New wheels on X5 from 18's to 20's
 

I want to upgrade my wheels and tires on my X5 from the factory 18's with 255/55/18 to some 20's. I really don't want to go with the staggered setup and would like to run the 275/40/20 on all 4 corners. Should I look for any particular offset or will the fronts fit just fine on the rears as well? I'm pretty new here and the search feature doesn't like short words.

Shawn
2002 X5 4.4i

fronts will fit oem 20: rear but it will be a hair stretched

^^ Not if he purchases the same rim sizes for front and rear.

There's been many guys who have run a square setup of oem (replica) wheels. You may consider spacers on the rear though as it tends to look odd without fatties out back.

This topic has been beaten to death time and time again with just about every wheel combo you could think of...

Attachment 58217

Here's the set up with 20mm spacers on rear... This is my winter set up and I just can't wait to put on my staggered wheels

I like the looks of that! Did you have to go with longer wheel bolts with the adapters?

Shawn
2002 X5 4.4i

Get spacers, i have the 4.8 so ontop of the body i have the wider flares and without the mean wide 20s it looks like a box on stilts with the 18s that came with it off the lower 4.4

Heres a pic, dark but you can see the difference, i was test fitting them while changing diff oil.

http://i.imgur.com/9xE3zXe.jpg

Yep. H&R provided the bolts with the spacers. No big deal.

This is my X on Staggered 20's

275 Front
315 Rear

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...40045copy1.jpg

Best picture I had on hand :rolleyes:

I think I have decided to go with the staggered 20's I just hope the tires will last a while with no rotations. I rotate my truck religiously and they wear perfectly. I was going to sell my factory 18's but think I will put a set of snow tires on them come next winter!

:thumbup:

just run proper tire pressure and get an alignment after you get them fitted, make sure rear toe is close to -.01 to compensate for our factory negative camber in the rear. BMW specs way too much toe in the rear which causes the inner edge to wear quicker in the rears, just make sure you specify to the guy doing the job that your toe setting will be outside BMW spec (almost neutral)

This has been discussed before just do a search about uneven tire wear

Enjoy the staggered 20s they look so right on an E53:thumbup:

To add what others have already suggested...also consider what "type" of tire you mount. There was a tire thread about a week ago that was really informative.

A summer tire will have a soft compound...and be really sticky in the dry and very good in the wet...but will wear much faster than an all-season or touring classification tire. So choose carefully what tire you mount...and base it on where you live and the type of weather you'll be driving in.

Keeping the 18" wheels for a set of dedicated winter tires is a good thing (IMO) if you drive all year, and you live in snow country and temps can stay below 45 degrees F for long periods of time. Nothing like a good dedicated winter tire if you live ABOVE the Mason Dixon line and actually have to drive in snow/sleet/freezing rain or even dry weather but freezing temps during winter. ;)

As far as rotation, it can be a very personal matter...but BMW recommends that if you choose to rotate tires...that you should follow a very specific routine...if not, then there may not be enough savings in costs to rotate them. The latter is an obvious consideration from BMW mounting a staggered tire set-up on many of it's performance positioned vehicles:

Well I decided to go with a staggered setup. So far I love it.
Before and After

Shawn
2002 X5 4.4i

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

MUCH better. An excellent choice. Looks great.

Good choice! ;)

ok quick question without starting a new thread... im looking to go from 18 to 20x10.5 all around so i wanted to know what size tires and if any problems with the front being 10.5 wide and biggest spacers i could run without it looking ridiculous

Take the time to read this --- http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...-position.html

Nice set-up. What tire brand, model, & sizes did you end up getting (if you don't mind sharing that info)?

I went with replica wheels from wheel tech tuning and Toyo Proxes St II. I am really impressed with them. One tire took a good amount of weight. The other three had hardly any. At 85 they are as smooth as silk.

Shawn
2002 X5 4.4i

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

Looks good. Huge improvement.

What's the next project?

Going to try the Mediabridge install. We did a trip last weekend and without internet radio, USB, aux, or SAT radio it was almost not fun minus the new X5. I leave for work again next week so I am hoping I can have it done by Sunday! :thumbup: