[Trio]

Hi forum, I have a 2023 X6M and have ordered aftermarket wheels. When trying to place the tire order, the tire shop told me to call BMW to confirm my specs wouldn't damage transmission transfer case. (I'm looking to do 315/30/22 square set up on 22x11s).

So I called BMW dealership and the service advisor there told me his 20+yr professional advise is to not put any aftermarket wheels on the M models. "They're high performance machines specifically calibrated to the wheels they come with." He said that he's seen countless issues with balancing and vibrations that people come back with.

I wanted to get you all's thoughts on this. Are they just being overly cautious? trying to scare me? Have you all seen more issues after going to aftermarket wheels?

[Jeff J]

Well, if you put cheap junk wheels on that aren't round and don't balance them, sure. But I'm betting that's not what you plan to do...

The transfer case concerns the dealer hinted at come from having different rolling diameters front and rear. The X5M comes stock with a 1% difference front-to-rear, which also happens to be the conventional wisdom on max allowable difference. Your square setup has a 0% difference front-to-rear, so no issues there.

Where you might run into trouble is a 315 on the front. There's precious little clearance in front for wider tires, so you might rub. Carefully managing the offsets may help, but I can't tell you what they should be; someone on here might. I know, however, that at least one European member here is running 315/25r23 square and claims no rubbing, so maybe it'll be fine, particularly if you don't lower the car from stock.

I know the stock wheels are an inch smaller in front to gain extra tire sidewall height, which supposedly helped with handling. I suspect you won't notice the difference unless you're on the track.

The dealer has an obligation to 1) Sell more BMW-branded stuff (which your aftermarket wheels won't be, I suspect), and 2) protect themselves from attempted warranty claims due to non-stock equipment. Both may be in play here. I wouldn't worry too much - plenty of us on here have aftermarket wheels, and I'm not aware of many that have had issues if they've kept to less than 1% difference in rolling diameter.

[Sevn86]

Don't have an X6M but every vehicle I've owned has had aftermarket wheels and tires minus the Rivian (only offroad tires) and I've had no issues. I think you should be fine as long as your wheels are from a quality brand. I do plan to add aftermarket wheels to my X5 at some point in the near future.

[eelnoraa]

Dealer is as usual food of sh*t. That so called 20 years of experience he spent in toilet.

Assuming you put on quality wheels, the car doesn’t even know. All the car see os rotation of the axles. If all axles rotate at the same rate and same as oem rational speed car doesn’t know.

[blackoutF15]

Service advisers are just coordinators. People on here know way more about BMW’s than them. I have never heard of any mechanical issues caused by aftermarket wheels as long as they are within the size tolerance

[e30 4 life!]

Originally Posted by Trio

... the service advisor there told me his 20+yr professional advise is to not put any aftermarket wheels on the M models. "They're high performance machines specifically calibrated to the wheels they come with." He said that he's seen countless issues with balancing and vibrations that people come back with.

It's really sad that some people feel the need to feed bullshit to people looking for an honest opinion.

[Trio]

thank you all for the replies. It's really helpful to get the sanity check. I suspected it was all bull s**t but good to get confirmation.

Jeff J I agree on the clearance in the front with 315. That is what i'm slightly concerned about. But I got a +20 offset which will have the same affect of having 17mm spacers, while giving more clearance from the suspension.

[hufington]

I have installed forged wheels on all my BMWs and had no issues. The one car (my '16 550i) that I drove on stock wheels had 3 bent wheels.

[Jeff J]

Originally Posted by Trio

Jeff J I agree on the clearance in the front with 315. That is what i'm slightly concerned about. But I got a +20 offset which will have the same affect of having 17mm spacers, while giving more clearance from the suspension.

More clearance to the suspension, yes. But less clearance to the fender liner when turning. Again, I think you’ll be ok. Maybe check a clearance calculator like the one on tiresize.com? You can put in your sizes and see how much things have really moved.

[155ND]

22" (all round) HREs on my 2020 X5MC, no issues at all in 3 years ... they look MUCH better than stock wheels IMHO too!

[nightwolf]

Originally Posted by 155ND

22" (all round) HREs on my 2020 X5MC, no issues at all in 3 years ... they look MUCH better than stock wheels IMHO too!

my man. about to order some HREs myself - which ones did you get? what size rubber are you running al around?

[azm3]

Originally Posted by nightwolf

my man. about to order some HREs myself - which ones did you get? what size rubber are you running al around?

I recently ordered some HRE 22"s (22 x10.5 et35, 22 x11.5 et40) and plan to keep the OEM tire size in the rear, and run a 295/30R22 in the front, which is -0.3% off of stock.

There are matching Pilot Sport's, Conti Sports and Pzero's in these sizes.

[X5MC4ME]

Can’t blame the dealer. So many guys get wheels at a store where they don’t pay attention to offset, size mismatch, etc. I think carefully doing your homework will prevent any problems…but most “wheel” shops don’t do it.

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