thickness) of the tire in mm.
    5. squared: if you see someone say "squared" they mean they are running the same sized tire on all four wheels. A staggered setup generally has larger tires in the rear.

    Now that you are fresh on the terminology, lets talk about what wheels to get. Wheels come down to what you want to achieve. Track use? Street performance? Just looks? Winter beater rims?

    In general a 17x7 to 17x9 wheel around the 41mm stock offset fits best for our cars with tires ranging from 225/40 to 255/40. There are many people who successfully fit and track 18" wheels with a slightly lower profile tire, so that is an option as well. But generally the advice will be to stick with 17's. Cheaper rubber, cheaper wheels, easier fitment (if you stick to OEM offsets). But 18's can look super nice, so keep that in mind.

    If you are going for performance, I recommend going for the lightest wheel that fits the tire you want to run (245 or 255 generally) the easiest. I squeezed some concave Apex ARC-8 17x9.5 et35's with 245/40 all the way around on my car, and I don't recommend that for pure track use. It is a tight balance between looks and performance. But for a car that only sees a few track days a year, it works to err on the looks side a bit.

    Your current wheels are called M-Contours. From factory they came staggered, 7.5" wide up front with a 225 tire, and 8.5" wide in the rear with a 245 tire (maybe some came with 235's squared? Notice how the rim sizes are staggered, but you can run a square tire setup on a staggered rim setup). Those are great OEM wheels, and you can more or less fairly easily turn that to a square setup by finding another set of 8.5" Contours to run in the front instead of your 7.5" ones. This is a pretty common thing to do with factory wheels. Store the two 7.5" wheels as backups and run two 8.5" wheels up front.

    If you are dead set on a different style of wheel, like others have suggested, just try to stay as close as you can to stock offsets unless you are willing to do some fender modifications. You can find a style you like and see if someone makes it that fits. As others have mentioned TireRack is a great resource, so is calling up companies like Apex Race Parts to just ask what sizes they recommend (they know their stuff). Once you know what fits, then it's just a matter of finding something in your price range and looks range.

    Hope this information was helpful, picking out wheels is so hard because there are so many that look amazing, how do you make your mind up!?! Hehe I guess that's part of the fun. Good luck.
    Feel free to ask about my car:

    TRM Coilovers 560f/784r | Epic Motorsports Tune | Apex Arc-8 17x9.5 et35 | Wilwood SL-4 BBK
    M50 Manifold | ASC Delete | Dinan BBTB | Fan Delete | Power Pulleys | Dinan CAI |
    S54 Oil Cooler
    Z3 Rack | Crossbrace | 3.38 LSD | Dinan Strut Tower Brace | AKG Chassis Mount Shifter
    SS Long Tubes | SS Race Exhaust |
    LTW Replica Wing | MM Underpanel | CF Sunroof Delete
    OE GT Front Splitter | Rear Rollbar | Rear Seat Delete | BW Fuel Starvation | Turtle Labs Door Panels
    And Really Old Paint

    Check out my YouTube channel for more DIY's and videos about my E36 M3

  8. #8
    Join Date
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    S54 E36 M3, E32 740il
    Quote Originally Posted by Carpy2 View Post
    4. 245/40: The first number is the width of the tire in mm. The second is the profile (thickness) of the tire in mm.
    5. squared: if you see someone say "squared" they mean they are running the same sized tire on all four wheels. A staggered setup generally has larger tires in the rear.

    Just a slight correction: 245/40 R17 means 245 mm wide, but the "40" part is called aspect ratio. From Goodyear:

    "The two-digit number after the slash mark in a tiresize is the aspect ratio. For example, in a size P215/65 R15 tire, the 65 means that the height is equal to 65% of the tire's width. The bigger the aspect ratio, the bigger the tire's sidewall will be."

    And therefore the smaller the number, the shorter the sidewall will be. You have to do math to determine the right aspect ratio with different widths to keep the tire roughly the same diameter, though there are numerous online calculators that will do this comparison for you.

    Also a comment on a square tire setup.

    Given a roughly 50/50 weight distribution for a vehicle, having tires the same size front and back will make for a more balanced car. Smaller tires in front will tend to understeer, which is what most RWD manufacturers do if they're trying to make the car a bit safer (since understeer is a safer problem than oversteer). Smaller in the rear would tend to oversteer (though I'm not aware of any OEM that has ever done this, and I've never heard of anyone doing this on purpose either).

    So lots of people move to a square setup because it takes advantage of the balanced weight distribution and removes most (or all depending on suspension setup) of the tendency to understeer from a BMW, which is generally designed to be fairly close to a 50/50 weight distribution. It has the added benefit of making the tires rotatable, which prolongs tire life and doubles your tire warranty.

    -Josh: 1998 S54 E36 M3/4/6 with most of the easy stuff and most of the hard stuff. At least twice. 271k miles. 1994 E32 740il with nothing but some MPars. 93k miles.

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