Bought incorrect alloys for my 318i :( Please help

Hello Guys,

This is my first post.

I was planning to buy new wheels for my 3 series existing ones were not upto mark. So looking at the manual of BMW 318i 2001 e46 model I bought 2 pair of wheels 2x225 / 40 / 18 ZR FRONT and 2x255 / 40 / 18 ZR REAR. When I fitted those wheels front one fitted seamlessly and was looking good. But the rear ones are more wider then what it should. It is actually coming out of car body by 1/2 inch, which means they are touching body under load, or without load if you take sharp turn/go on humps.

These wheels are taken off M3 and they are in very good condition. I am shocked by this as these tyre width is listed even on my front door tyre pressure sticker.

I am not sure what is is size of rear wheel rim (8J or 8.5J), how to solve this problem? Do I need to replace full kit and loose most of the money I put in to buy these? Can I fit 225 tyres (if I buy new) to wider (8.5J) rims?

Please suggest the best way out.

Regards,
Afsar Imam

Can I fit 225/45/ZR18 in REAR ?

Ohh now I got the point, so where can I find offset which will fit in my 3 sereis?

Btw. thanks a lot for your quick response.

Regards,
Afsar Imam

Pop up some pictures.

As said above, the rear offset ( 20 IIRC) is too much for the non-M car.....so keep the fronts,sell the rears and replace with 2 more fronts.....or flog as a job lot and go M3 replica route...or talk to Mark at BMAutosport who'll do p'ex against his wheels.

BMAutosport

If you go down the route of selling the set then, since the tyres would appear to be decent, take the tyres off and sell the wheels only then keep the tyres for a set of other 18s or flog the tyres off.



Edited by Stone-IslandV8

Not sure bout solving it but if you really wanted to then the wheels might be able to be machine down to fit??? Not sure, someone more knowledgeable than me might be able to shed some light on this.

M3 reps.....replicas ie made by another company to look almost exactly the same as the originals. If you get a good quality make of rep then you shouldnt have any problems.

Mark at BMautosport may well take your genuines in p'ex so reducing any cost to you.

No expert but machining the wheels down will result in the whole wheel move in towards the centre line of the car, so you need to make sure you have enough clearence on the inner wing and your shock absorber and strut......... remember a E46 M3 has bigger arches to allow for  clearence of these wheels.

Once machined no one will want those wheels........... sell them and buy something that fits.

BTW Welcome to the forum.

Edited by Sporty1

Standard E46 3's run 8.5j x 18 ET50 on the rear, what you have is 9j x 18 ET 26. So you would have to machine off about 25mm to get it to sit right.

Edited by Sporty1

Mate... the wheels (and tyres) are the only thing keeping your car on the road and in the direction you want it to go in. I would not machine a wheel down to that sort of level, as I said I'm no expert but the wheel was designed in a certain way and removing that much metal has got to be unsafe.

Like I and other have said sell them and get some thing else, if it was an easy job to get OE 18" M3 wheels on a non M car then loads of people would have dont it. JMHO 

If you really like those wheels then buy some replica's........

http://www.replicaalloywheels.co.uk/index.php?page=catalog&a mp;cat=bmwreplicaalloywheels

 

Now even I agree to this expert advise. So, already advertised on gumtree and ebay. :-) Someone is coming to see tomorrow.

I really appreciate your help on this. I love this community.

-Afsar