E39 Style 5's

[uscharalph]

I've got a set of E39 Style 5's on my 89 525i. I have hubcentric rings installed and the car rides nicely. I have also installed the Sachs kit. However I just noticed that my tires seem to be rubbing on the inside, up near the tread. It seems that it might be occasionally rubbing on the housing on the strut. I'll try and get pictures posted.

Anyone else have this problem? Are spacers the answer?

[Paul in NZ]

they should be fine...what size tyres you running?

[uscharalph]

they should be fine...what size tyres you running?

I'm running 235/45R-17's. They are MAXXIS MA-501's. They came with the wheels.

[nirvana19]

I'm running 235/45R-17's. They are MAXXIS MA-501's. They came with the wheels.

Exact size I have on a different set of 17 inch rims, no issues with rubbing I've ever noticed.

[uscharalph]

Exact size I have on a different set of 17 inch rims, no issues with rubbing I've ever noticed.

Is your BMW lowered?

[BMWCCA1]

Is your BMW lowered?

That wouldn't make any difference unless the spring perches were also lowered (not likely). He's talking about contact with the strut. That relationship doesn't change, even if you had no spring installed at all.

FWIW, I'm running 235/45x17 Yokos on OZ wheels but they are a bit less than 20mm offset, as I recall. Not even close to rubbing the strut. Your strange brand of tires might just be a bit fat relative to their nominal size. Let's see some pictures of the rubbing location and the clearance.

I just checked:
The Maxxis MA-501 235/45R17 93V is listed with a sidewall section width of 9.30".

For comparison, my Yokos are listed as 9.4", so that's unlikely to be your problem.

[BMWDriver]

You may want to check the offset of the wheels nevertheless. Often times style 5's are made in a wide variety of offsets for e36/e46/e34/e39 et al. As they don't seem to have necessarily been made for the e39 very often, they are sometimes bored out to fit. And the 17 inch ones are usually BBS or another brand, not BMW made.

When checking out style 5's on Bimmerforums in the wheels FS section, I regularily see +15mm, +20mm (5/6/7 series), +0mm, +11mm, +13mm, which all take out the wheel further, save the 20mm. Not necessarily convenient for the many 3 series out there, but that doesn't stop an e36 driver from customizing his wings a bit on top of dropping the ride.

There are not many +35mm, some +41mm (3 series offsets), but there are some in the style 5 arena. And just to make things worse, there is the very rare time when the offset is customized (machined) down to something like +25mm.

I know offset requirements for the M5 e39 and e34 are slightly different than their respective base platforms (my guess is 2-5 mm further in to handle wider rubbers on 17-18 inch).

[Paul in NZ]

but a smaller(number offset) moves the wheel away from the strut.....
I have 17x8.5 qith an approx 15mm offset and with mtech setp have no rubbing(235/45 17)
do you know the width and offset?

[uscharalph]

but a smaller(number offset) moves the wheel away from the strut.....
I have 17x8.5 qith an approx 15mm offset and with mtech setp have no rubbing(235/45 17)
do you know the width and offset?

They are 17 X 8.5 BMW BBS, w/ the following markings: (RC 090) (1 093 531) (8Jx17H2 IS20)

[BMWDriver]

I'm guessing IS20 is the offset, which should rule out the rims as the problem. Unless they were machined, but that would be so rare.