ZHP Tires

[Phantasie]

Just wondering how easy it will be to put snow tires on my ZHP (im in Canada!). I assumed I would put 16inch snows or something on for the winter, but I recall someone in another thread eluding to that being difficult.

Question: What snow tires do you reccomend for the ZHP?

Also, Im kind of nervous about the actual tire now as in how expensive it might be to replace them based on frequency. The BMW dealer quoted me ~300 bucks a tire for Michelin Piolts.

Question: What is the expected KM life of these tires given "normal" driving conditions? (Normal for me means drving someone aggressivly once and awhile, ie rarely pushing hard into corners, no track driving, etc).

Thanks!

[KillFox]

I am about to change out my stock tires on my 2001 325ci Sport package with 71.5k miles on her. Looking at Discount Tire, i got a quote for the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Rrbl 225/45ZR-17 tires for aprox $205 a tire. Those were the best Michelin Pilot's they had listed for my car.

My tires have lasted quite a long time, but that may just be me. I believe others have quoted from like 30k miles up to 70k miles before tire changing.

CircleBMW lists the stock Continelli 225/45 tires as about 173 bux for the best model.

[Roadhawk]

phantasie -

I would highly recommend you looking into purchasing Vredstein performance snow tires (on either 16 or 17 inch rims). They are a dutch company that are well known in Europe but not here (so are somewhat hard to find - but well worth it). These tires provide outstanding performace in all conditions - (snow, ice, wet & even dry) In fact (on my Audi) I'm still running on these tires as I'm awaiting new summer wheels/tires which are backordered. The level of performance (and low noise) of these tires is simply amazing - for a winter tire. I could in fact use them as year round daily drivers they handle so well. No question - check them out...and they cost me about $160/tire for 17s..not cheap - but a lot better then $300 or what have you (seems that michelin and Pirelli snows were similarly priced - $150 or so at Tire Rack) - and I was led to believe and am a believer that neither can touch the performance of the Vreds.

[Roadhawk]

This does bring up a point - what wheel - tire (size) combos (16 & 17 inch wheels) will work on the 330 ZHP for winter tires? Anyone have an experience doing such?

[exjarhead328]

I ran Dunlop Winter Sport M3's all winter in CT and was very happy with them. They handled better than I thought they would and they were quieter than I anticipated. I paid about $135 apiece. tire rack.com has some good information and ratings on several brands. I ran 205-55 on my 2000 328.

[jehu3]

As I described in the other thread on this. I have 330i SP which has the staggered 17" set up. Get the 16" wheel/tire package from Tire Rack. It worked wonderfully this winter (Cleveland) and cost around $900 mounted balanced and shipped to you even with extra lug bolts. If you buy 17" snows and have them mounted it will cost that much. The Blizzaks are great in this package.

[Phantasie]

Great, thanks for the info all. Th "Vredstein performance snow tires" sound promising.

However, will 16 inch rims/tires fit on the 330i ZHP? (If this is a stupid question, sorry ). I read elsewhere that 16inch might not fit do to the different suspension/axel/or something else on the ZHP.

Thanks all

Rich

[OneLuckyPuppy]

If I'm not mistaken you cannot fit 16 in' wheels on a 330, the rotors are simply too big to fit the wheel. Better check it out b4 you make the investment.

Where do you live in Canada? If you live not far from Montreal I can give you the name of some tires vendors with competitive prices .

[Phantasie]

Originally posted by OneLuckyPuppy@May 21 2004, 07:07 PM
If I'm not mistaken you cannot fit 16 in' wheels on a 330, the rotors are simply too big to fit the wheel. Better check it out b4 you make the investment.

Where do you live in Canada? If you live not far from Montreal I can give you the name of some tires vendors with competitive prices .

That makes sense re rotors being too big. Freakin brakes! :P

Im in St. Catharines, Ontario - an hour or so south of Toronto, so Montreal is a bit far Although a week after I pick up the car in June Ill be driving through Montreal en route to Halifzx for vacation!

[peterkulesza]

i had very good luck with bridgestone blizzaks. i'd get used 17 inch alloys, and buy a narrow tire , like 205. nokian also makes nice snows so does michelin (arctic alpin), and gislaved. michelins and blizzaks DO NOT LAST beyond 25kmiles. i do not kwno about others.