E34 Wheels

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Hamid Saeed - 29 Jun 2004 17:58 GMT

Hi All,

Can anyone please tell me if I can fit E39 alloy wheels part number 1092209
on an 1995 E34. I know that the offset is different, but I believe that you
can use a spacer. Has anyone out there actually done this? Any and all
comments appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Hamid

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Fred W. - 29 Jun 2004 19:56 GMT

> Hi All,
>
> Can anyone please tell me if I can fit E39 alloy wheels part number 1092209
> on an 1995 E34. I know that the offset is different, but I believe that you
> can use a spacer. Has anyone out there actually done this? Any and all
> comments appreciated.

Hamid,

It's not the offset that is the problem. The bore in the center of the
wheel is used to maintain concentricity of the wheel to the hub. It's
called a "hubcentric" wheel configuration. The hole in the E39 wheel is
bigger than the E34, so yes, you can mount an E39 wheel on an E34 with an
added ring adapter, but many people shy away from using these as it is
easier for the wheel to develop runout than with a solid wheel.

YMMV,
-Fred W

Reply to this Message

Jim Levie - 29 Jun 2004 22:54 GMT

> Hamid,
>
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> added ring adapter, but many people shy away from using these as it is
> easier for the wheel to develop runout than with a solid wheel.

Yep, and until you've had experience with a set of wheels whose
"hubcentric" hole wasn't a match for the wheel hubs you won't truly
appreciate how important that fit is.

A previous owner of my 735i had replaced the BMW wheels with some very
nice looking wheels whose hub opening was a measured 0.013" larger in
diameter. Now that's not a lot, but it was enough for two different tire
shops to give up (one after 6 hours, the other after closer to 8 hours) on
being able to balance the tires off of the car and not have bad vibration
at some speed less than 75mph. While those wheels were on the car the only
way I could get them in balance was to use a shop that could do "on the
car" balancing. They did a great job, but simply removing and replacing a
wheel, taking care to preserve the hub/wheel relationship required
re-balancing of that wheel.

Fortunately the previous owner had kep the BWM wheels and at the next tire
change I went back to the OEM wheels, which aren't a problem to balance
and can be removed and replaced with no problem.

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The instructions said to use Windows 98 or better, so I installed RedHat.

Reply to this Message

Mike G - 01 Jul 2004 19:37 GMT

> > Hi All,
> >
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> added ring adapter, but many people shy away from using these as it is
> easier for the wheel to develop runout than with a solid wheel.

FWIW my E34 is fitted with 17" E39 wheels with ring adapters.
Came with the car, baught s/h, along with a spare set of adaptors. So maybe
they occasionally need replacing.
No problems with balance or runout so far, and the wheels have been off and
on a couple of times.
Mike.

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