[GTO]

Recent visit to the shop as the rear-left rim was bent and caused a slow puncture:


The stupidest, dumbest new trend among Indian cars is that of large rims with low-profile tyres. Single advantage = looks. On the disadvantages front though, I could write a damn book! Stiffer ride, easy to damage the wheels, easy to damage the tyres, more expensive replacements etc.

Please do read my detailed thread (Tall tyres & regular wheels versus low-profile tyres & large wheels) on the topic. 84% of enthusiasts voted against this idiotic trend that is just not for India and its broken, potholed roads. Read here (18" wheels of my car are troublesome | Frequent tyre damages | EDIT: Moved to 17-inchers) about the saga of a Volvo owner who sensibly moved to 17-inchers

My car sees a lot of highway running (two road-trips in the last month itself) and wheel repairs are now a bi-annual affair for me. If I could, I would move to 17-inch rims in a jiffy, but I cannot because I have 650 Nm of torque going to the rear wheels. The 275 mm tyres slip & slide around noticeably. 245 mm tyres in the 17" size at the rear aren't even an option. The car won't have grip. Further, am not sure if there will be enough clearance for the 530d's brakes.

The challenges:

• Two bent rims minimum per year due to lots of highway running. Luckily, I haven't faced a damaged tyre yet (touches wood).

• 4,000 - 5,000 bucks on repair costs every time. That's 10,000 a year on wheel repair alone.

• Running on a skinny space saver when the regular wheel is damaged & driving like my grandmother in the middle lane.

• Time wasted in dealing with punctures, swapping to the spare, driving at 80 km/h on the spare, sending wheels for repairs, co-ordinating etc.

• Now, a new problem came up. One of my wheels has been repaired so much that it became structurally weak! Sent it to two wheel experts and both of them said "it cannot be repaired further". 8 years of repairing them has taken its toll.

• Meanwhile, the heroes at Kia (Seltos X-Line), Hyundai (Alcazar), Toyota (2021 Fortuner) & others continue to inconvenience their customers by launching variants with 18-inch wheels. Look ma, how awesome it looks in the brochure - who cares about the real world where our customers will be harassed ? Mercedes even gave me an S-Class with 20-inch wheels. Drove to a hill station close by, had to encounter rough roads (not even a pothole) and here's what happened. Good luck taking your S-Class on a Mumbai-Goa run. S-Pressos & Santros were overtaking me on the way back home:


The solution:

• I plan to keep the 530d for another couple of years. Hence, instead of buying a single wheel, I actually bought a FULL SPARE SET on OLX. What a colossal waste of money, just to have those 18-inch wheels. No choice though = all of my 4 rims have been repaired several times and soon, the others will be unrepairable too. Luckily, the used set of 4 wheels that I bought is flawless and the price was fair (60 grand). But not everyone has the spare storage space.

• If your car allows a swap to 16 or 17-inchers, please do so for the robustness & practicality. It'll be the best automotive decision you made this year!

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Tyre & wheels forum!

[VW2010]

Makes economical sense and practical sense. On a German road upsizing is even ok. For our Indian roads neither the big rims nor the run flat makes sense. It's good to have but if we get a chance to downsize and get regular tyres I would always take that route. Purely because of our roads.


Problem with bent rims are exponentially visible when you start touching highway speeds. The vibration and shuddering makes you hate your vehicle. I had to change rims in Jetta for same reason.

Beyond a point even repair is not a viable solution and you have to spend over 40k for decent rims in non OEM. OEM on BMW should cost double I guess.

[Vid6639]

Can you please wrap those wheels in plastic or bubble wrap so they don't have aluminum corrosion in open terrace/garage.

[Dr.AD]

Very good points GTO. Totally agree with all your points. I have friends who own BMWs who have also bought spare set of wheels just like you. It is a common pain.

Luckily, my 320d has 17" wheels with 225/50/R17 tyres. From my 3 years of experience of using the car on all sorts of highway and rural drives (including some terrible roads), I found this to be a good compromise. The tyres are not so high profile to make them look bad on this car, and at the same time not so low profile to get me in troubles on bad roads.

However, even with 17" wheels, I have had my share of bent rims. Luckily, no tyre damage yet (touch wood), but bent rims, yes! In fact, my BMW SA told me that almost all cars that come in for service have bent rims. Most of the times it is so minor that you can live with that, but theoretically the cars do have bent rims. I feel bent rims is a problem with BMW alloy wheel designs as much as with lower profile tyres.

I have heard that the new wheel design on M340i (for example) is much stronger and even with lower profile tyres, those wheels do not get bent.

But yes, in general 17" wheels seem ideal for Indian conditions and anything bigger than that is asking for trouble. I love the 18" BMW Style 397 alloys, and I thought many times of getting those. They look the best on F30 3-series. But exactly this thought mentioned in this thread has kept me away from even trying 18" wheels.

[Axe77]

If you're anyway buying a full set, would you not rather consider buying a full set in 17" with tubeless tyres and simply discard the existing set. I know its costlier (for the added cost of tyres) but isn't that more practical from a peace of mind perspective? Specially since you regularly do long / out of station drives.

If I'm not mistaken the current X3 also comes with 19 inchers. Surely that's going to be a disaster right, if even 18s are not holding up? Any thoughts on this one? Haven't heard too many gripes from X3 owners so just wondering why that's not caused as much issues.

