Wheel and Tyre question

UrbanFlow · Post by **UrbanFlow** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 1:40 pm

Hi all,
What size tyres should my 2003 3.0i X5 be fitted with?

I currently have 255 Michelin diamaris all round.

Looking to change my wheels for a refurbed set of the original alloys and all the ones I can find state 285 rears 255 front.
Should my rear current rare tyres be bigger??!

Confused.

Raj · Post by **Raj** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 2:10 pm

OE's are pretty much all staggered. Larger width rear alloy and tyre compared to the fronts.

Cannondale · Post by **Cannondale** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 3:39 pm

Normally if you car is on 19" the tyres will be

Front 255 50 R 19 103 V *
Rear 285 45 R 19 107 V *

Unless someone has changed the rims the rears will be 1" wider then the fronts. HTH

Rich...

dirtymonkey29 · Post by **dirtymonkey29** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 4:18 pm

Yup think its 10j rear and 9j front which should be stamped into the alloy wheel somewhere.

The tyre fitters that fitted my wheels, stupidly put the big tyres on wrong alloy and fitted to the rear and the smaller tyres on the fatter rims at the front.

That's right, 10j fat alloy on the front with the correct 255 rubber and 9j skinny wheel on the back with the 285 rubber on. Made handling interesting and looked wrong. If you stood at the car and looked down it the front wheels were sticking out the arch and the rears were sunk into the arch.
I think the fitter there might have done a little poo in his pants when I took it back to them....I Was not happy.

Raj · Post by **Raj** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 10:45 pm

[quote=""dirtymonkey29""]Yup think its 10j rear and 9j front which should be stamped into the alloy wheel somewhere.

The tyre fitters that fitted my wheels, stupidly put the big tyres on wrong alloy and fitted to the rear and the smaller tyres on the fatter rims at the front.

That's right, 10j fat alloy on the front with the correct 255 rubber and 9j skinny wheel on the back with the 285 rubber on. Made handling interesting and looked wrong. If you stood at the car and looked down it the front wheels were sticking out the arch and the rears were sunk into the arch.
I think the fitter there might have done a little poo in his pants when I took it back to them....I Was not happy.[/quote]

Bloody hell. How did you not notice before driving off?

Holski · Post by **Holski** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 11:39 pm

I think 18" wheels were the only ones to have 255's all round, but I thought only the SE spec had 17"/18" wheels not the Sport.

dirtymonkey29 · Post by **dirtymonkey29** » Tue May 01, 2012 12:52 am

They were fresh from refurb. The old tyres were shot so when I dropped them off the bodyshop took them to "x brand" tyre fitters to remove the old tyres and scrap them. Once they had prepped the alloys ready for paint I took a set of new bridgestone runflats that i got at a good price to the body shop who took them back to the same place to mount the tyres. They painted them then inflated tyres. I said I would take them for the balancing so I could get the winters taken off and swapped over. Didn't notice they were wrong as I only inspected the paint job and had no reason to suspect they were wrong. I loaded them into the car with help and took them back to ats euro master (whoops, that let the cat out of the bag) to have them balanced and swapped. It did feel odd but I put this down to going back to 19's and run flats at that.
The flat tyre symbol flashed up a few times without losing any pressure which is what made me inspect it more closely.
I took it back as soon as I noticed and they were adamant they were right because the big tyres were on the back and small ones on the front, they couldnt grasp the fact they had stretched the narrower tyres over the fat alloys and stuck them on the front until I dragged him round the car pointing out the fronts extending beyond the arches and the rears set inside the arches which is very noticeable if your looking for that but if your not then you don't usually look.
They were all blaming each other for the balls up then said they may crack the fresh lacquer taking the tyres off and remounting them. If they had they would be prepping the wheel with there face and paying for fresh paint.

Cannondale · Post by **Cannondale** » Tue May 01, 2012 8:33 am

I have worked in the tyre trade for a good few years and some of the things that happen are simply unbelivable

Richard...

Raj · Post by **Raj** » Tue May 01, 2012 9:03 am

@dirtymonkey29 - that is truly shocking. And to maintain they have been fitted correctly afterwards would have really pi55ed me off.

dirtymonkey29 · Post by **dirtymonkey29** » Tue May 01, 2012 1:37 pm

Yeah they couldn't understand why it was wrong. He was lucky.

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