e36 M3 wheels on an E46 sedan?

[dsames]

The title sorta' says it all. Does that work? More specifically, what are the implications of doing so, given that the rears are 245/40/17 as opposed to the 225/45/17 on my stock E46 328i sport model? Does it affect the proper alignment settings? Will the tires wear differently? How does it affect the handling? Also, if I keep one set for autoxing (on street tires) and the other set for daily use, are there issues with swapping back and forth?

As an aside, I'm wondering why the rears are 245/40, when it seems like they should really be 255/40 or something like that to maintain the same (or rather closer) sidewall height. Am I interpreting that wrong?

Thanks,
Dave

[dsames]

One more question: do you _have_ to put the 245/40's on the back or can you run 225/45 all around using those wheels?

[odortiz]

i think the 8.5 inch rim has to go on the back. on the front, it will hit the strut without a spacer. don't know what size is needed.
alignment specs will be the same, tire wear pattern will be the same.
as far as balance, the staggered setup will give you more understeer.

[odortiz]

i have 255/40 on the rear and 245/40 on the front.since it's on such a narrow rim, the tire is effectively slightly less than a 245 on the front.

[mlytle]

i run e36 m3 wheels on my 325it. 7.5's all around with 225/45's. work great. no issues. i think the offset is a little different (less) than stock e46.

[dsames]

Aren't the E36 M3 wheels 8.5 rims in the back? Can you put the 225/45's on them without a problem? I'm sure you can't swap front to back, but that's not a big deal anyway.

Thanks,

Dave

[jkuper]

Depends, 95 M3s had a non-staggered set up with 7.5" all around.

My plan is to put a set of 235/40/17 all-seasons on my wife's E36 328 and a set of 8.5" (all rears) with 245/40/17 summers on the M3. I think it should work. :dunno

[jhm5]

generally, E36 and E46 wheels are interchangeable, except E46 M3 which has fatter rear fenders, more clearance for very fat rear wheels.
the standard BMW E46 staggered set up (330sport) is 225/45/17 front and 245/40/17 rear. your proposed setup should work. you can also use 225/45 on the rear, probably even with an 8.5" wide wheel.

unless you've got lots of power (e46 m3, for example), i maintain a staggered tire set up, fatter in the rear, only contributes to understeer. same size all around is more balanced... my 2-cents...

[Jed]

We put my 17x8 wheels with 235/40/17s (which were R-Comps and slightly wider than "normal" 235/40/17s) from my E36 325 on my friend's 325iT for an autox and didn't have any issues when we ran the car.

[Jesse]

my friend's

ahh yeah, sure

[Doby]

They are all interchangable. Be thing to do is to run 235/40's all around on the staggered wheels. You could run the 245's in the rear if you wanted, but there really isn't a need to.