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by GTO

rear-left rim was bent
- Two bent rims minimum per year due to lots of highway running

Originally Posted by VW2010

For our Indian roads neither the big rims nor the run flat makes sense

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

However, even with 17" wheels, I have had my share of bent rims

I'd say that it is the aspect ratio (sidewall height) that has a role to play here rather than the rim diameter. An aspect ratio less than 60 isn't good for our roads. Except with the 2016 Crysta ZX that had 55 profile tyres, Toyota has by and large been offering cars with above 60 aspect ratios for their other offerings here. In fact, the old Fortuner with 265/65R17 and the old Altis with 195/65R15 were the best. Even with the 65 profile, the old Fortuner was still rather bumpy. I think it is important for manufacturers to look at conditions in various geographies and choose rims+tyres suitably.

[Hayek]

Not had problems with the 18” rims running 245/50 R18 run flats on my X3 so far. Suspect part of the problem with your 530d is the low profile nature with the staggered set up. With 275/40, your sidewall height is just 110 mm VS the 122.5 mm I have on the X3. Guess the 10% difference in sidewall height matters. Of course, even the narrower profile tyre on the 520d at 245/45 has the same sidewall height of 110 that you have.

[Vitruvius]

Originally Posted by vigsom

I'd say that it is the aspect ratio that has a role to play here rather than the rim diameter. An aspect ratio less than 60 isn't good for our roads.

I'm assuming by aspect ratio you mean sidewall thickness. That's true.
My car is an i20 with 195/55 r16 and the ride is noticeably harsher than my wife's celerio with a thicker sidewall. Plus, I've had a sidewall bulge within 6 months of new Yokohama earth1s I bought a few months ago.
I drive on Mars so my car doesn't see much of a good tarmac, and I feel thicker tires are way better for my back.

[aargee]

I've learnt one more lesson - Indian potholed roads + alloy wheels + speed drives = disaster!!

Best is steel wheels for such bad roads; though they get bent & air leaks like alloys, just one hard hit with a hammer & they're fixed for a very cheap labor. Have a good aspect ratio on the tires, there won't be even bent rims in first place.

Edit:

Originally Posted by vigsom

I'd say that it is the aspect ratio that has a role to play here rather than the rim diameter. An aspect ratio less than 60 isn't good for our roads.

100% true & well said!

[androdev]

While looks certainly play a role, the increased power does require larger rims due to larger brakes and wider tires. To provide high profile tires on larger rims, you need bigger wheel wells - like Rolls Royce - which may look very odd.

I think all tolled highways are in pretty good shape. Remote village roads are also pretty decent and if there are bad sections, they remain bad for long stretches so you can drive cautiously. The real culprits are urban roads and high density non tolled roads closer to big cities. TN and KL usually have very good roads. KA, AP, TS require caution. I have developed some sort of sixth sense about Indian road conditions and I fear Bangalore the most! I also try to avoid driving in the nights and under poor visibility.

The problem is not with BMW wheels. I consider BMW brand to be #1 for mechanical solidity. RFTs contributed a lot to this bad reputation. Also BMW can't be driven slow Poor BMW gets a lot of blame, but if other brand cars are driven like a typical BMW, we will be seeing things far worse than bent rims.

I keep both 17" and 19" wheels for my S class and I try to use both. It's a bit of healthy work out on a lazy Sunday to charge tires. On good roads and at higher speeds, 19" wheels definitely feel far superior. They also look way better, it's hard to accept the 17" looks all year around.

[Santoshbhat]

Quite surprised to note that you've been facing so many bent rim issues on your 18s. My X3 came with 18 inchers from the factory with 245/50/18 RFTs. I ran those for about a year and half before switching to tubeless as I found the RFTs to be quite harsh in terms of the ride quality. No bent rims in that period with RFTs nor in the next 3 years with tubeless.

I know you would cringe just at the thought of this, but I went ahead and got staggered 19" BBS rims on (245/45 + 275/40). Almost 2 years on these rims and touchwood, no issues. I also do a lot of highway driving and Bangalore roads these days are as bad as it gets. The lightweight BBS rims have made the car feel more agile and nimble compared to before for sure.

I do believe BMW bent rims and RFTs have a deep connection. These RFTs are just not meant for our imperfect roads. Their ability to run at zero pressures and safety during tyre blowouts are all fine, but they simply can't abosrb the impact when we hit cracks and potholes hard. The hard sidewalls transfer the impact on to the rims and naturally they get bent. Do consider getting high quality aftermarket rims like BBS. They are known to make some of the strongest and toughest rims in the industry.

[akshay4587]

I am running on 225/45/17 on my 3, and I am scared of blow outs and rim damage too. I believe anything below 50 profile, is frankly not suitable for our roads.
Btw, Don't you think getting a 17" tyres and wheel set up would have been a better idea. you could just swap the whole set for longer drives and kept 18's for cruising around in the city?

These wheels may eventually end up getting damaged too?

[Kosfactor]

Some slo-mo of what your low profile tyre is going to deal with.

https://youtu.be/FBdRy0utyaM

[redcruiser]

curious question!!
How do you detect bent rims (minor ones) without taking the help of Service center guys?