Tire size options for 50i E70
 

Wife's new to us 50i came with baby tires 255/55/18. Small enough contact patch the rears are wearing twice as fast as the fronts due to the rear tires regularly going slightly faster than the rest of the car and occasionally much faster during full throttle shifts. (DSC will kick on and push your foot up via gas pedal)

Anyhow I would like to upgrade to a wider tire I can use with a square setup and maybe the same ratio to end up with a slightly softer ride (this is our highway cruiser and not really pushed in curves like I do with my car).

I'm curious what other people have used without going to stagger setup. I think I've seen 275/315 stagger but with 20s and low profile and wider rims.

I think I have 8 or 8.5 rims and have to keep the rims I have.

I'm sure that "the factory" would spec a much lower profile to keep the same rolling circumference and Speedo error but I'm ok with taller tire.

If I had to guess a good solution, I'm thinking 275/50/18 I haven't run any numbers yet to see the size difference.

"They" say that x-drive wants factory rolling circumference but I don't know how the car can have any idea how big the wheels are if they are all the same size. I would posit that having bigger tires that wear evenly is better for x-drive than the factory size where the rear tires wear faster.

Share your thoughts I'll be getting tires in about a month maybe 6 weeks.

Looks like 285/50/18 is nearly identical circumference.

285 is a BMW spec section size for the front so I think that may be the golden option. Now if I can actually find suitable tires that size.

Oh man, my diesel likes its baby 255/55R18 tires.

no luck on the 285/50s so I did find 275/55/18. they are three season tires so it’ll be interesting in winter. but I don’t want to put winter tires on my wife’s car because it’ll shred them.

255 really not small tires. just on my wife’s beast of a car they are too small. 450 foot pounds of torque.