About to order these winter tyres, thoughts

[PeterS 285]

Good news...BMW will now sell you some 17" winter wheels / tyres for £900  

[AZURES3 106]

Problem is it becomes 225 all round and feedback from forums are the traction control light is very common lol

[cruiser647 1,493]

You could always wear slippers instead of the hobnail boots you seem to drive in......  Over the winter that is anyway! 

[PeterS 285]

7 hours ago, AZURES3 said:

Problem is it becomes 225 all round and feedback from forums are the traction control light is very common lol

Worse than that, they seem to be 205/50/17!!  Seems like it could be fun to me

 

 

[PeterS 285]

Mind you, judging by the temperature the tyres reached *after* half an hours driving, perhaps I should fit winter tyres...it's cold down here

 

 

[Andy_Bangle 3,139]

18" 640M with Michelin Pilot A4, 235's square or Pilot Alpin PA4 in the stock sizes on the stock wheels seems to be the preferred M2 winter setup.

[CJ92 33]

I use a set of OEM X117" steelies with 225/45/17 winter rubber, for when winter bites.

Still running on the mpss at the moment with no real issues.

 

[PeterS 285]

What did you do in the end AzureS3? 

I had a set of style 380/ fitted at the weekend, with continental tyres and the TPMS valves. The wheels were second hand (from babybimmer.com) and the sensors aftermarket.  But they were coded to the car before despatch, and after reinitialising the system all working fine!  They're 205/50/17, and feel more surefooted in wet conditions. Full throttle acceleration on dry roads on the other hand does highlight rather more twitchiness than on the 18" Michelins!  

Looks odd on 17" wheel mind you

[NewNiceMrMe 3,155]

With the 30 metres of snow you had in the South, I'm amazed any of you are still alive. 

The BBC and Sky should be shot.

[PeterS 285]

[PeterS 285]

Oh and not sure what my iPhone's done to that picture...  

but just look at the grip in Sainsbury's car park 

Edited January 16, 2017 by PeterS

[AZURES3 106]

I was feeling all smug still running with -7 in the mornings on a few occasions and MPSS tyres, taking it easy obviously. Then last Thursday the wife called to say it was coming down heavy. We live near the highest point in a Hampshire and it seems to have its own weather system lol

The journey home on slush and snow on the MPSS was scary as hell, they don't like the cold, prefer the dry and felt just wrong. I had 2 scary sideways moments at 20 mph that definitely got my attention

Got to our road which is on an incline I was met with this toboggan run. The snow remained 2" deep and turned to sheet ice on Friday and wasn't gone until Sunday afternoon, then the car moved  

The wife's Tiguan on winter tyres is amazing traction but boring after a day.

 

 

[PeterS 285]

I have to admit that it was a cold / wet road moment that resulted in me fitting winter wheels / tyres.  It was on an innocuous roundabout on the A27 / A29 intersection at Fontwell, at slowish speed. It's a largish roundabout, with a slight downhill slope when coming from the west and heading south.  Which I was.  I've driven round it literally thousands of times in RWD cars, diesel and petrol, BMW and Merc, manual and auto. Last Monday night, cold but just above freezing, and damp resulted in the most spectacular, though unintentional, drift round 270 degrees of it as I entered from the west and headed south.  Complete luck that I didn't actually spin the car, so I decided that the michelins weren't best suited to winter conditions, even in the south 

[Ian_C 420]

Nice!  Glad you gathered it up!  Dashcam capture it? 

[Ian_C 420]

40 minutes ago, AZURES3 said:

The wife's Tiguan on winter tyres is amazing traction but boring after a day.

Cannot imagine Haldex allows you to have any fun in the snow?

[billy2shots 900]

Or the dry.....

[cruiser647 1,493]

Expect the unexpected.

Then enjoy the sliding and the opposite lock! 

[Mook 1,166]

10 hours ago, Ian_C said:

Cannot imagine Haldex allows you to have any fun in the snow?

Nope - Haldex is useless in the snow 

 

[NewNiceMrMe 3,155]

Azure - we had 2" of snow too, as some on here have seen via Facebook.

The 5 series, on its standard tyres, didn't slip once.

Just saying.

Southern wuss. 

Honestly, 2" of snow?  

I have a friend who lives out in the middle of Northumberland and drives a 2 series (220d).  He woke to discover the snow half way up his 18" alloy wheels.  He proceeded to go out, shovel it away as best he could - and then drove to Edinburgh.  

You don't work for the BBC by any chance, do you? 

Edited January 17, 2017 by NewNiceMrMe

[AZURES3 106]

I think the issue is my lead food and more power than my old 520 D

To be honest its all about the tyres, the MPSS is great in the warmer dry weather but wet and cold weather or both they keep you awake. Show them some snow, ice and slush and they just want to spit you off the road.

I do work in media

[Ian_C 420]

9 hours ago, Mook said:

Nope - Haldex is useless in the snow 

 

Hahaha quality.  That car will no doubt have a Haldex controller.  Smudge proved on camera you just cannot make a stock R32 do doughnuts!  It refused point blank to permanently lock the clutch to lock the rears to the fronts!

[chasdrury 167]

You can doughnut an 8L S3 without a controller so why can't you do a r32?

[Mook 1,166]

36 minutes ago, Ian_C said:

Hahaha quality.  That car will no doubt have a Haldex controller.  Smudge proved on camera you just cannot make a stock R32 do doughnuts!  It refused point blank to permanently lock the clutch to lock the rears to the fronts!

That's because Smudge can't drive.

I proved time and again that you can donut stock Mk4 and Mk5 R32s.  And the Mk7 R as well - on tarmac...

[PeterS 285]

10 hours ago, NewNiceMrMe said:

Azure - we had 2" of snow too, as some on here have seen via Facebook.

The 5 series, on its standard tyres, didn't slip once.

Just saying.

Southern wuss. 

Honestly, 2" of snow?  

In Azures defence, the Michelins on the 235i are noticeably less grippy in cold / wet conditions than whatever tyres were fitted to the 520d I had a few years ago.  That was quite happy in proper snow, never mind the pathetic conditions on the roundabout I almost lost the 235i. Which is a road that I've driven round in many RWD cars in far worse conditions than I experienced last week  

The absolute torque figures are, I think, fairly similar for both cars (well, within 20% of each other) though I've no idea what the actual torque curves looks like, but either way either way in normal use the car gets power down and feels more planted on the winter tyres than the Michelins on cold/damp roads.  Though, on a dry sunny day like today when, for experimental purposes only, I floored it on an empty straight stretch of road it did struggle to get the power down   Though, that's not the point of them really is it, and they're almost certainly not 'essential', but then neither's the car 

[PeterS 285]

21 hours ago, Ian_C said:

Nice!  Glad you gathered it up!  Dashcam capture it? 

I'd like to claim it was skill, but it wasn't. It was luck