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Aftermarket Wheel/Tire Options

5476 Views 25 Replies 12 Participants Last post by Sick-Of-Tesla, 5 d ago

vinsanity

Discussion Starter · May 15, 2022

Hi fellow iX owners/future owners,

I’m sure I’m as exciting as most of you to get our cars. As a longtime BMW enthusiast (This is my 7th BMW), I’m planning out mods before delivery.

I’ve had 2 i3’s before this and obviously those tires were too tall/narrow to have any reasonable aftermarket options. The iX I ordered in 21” (with 255/50R21 square), but I know the LRR-focused tires definitely won’t have enough lateral grip for my liking. I understand completely that this will lower my range by 5-15% ish and I’m completely OK with that.

I’m looking at the following options and wanted to see what everyone thought:

1. +0 on OEM 21” wheels: Upsize OEM 255/50R21 to 275/45R21 (leaning on Michelin PS4 SUV).

2. Possible winter setup: 20” wheels and either 275/50R20 or 285/50R20 on Studless Winter or A/T 3MS rated tires. Yes these will kill range even more but 20” options are way cheaper.

Curious as to all your thoughts? I’m leaning away from 22” as I want more meat on my tires to protect against crappy CA roads.

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SixOhms

· #21 · 2 mo ago

vinsanity said:
For EVs, the narrower the tire, the more range you get because of less rolling resistance, but also less grip because of less contact patch, given the same model tire.

This has been proven a fallacy by many studies and experiments. For any given weight, the ground pressure surface remains largely the same for varying tire width. As the contact surface diminishes in width, but the same weight is transferred, it grows longer.

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vinsanity

Discussion Starter · #22 · 2 mo ago

Balockay said:
So Costco is saying the 275/50R20 won’t fit an iX. Think their systems are up to date, or is this offset business something they don’t do? Followup question: is there anything to offsetting tires that aren’t perfectly stock measurements? Does it require new wheels?

Places like Costco mostly do OE replacement type of tire changes, so they aren't generally going to officially endorse anything outside of a +10mm section width change on OE sizes.

Please reference this chart for the iX: 2021 BMW iX - Wheel & Tire Sizes, PCD, Offset and Rims specs

If you want to reuse OEM wheels:

1. 20" Stock: 20x8.5" ET28 (235/60R20 stock tires): This is perfect for plus-sizing. I can pretty much guarantee that you can run 275/50R20, 275/55R20, 285/50R20, and smaller sizes like 265/50R20+255/55R20 on the stock rims. I'm running 275 and 285 wide tires on ET25, so there's plenty of room here.

2. 21" Stock: 21x9" ET36 (255/50R21 stock tires): The ET36 may be an issue changing to 275/45R21 and if you want to do that, you should run 5mm or 10mm spacers. You should be ok without a spacer though.

3. 22" Stock: 22x9.5" ET37 (275/40R22 stock tires): You can run 285/40R22 off the stock wheels, 5mm or 10mm spacer to give it a proper stance.

I'm assuming you have 20" wheels. You can ABSOLUTELY run 275/50R20 on the stock wheels (8.5" is recommended for this size which is spot on). Don't listen to Costco.

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Sick-Of-Tesla

· #23 · 7 d ago

Bay Area Celt said:
I would prefer 19 inch wheels myself... for a variety of reasons. Cheaper tyres, lighter weight, and ideally slightly aero in aspect. Mine is coming with the standard sport wheels... but the roads in the Bay Area are like the surface of the FUCKING MOON so.... more rubber. I already had one Tesla rim crack on some of the potholes here. Stupid rubber band low profile tyres.. fuck that. SO...... 19 inch at most on an SUV for me, and 18s on cars. I would ideally even like 18s on the iX and a lot more rubber.... I m not in this for looks, im in this for utility and the real world benefits thereof.

