Subject: Time to deal with wheels Author: cardinal2b : member since January, 2005 : 2 posts Posted on: 2005-01-17 13:22:50

My car is a 2003 330xi.

See my earlier post on Euro Delivery Diary for a picture of it, and you'll see it has pretty 17" wheels with twenty (20, count 'em) spokes. You know that BMW brakes, though superb, are dirty. Cleaning off 20 spokes on 4 wheels is just too time consuming! You cannot keep these suckers clean!

So, I have in mind buying new wheels, and thought I'd increase wheel size maybe to 18" - just a bit more handling and hopefully not too much rougher ride in consequence. And, I'd like to decrease the number of spokes to 5 for appearance but mostly for cleaning!

I am told that reducing unsprung weight is a good thing too, and lighter wheels would do that, which brings me to my questions...

Lighter than what? What do mine weigh / where could I find that out?

How light is light? What are the trade-offs here in terms of strength? I mean you could find really lightweight wheels I guess, say less than 20lbs or so, but how strong are they? How do you find this out?

Anyone had any experience doing this on these cars?

Thanks,
Cardinal2B

• Time to deal with wheels - cardinal2b 2005-01-17 13:22:50 (961 views)