Do you prefer 245/40/18 275/35/18 compaired to stock???

Anyone who has installed 245/40/18 front and 275/35/18 rear on your stock M3 as compaired to the original 225/45/18 front and 255/40/18 rear.
What do you think about the ride? Harsher...
How do they corner?

I am looking at my new tires on my garage floor that I ordered..... Kinda think the rears may be too wide & might bow in the center and not wear as good being so wide on the stock rims....

What do you think? Or am I just worrying for nothing?

Just wanted some input from people who did the install before I mounted these tires.....

Everyone and their brother are running that size tire combo.

Tire manufacturers have a specified rim width for each tire, check it out.

I did..... Discount tires mention the front 245 is OK but the 275's on the 9 inch wide 18 inch rim was a bit to narrow....I also contacted tire rack and they said it would be no problem....
I just wanted input from some actually running them to see if they noticed any (rounded) bowing in the middle from to wide a tire on too narrow of a rim...

Hey thanks for the input.

Have the same set up. Looks, rides and handles great. You should have NO problems.

same here, run the same setup but i got 19's, obviously it's a bit rougher cause of the size but the handling is still perfect and no rubbing.

Ride for me is a bit better then what I had when i got the car. It has 19s all around with 225/255 set up. If anything those tires looked small on those wheels. The larger tires / 18s fill the wheels nicely and the ride is a bit softer. Not much but a little.

Thanks...

I installed them ...drove 350 miles last weekend to my sons Jr college District final soccer tournment in Tyler Texas...they felt great!....except I had to rent a car to get home since my M3 craped out on me....started missing ...no power barley able to pull it in the Hotel parking lot. I think it may be the EMC the way it just quit all of a sudden.

My luck... will call the BMW place to see what happened tomarrow.

Hi everyone!

I just bought a 2003 M3 coupe. It has 19s with stock 225/40/19 and 255/35/19 Michelin
Pilot Sport tires. These are on wear bars and I am shopping for new tires. Heard so much about Bridgestone RE050A Pole Position tires, but TireRack says they do not exist in 255/35/19. They recommended 275/35/19.....I called the BMW dealership and was told that for 275 the fenders need to be rolled. Is it true? Does anyone have this setup? Are there any problems with such wide tires? Please help..

You may have issues. My set up has 275/35/18s. I have no problems. The tire you are talking about 275/35/19 has the same width but is an inch taller in dia. A 275/30/19 should work. That tire has the same basic outside dimensions as the 275/35/18s.
Let me know how you make out. I will be sending my OEM 19s to be refurbished and will be looking to get a 245/275 set as I do now with my 18s.

I prefer 265s all around. But if you want to stay staggered 245 front, 265 rear helps balance the cars handling.

Thanks for the input Terry
I was looking into 265 all around so I could possibly rotate my tires...except since I have 8'' wide rims on the front and 9" wide rims (stock 18" wheels) on the rear figured that would not be an option (to rotate) also afraid 265's on the front 8" rim could be too wide a tire...

I like the 245 265 setup now that they are on....

Oh my M3 problem in Tyler texas (I mentioned above) turned out to be the coilpaks. Funny thing ...before I purchased this 2003 I looked at a 2002 where the guy had just replaced his coil paks...guess that's the E46 M3's weak link...

Buy a second set of wheels and put rear wheels all around. But you need to increase negative camber a bit. But I managed it. And you can sell the 4 fronts to someone with a non-M who wants M wheels.

But even so, you should not rotate tires as the front/rear wear patterns are so different you will end up with wierd things, like vibrations, tramlining, etc.

Coil packs have a service action and if they are certain ones, they are warrantied until something like 8 years, 100K miles.

Good Idea concerning the wheels...in time perhaps when I've completed upgrades on my other cars I'll look into that...
Just thought since front tires I was told normally wear on the outside where the rear tires wear on the inside....would think rotating the front left to the rear left anf front right to the rear right?

I was still under warranty (38000) so worked out (I extended to 100,000 when I bought). Had to rent a car to get home then fly back down to pickup my car....we'll see how the BMW roadside service works concerning compensating my expenses..

the normal front camber spec's are Camber -1° 20' to -0° 40' What would be a good slight neg increase for lively non-track use. Reason I asked I noticed my fronts wore on the outsides so thought a bit more neg camber would help even the wear.

WRT negative camber, as much as you can get is not enough. I run -3.5 on the street.

A more reasonable number for the street is about -2. But without going to camber plates, just get the max you can get. Pull the locator pins to get an extra about -0.5 degrees.

Again, don't rotate the tires. It isn't worth the problems.

As mentioned before just bought my 245/275 tires...and plan on keeping my rims for awhile...so no rotating for me...

Concerning Neg camber...read a good info artical about rotating and swtching your strut bearings for more camber...don't plan on that just yet.... but wanted to know about what you mean by "pull your locating pins" where are they located? do you mean the allen head set screw located on top?

http://e46m3performance.com/installs...-top/index.htm

Yeap.

I pulled the pin ans swapped the strut hats and had enough negative camber to run rears all around with 265s.

Thanks

Pinecone, I understand the part of the 245-265 setup. But, Why to go from 40 to 35 (front) & 35 to 30 (rear)?
Can they be 245/40/19 & 265/35/19?
Thanks!

As you increase tire width, you have to decrease aspect ratio so the tire doesn't get larger in diameter.

thanks!

I will go with:
245-35-19 (front)
275-30-19 (rear)

I just need a place to buy it in Puerto Rico. I look on tirerack, but, shipping to PR is more than one tire cost (@$400). Actually it is almost two tires cost, just for shipping. Aparently they only use UPS second day to ship to PR.

Hi, I am a new owner of an E46 M3 that was previously run as a T2 racer. I am wanting to further optimize it for track use, so am lightening it. I also want to improve on the front tire width, now running 245 40 18 front, 275 35 18 rear. I did put a 275 on the right front to see how if it would fit. Despite removing the spacer that was on under the 245, the top of the 275 is just outside the fender. It has a little more than stock neg camber. About an inch of clearance above the fender. No rubbing with lock-lock turning and a slow jaunt down the road. Is this "275 sqare"size going to work on the track? How much negative camber should I use?

Originally Posted by Pinecone

I prefer 265s all around. But if you want to stay staggered 245 front, 265 rear helps balance the cars handling.

^ x2

Thanks! I might try 265 front, 275 rear.

Do I need to do anything special to fit 265's in the front (other than buy wider wheels)?

I'm thinking about getting some track wheels, and I like running non-staggered to reduce understeer...

Thanks,
--Carey

I have 235/265 BFG G-force sports. the tires are not quite as sticky as michilines but the little extra width seems to make some of thqat up. plus they should last twice as long.

four stock rear wheels with 265's work great on the track. Zero understeer. and you can rotate them. they do stick out of the fender a few mm. if you have camber plates that helps. you shouldnt have to do anything other special. depending on the wheels. you may have some minor rub on the inner fender well at full steering lock.