tyres sizes for BK171 alpina reps. what's best?

[gareth]

as title really, i've just failed my MOT on many things (nothing major) but one thing is, "all wheels fouling wheel arches"... surely not!

i'm running fairly low suspension (60/40 at a guess) with 17" alpina reps (BK171's). and rolled rear arches. tyres currently are 215/45/17 front and 225/45/17 rear. they do scrub like a sod to be honest! i reckon it's due to a combination of soft lowered springs, excessive width (225's on the rear), and too high profile (45's when everyone else must use 40's)

i'm looking at getting a new set of either 205/40/17's or 215/40/17's.

are the 205's going to be a bit narrow for the wheels?

i've seen a lot of low E30's with these wheels on, what tyres are you using guys?

[Simon]

I had 215's on my reps before I sold them, I think 205's look a little too stretched on the wheel.

[TOURINGDADDY]

Dude i run 225/45/17 on mine yeah there close but mine dont rub and i aint had the arches rolled either but i am runnin bilstien sport line kit which is a little on the rough side. I like it hard

[gareth]

cheers guys.

touringdaddy, is yours lowered then? i've got unknown springs (feel very soft) and now koni adjustables, set pretty hard, and it still scrubs like a mother!

what offset are your wheels?

[325SME]

I've got 215/40 17s all round on mine, I find they handle better and are more comfortable than the 205/40 17s I had before. And I've got no rubbing whatsoever an a 30mm drop all round, even if I've got a lot of weight in the back.

HTH

Steve

[TOURINGDADDY]

Yeah sorry bloke shes -40mm. feel like a prat 4 not postin that. may be cheeper to get a decent set of springs

[jonbuoy]

I work for a tyre company and i run 205/40R17 V on the front and 215/40R17 V on the back and mine is lowered 40mm. Sounds like uve got a big offset on those wheels so this might help. The reason i run smaller on the front so u don't get tram lined on on the A roads. U can run wider tyres on the back with the 40's but becomes a bit expensive. Hope that helps a bit? Jon

[gareth]

cheers guys.

regarding the offset, i have ET20 7.5J17's (the same as all the other alpina reps i think)

i bet it's just a combination of a lot of things... the tyres being one of them. the springs and offsetdn't really help either. something like ET25 would probably clear on the rear aut it's the OD that causes problems up front... it scrubs the arches at the top, back and front!!! here' a piccy... it's not even all that low really...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v112/ ... a14519.jpg
heres the OD data i've collected:
205/55/15 (original 15" BBS size i think...) 607mm
195/60/14 (original 14" bottletop size i think) 590mm
215/45/17 (currently on the front) 625mm
225/45/17 (currently on the rear) 634mm

205/40/17 (option 1) 596
215/40/17 (option 2) 604

(sizes from here: http://www.tyresave.co.uk/tyresize.html )

so it looks like either of them will give accurate speedo readings.

if all else fails, i may skim a few mm of the read drums to effectively reduce the offset!!! i doubt i'll need to though, once i've got some decent springs!

don't suppose anyone's got any pice of what the 205 Vs 215 options look like on the wheel...? i do need to be able to crawl up kerbs (a fairly blunt one outside my house) after going shopping once a week buy my wife manages it in her pug 306 and thats got 7.5J16's with 195/45/16's on... does have less weight though...

[nav786]

you should be good with 215/40/17. you shouldnt get any rubbing

[Adam318i]

Ive got Pina reps and i get rubbing on the rears.

On the front ive got 205/40

And on the rear ive got 215/40

Only the drivers side on the rear rubs tho and i think its the fact that it has a "rim protecter" which is basically a rubber lip on the tyre to protect your alloys.

Im gona get new tyres soon and just put 205/40's all round just to be on the safe side.

Adam