Winter Tyres

G

Gilberto

Member
 Aberdeenshire
I'm on the look out for a set of winter tyres and i've noticed My Tyres.com seem reasonably priced for the Vredstein Wintracs. Has anyone bought from the site before?

Can anyone recommend a winter tyre for the OEM Z4M wheel?

Could i run 225/40/18 on the fronts as opposed to 225/45/18?

Cheers
 
The ///M owners manual suggest that you use 225/40 R 18 92 V M+S for winter tire for both front and rear. They also state that if your are going to use chains you must use that size of tire. However, I use 18 X 8 rims on the front and 18 X 9 on the rear for my winter tires and runs stock size tire both front and rear. For me that combination work very well and I've never had any trouble at all getting around in the snow.

I run Blizzak LM-60's and they work quite well.
 
As it says in the manual mine are the sane size in all 4 corners. Rears are therefore quite stretched and means the alloys are more prone to pothole damage but they were excellent last winter.
 
I use the Vredestein Wintrac Xtreme's in the same sizes as my summer tyres and find them excellent. Don't get hung up by what the manual says, the advice was probably published prior to a wider range of low profile winters becoming available.
 
I have the vred winters in standard size as well and was very impressed last winter.My house is situated halfway up a hill which means i move from the driveway straight onto the road,had snow with ice underneath last year and drove straight out and up the hill much to the amazement of various neighbours who were stranded on the hill :lol: :lol: :driving: .
 
I can get Yokohama W-drive V902 Winter Tyre (225/40 18) for £143 through my Mitsubishi Lancer Membership. Would that work all round?

Failing that i'll probably go for the Vred's on OEM sizes.
 
You can get some cheapy snow tyres for £70/corner (Sailun/Achilles/etc.) from www.mytyres.co.uk if you really want to save some cash. Can't recommend any winter tyres myself as I've never used them.

225/40r18 all round is what the 'official' BMW stance is.
 
I could also get the 245/40/18 too for £174. If i can definitely go 225/40/18 all round, i'll take those tyres at £143. Great price. :thumbsup:
 
Just bought tyres from mytyre for the wife's car. I'll tell you in a few days whether they are worth ordering with or not!
 
Gilberto said:
I can get Yokohama W-drive V902 Winter Tyre (225/40 18) for £143 through my Mitsubishi Lancer Membership. Would that work all round?
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This is what I have ^^^
 
Gilberto said:
What type did you order?
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Avon Ice Touring. I wanted reasonably cheap, but a brand I recognise. I've had Avon ZZ3's before on a previous car and they were terrific tyres.
 
Gilberto said:
Hark said:
Gilberto said:
I can get Yokohama W-drive V902 Winter Tyre (225/40 18) for £143 through my Mitsubishi Lancer Membership. Would that work all round?
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This is what I have ^^^
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Any problems with the 225's on the rears Hark?
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None and they stayed on until the summer as I never got round to fitting the others when I bought a new toy. At 20 degrees they are a bit crap but no worse than oem contis are on wet greasy roundabouts on my 7am commute in the winter.

They were car changing in the winter and I took to driving the M rather than the wifes front wheel drived Rover in the snow as the Z4M had better traction. Have ordered the same tyres for the rover this year which should make it a tank in the snow.

Only thing with the 225 width is I picked up two kerb marks from pot holes. I do use mine daily though.
 
Look stretched. Think VW low riders lol

No pictures sorry. Currently stacked in the back, not fitted for this winter yet.
 
Hark said:
Only thing with the 225 width is I picked up two kerb marks from pot holes. I do use mine daily though.
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On inspection of mine (225 all round) at the end of winter,and noticed before this time, an observation I made was that my rear wheels picked up a few decent sized stone chips on the exposed rim, visible of course when quite close up only but now I know they're there it catches my eye :). However, note that I covered many miles with the tyres on at high speeds (90% motorway, the other 10% mostly fast country roads). So using the narrower rears 'could' result in more frequent refurbs needed, or ideally have a second set of wheels for the winter only using the narrower tyres.

Another general interesting observation I made was this. When I first fitted the Winter tyres it seemed to improve the ride comfort when compared to the worn Conti M3's I took off. However as the winter tyres wore down (and as the temps rose - might or might not be related)I noticed more vibration, sometimes as if I could feel the individual sipes during rotation on some road surfaces (grainy kind of feel?). In fact I also started hearing an annoying vibration coming from the boot.WHen I replaced the winter tyres which by this time the rears had about 3.5mm tread left and all the winter tread had gone, the ride comfort was much better with new Conti M3's on and the annoying boot vibration has completely gone and has never come back! I had my boot replaced during the year and thought this was the cause of the annoying vibration in the boot but at actually it wasn't, the noise disappeared with the Conti M3's back on.

If anyone only has one set of wheels I would be tempted to use winter tyres in the summer tyre size (225 and 255), or possible one profile down, so same sizes as the 3.0Si 18" normal tyre sizes (225*40 and 255*35).If have two sets of OEM sized wheels then have one set with the BMW recommended winter tyre size. ANother option would be to have a set of 8" wide wheels all round (preferably using an offset not requiring the need for spacers) and run the BMW recommended winter tyre size on those.

I highly recommend winter tyres though! This year I might just run the Conti M3's through winter as I won't need to be so mobile. I have two Conti 830P tyres in the BMW recommended size (225*40*18) that I used on the front of my car that have plently of tread left (approx 3.5mm to 4mm winter tread equalling about 7.5mm total tread!), anyone fancy taking these off my hands for a reasonable price and can collect from my Mon-Fri home in West Berkshire please let me know.Alternatively I could deliver or meet along the M4 corridor between say Newbury and Bristol Mon-Fri. Not managed to transport them back to main home so taking up space in the corner of my kitchen at the moment!
 
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