Winter set (tires/wheels) q
 

Two new additions to our garage this year were:
2012 F30 and 2013 F25 and cold weather fast approaching I am looking to get both cars winter ready.

Last winter tires I had were Michelin X-Ice 2 and I loved them, they were the best tires I've had the pleasure to use so far.

Both new cars come with run flat tires and frankly I don't fully understand how that impacts my winter set decisions. This is where revScene gurus come in, hopefully you can help:
- If I only wanted to buy tires (no extra rims), do they have to be run flat too?
- When I search for X-Ice tires, it doesn't say "run flat", does that mean that I'd have to get a set of rims if I wanted this particular brand and model of tire?
- What is your favourite winter tire?
- Where is the best place to get a set of winter tires/wheels?

Thanks for helping.

purchase that no spare tire kit from bmw. check what is the minimum size wheel you can run on the vehicle.

you can run non run flats, the car wont feel the same, and you wont have the security of being able to drive on them til you are safe to pull over or quickly get to the nearest tire place. you should get that tire inflater kit.

your's being a canadian bmw, should be non tpm, and run on wheel speed sensors.

Thanks for the post.

With regard to this:

Can you dumb it down to the level I'll understand please? I am pretty sure there is a tire pressure monitoring (tpm) on both my cars, but are you saying it is something else?

you have a tpm system, but no tpms sensors.

canadian bmws, excluding a few runs on the e60 5 series, all used the wheel speed sensor to determine if you had a flat or not.

it measures the difference in speed between 2 wheels at which the speed of the wheel turns. if u got a flat, the wheel will spin ever so slighly faster to keep up the same speed of the wheel that is not flat. the difference in the 2 wheels will trigger the tpm system.

in the states, a sensor is placed where the valve stem is on the car. it measures pressure and temperature differences to determine if you have a flat or not.

i didnt exactly dumb it down.

but the outcome is, if you run a seperate set of whee/tires, that are of the same relative size, in canada, you wouldnt need to buy another set of tpms sensors on the valve stems of each wheel, but in the states, you would have to.

Thanks, now I understand what you said there and see that is $200 difference per google search on pricing of those sensors.



To clarify on my first post - I really want to get the same performance as X-Ice 2. Any advice on run flat tires that are just as good?

Internet search for tires by vehicle yields a few Michelin (PA2/3) run-flat, but it seems they are designed to go much faster but aren't necessarily as good in snow. Is that right? I'll be going up mountains for snowboarding...

I assuming your bimmer is 18 inch rims...........you can always decrease to 16 of 17 but thats just me as I prefer more sidewall for winter.

I have used nokian hakkis, goodyear ultra grip ice, bridgestone blizzaks and firestone winter forces. Haven't tried michelin yet but I am trying General altimax for this year, heard good things.

But winter tires I definately purchase again is nokians, and blizzaks. And the one I would never purchase again is winterforce even though the tread life is amazing thats cause the tire compound is much harder so not that great on ice.

IMO run flats are crappy. Harsh ride and more expensive. I would just get some normal snow tires that would fit your current rims and swap them in when the season is right. If you're really scared about blowing up a tire, just go grab a spare tire from bmw.
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Grab some general Altimax, bang for the buck and a highly reputable winter tire.
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I had Michelin PA2's before on one of my old S13's before and liked them, though they could've been a lot better in the snow. Still way better than running all seasons that's for sure. I will be on General Altimax Arctic's when I drive my winter beater again. Drove on them last year and got around just fine, but I can't comment on how good they are in the snow as we barely had any last year. Still a decent cheap tire IMO.
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It seems that getting them in US is still cheaper, I checked tirerack vs KalTire. Any other places I should look at?
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discount tire and discount tire direct
DT has a wide selection. DTDirect only has a couple of tires right now, hopefully they get more because they're cheaper than Discount Tire

I've logged over 20,000kms (each) on a set of Xice2 AND a set of General Altimax Arctics on my Mazdaspeed 6 (AWD) going from Vancouver -> Kelowna -> Big White weekly. I felt the General's rode quieter @ hwy speeds, and I 'think' that the grip was better with the Generals (i.e. when you're backing up a steep hill covered in snow). I bought both sets + mounted @ Discounttireco on Exit 206 of I5 (2 exits before the Seattle Premium Outlets). They price match Tirerack and they didn't scratch any of my wheels.

You can run regular tires in lieu of RFT, but you will need to purchase a repair kit for sure.

Your 328i has every option ticked off, so I'm assuming the brakes are larger than the standard fare. You might want to double check the minimum wheel size for brake clearance.