Moving from a square to staggered setup -- questions

[ryushe]

Howdy,
Picking up my new Z4 (3.0si fully optioned besides nav), and thinking about swapping the wheels from my 'old' Z ('04 2.5i) to the new Z as I really like my old / current wheels.

New Z has 17" style 200 rims, with 225s all around. Decent tires on the rims as well.
Old Z has 18” Style 152 rims, with 225 front, 255 rear. Set of Michelin Pilot Sport 5s with plenty of tread left.

Is there any reason I shouldn't do this? Is there anything I need to look out for?
Thanks!

[Chris_D]

Absoluut geen reden om het niet te doen!


Strange that your new zed comes with that setup as I think staggered was standard issue. Previous owner must have swapped wheels for old sh!tters at some point.
Even tread wear is something you should keep a check on. That's kind of a given but moving to different wheel/tyre sizes can be very revealing in some instances.

Many here, including myself run spacers, either both at the front (max 10mm I think) and up to 20mm at the rear, or just the rear, with 15mm on the rears probably the optimum.

IMG_20190423_173945_HDR.jpg (156.04 KiB) Viewed 626 times

[ryushe]

Absoluut geen reden om het niet te doen!


Strange that your new zed comes with that setup as I think staggered was standard issue. Previous owner must have swapped wheels for old sh!tters at some point.
Even tread wear is something you should keep a check on. That's kind of a given but moving to different wheel/tyre sizes can be very revealing in some instances.

Many here, including myself run spacers, either both at the front (max 10mm I think) and up to 20mm at the rear, or just the rear, with 15mm on the rears probably the optimum.

Bedankt
And good to know. The current Z doesn't use spacers as far as I know, so if I need 'em I'd have to find a set before Saturday.
No idea why it's a square setup, current owner also doesn't know (or so he claims).
Those style 152s are just too pretty to leave on the old car when I sell it

Here's the new beauty by the way:

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7c6bf6fd-67c6-44a8-ba44-875dd31e8eab.jpg (106.99 KiB) Viewed 625 times

[MikeyH]

Uitstekend hope I'm not being rude

[ryushe]

Uitstekend hope I'm not being rude

Certainly not!

[Rockhopper]

Chances are the wheels are staggered but at some time the wrong tyres have been put on as they didn't realise. That's very common and caught me out when i bought my first Z4 (along with quite a few other things....).

[Mr Tidy]

According to the BMW brochure I have Style 200 wheels are square 8J x 17 and were standard fit on UK spec 3.0Si SE models.

But I can see why you'd prefer the Style 152s!

[ryushe]

According to the BMW brochure I have Style 200 wheels are square 8J x 17 and were standard fit on UK spec 3.0Si SE models.

But I can see why you'd prefer the Style 152s!

This is a German import, so perhaps same there. Thanks for the information!

And yes, those 152s are just objectively prettier

[ryushe]

Righto, finally got round to swapping the wheels, and to my enormous chagrin, the rears have what seems to be 10mm spacers which are stuck absolutely solid. Tried a mallet and hammered away, sprayed some WD40 on it and let it soak, tried prying a thin flathead between the spacer and the hub, but the damned thing won't budge.
I don't have a gas torch, and the heatgun I DO have is wired and I can't get power to where I need it to be.

Any suggestions that don't end up in damaged/destroyed spacers?