I'm a proud new owner ( 97 528 ) with a lot of questions-
The wheels on my car are 16 inch because the tire size is 225/55/R16. The
spare that came in the trunk is BMW wheel, but it's a different style. It's
also a 15 inch wheel as the tire is xxx/60/15. The car could not have come
from the factory with this could it? If I had to use this spare would it
hurt my car?
My headlight lenses aren't as clear as they could be. I've used Meguire's
plastic lense polish and it helped some, but not enough. Is there another
brand or something else that works better. I read on a BMW message board
about how to wet sand with 1000 grit them polish but the idea of sanding
bothers me. Does anyone know of other solutions?
Jeff Strickland - 11 Mar 2005 03:54 GMT
I recently purchased a complete set (5) of 17" rims from an M5, my car came
from the factory with 15s. My guess is the previous owner also bought his
car with 15s, and he bought new rims on eBay or equivelent, but did not
bother to buy the 5th rim. So, you have 6 16s on the ground and a 15 in the
trunk.
The headlamp lenses can be cleaned with a product like Mothers California
Gold. My '94 325i also had foggy headlamps, and I cleaned them up with a
light-abrasive polish. I can't say that I actually used the Mothers that I
listed, but it is on my work bench so I used it somewhere ...
> I'm a proud new owner ( 97 528 ) with a lot of questions-
>
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> about how to wet sand with 1000 grit them polish but the idea of sanding
> bothers me. Does anyone know of other solutions?
Dave Plowman (News) - 11 Mar 2005 09:50 GMT
> My headlight lenses aren't as clear as they could be. I've used
> Meguire's plastic lense polish and it helped some, but not enough. Is
> there another brand or something else that works better. I read on a
> BMW message board about how to wet sand with 1000 grit them polish but
> the idea of sanding bothers me. Does anyone know of other solutions?
Use a cutting compound for paint first.

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Dave Plowman dave@davenoise.co.uk London SW
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The Malt Hound - 11 Mar 2005 11:18 GMT
> I'm a proud new owner ( 97 528 ) with a lot of questions-
>
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> polish but the idea of sanding bothers me. Does anyone know of
> other solutions?
If the 16's are sized correctly, you can use the 15" wheel and tire as
an *emergency* spare tire, similarly to the space saver "donut" tires
that come as spares on many new cars. The outer circumference should
be the same size and therefore allow the car to be driven without
screwing up the ABS, etc.
-Fred W
adder1969@yahoo.co.uk - 11 Mar 2005 16:21 GMT
> If the 16's are sized correctly, you can use the 15" wheel and tire as
> an *emergency* spare tire, similarly to the space saver "donut" tires
> that come as spares on many new cars. The outer circumference should
> be the same size and therefore allow the car to be driven without
> screwing up the ABS, etc.
>
> -Fred W
It's not unusual to have a regular size steel wheel as a spare from the
factory.