Any ideas on 19s? I saw one set once... last year but I cant see them anymore and they took them off the configurator end of last year... dammit. Perfect day to day 19s and longer range and more rubber for better road ride.

you wouldn't believe but today I bought a whole set of new tires on 18-in rims
The car runs well, even softer than 20 inch
the only problem IX could not identify them

2 new items by Vladimir Kovalev

photos.app.goo.gl

https://photos.app.goo.gl/V1eKgHJoh1SQ9kqP7

the idea is to keep new tires in storage until the end of the lease comes up
and then put it back
so that BMW is not going to charge me a full price for worn out tires
I did the same thing on Tesla and it worked fine

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vinsanity

Discussion Starter · #24 · 7 d ago

Sick-Of-Tesla said:
you wouldn't believe but today I bought a whole set of new tires on 18-in rims
The car runs well, even softer than 20 inch
the only problem IX could not identify them

2 new items by Vladimir Kovalev

photos.app.goo.gl

https://photos.app.goo.gl/V1eKgHJoh1SQ9kqP7

the idea is to keep new tires in storage until the end of the lease comes up
and then put it back
so that BMW is not going to charge me a full price for worn out tires
I did the same thing on Tesla and it worked fine

Yeah, I run non-standard sizes on both my sets and the car doesn't identify/recognize them. It means absolutely nothing for the car to "recognize" the tires. I think OE-spec tires have some sort of RFID chip embedded in them to have the car "recognize" the tires. It's not like the car will calibrate the speedometer based on the tire size, and it doesn't disable the tire monitor functions.

Great idea! I'm surprised that the 18" wheels will clear the brake assembly, but that's great to know! It would be fun to throw a set of 18's with 265/65R18 all-terrains to go off-roading in.

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electric_journey

· #25 · 7 d ago

vinsanity said:
Hi fellow iX owners/future owners,

I’m sure I’m as exciting as most of you to get our cars. As a longtime BMW enthusiast (This is my 7th BMW), I’m planning out mods before delivery.

I’ve had 2 i3’s before this and obviously those tires were too tall/narrow to have any reasonable aftermarket options. The iX I ordered in 21” (with 255/50R21 square), but I know the LRR-focused tires definitely won’t have enough lateral grip for my liking. I understand completely that this will lower my range by 5-15% ish and I’m completely OK with that.

I’m looking at the following options and wanted to see what everyone thought:

1. +0 on OEM 21” wheels: Upsize OEM 255/50R21 to 275/45R21 (leaning on Michelin PS4 SUV).

2. Possible winter setup: 20” wheels and either 275/50R20 or 285/50R20 on Studless Winter or A/T 3MS rated tires. Yes these will kill range even more but 20” options are way cheaper.

Curious as to all your thoughts? I’m leaning away from 22” as I want more meat on my tires to protect against crappy CA roads.

@vinsanity I've got an iX40 with Pirelli P-Zero Elect 275/40 22" from the factory and even though they are designed for low rolling resistance, they offer pretty good levels of lateral grip. I pulled almost 1G going round a roundabout the other day (according to the G-force meter on the dash)

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Sick-Of-Tesla

· #26 · 5 d ago

vinsanity said:
Yeah, I run non-standard sizes on both my sets and the car doesn't identify/recognize them. It means absolutely nothing for the car to "recognize" the tires. I think OE-spec tires have some sort of RFID chip embedded in them to have the car "recognize" the tires. It's not like the car will calibrate the speedometer based on the tire size, and it doesn't disable the tire monitor functions.

Great idea! I'm surprised that the 18" wheels will clear the brake assembly, but that's great to know! It would be fun to throw a set of 18's with 265/65R18 all-terrains to go off-roading in.

I did start with 17 inch rims (same bolt pattern) and the rear rim hit the caliper,
so I moved to 18 inch,
today is the 4th day and I am pretty happy,

on saving about 4k on the cost of wheels.
I will save the originals till the end of the Lease time and won't have to pay BMW for an enormous replacement cost,
cause in 3 year 30k miles the tires would be all worn out, I know that from my past experience with Leased cars

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