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[84Reasons]

Hi All,

First post here! I'm looking at getting some alloys for my E93 325i SE 2007. I was going to get lowering springs but have decided because of ride quality and general inconvenience they can cause, I have already bottomed out going into my flat car park and my car is standard height, that I will try and get some alloys that fill the arch as best as possible. I have seen some people do it and think it may work.

What I'm looking at is a set of 20" 8.5 front, 9.5 rear, I think ET35 both front and rear, although maybe the rear ET is lower/higher as I'm going for a set with a concave in the rear. I want to know if you guys think this will fill the arch mostly, which tyre sizes I should get to do this, or if I will still be left with quite a big gap. I have 18" on there at the moment with tyres that have a 40 profile, with still around 4cm gap, however I have seen others without lowered cars (msport standard) that have used 20s and they seem to fill very well.

Any help is appreciated.

Cheers,

H.

[mjn77]

Doesn’t matter what size alloys you get, the rolling circumference is the same. In other words, the arch gap will stay the same.

If you fit bigger tyres to fill the arch gap, your speedo will be out.

[Emilime75]

Originally Posted by mjn77

Doesn’t matter what size alloys you get, the rolling circumference is the same. In other words, the arch gap will stay the same.

If you fit bigger tyres to fill the arch gap, your speedo will be out.

Not quite. Your speedo is already off unless you coded for true speed. With that said, if the OP is concerned about ride quality from lowering springs, he should also be by going to 20" wheels and the low profile tires that will take to fit. Not to mention that most will agree 20" wheels on an E9x is too big. Looks a little goofy. He's also not going to gain anything in fender gap reduction since he already has 40 series tires...unless those are some super narrow 40 series tires.

235 or 245/35/19 front and 265 or 275/30/19 rear is about the biggest you can go if you want no rubbing without other mods like fender rolling and camber. Even with those sizes you have to be careful while choosing wheel width and offset.

[tcphoto]

That’s a hell of a first post, you want to lower it and put 20” wheels on it. I would start with basic maintenance and make sure you’re prepared for possible issues like cooling system or other things that may arise. If you still want to proceed then do springs, shocks and struts to get the ride height done. Once you have that done, I imagine that a 19” setup will give you the desired performance and esthetic. I cannot imagine how a 20” setup would ride on average road let alone speed bumps and potholes.