E46 Rear Tyres Rubbing

[colinnorman]

Just bought 2000 E46 323 Ci convertiblw with hard top. Don't think it has lowered suspension. Tyres are 225/40/18 front and 255/35/18 rear. The o/s rear tyre rubs on the high point of the inside of the wheel arch - o/s looks to be about an inch lower than n/s. My garage says the wheels might be 5 series - but should that make a difference? They tried 3 lots of new springs - standard, touring and heavy duty but didn't solve the problem. Any ideas what the problem might be? This is my first BMW and I am no mechanic ! Can't seem to find a previous thread with this issue. Help please!

[BigAl]

Welcome Colin, If you go to Kwik-Fit site or something similar, put your reg plate in, it will tell you what tyres your model uses,

Has the car been in an accident and the o/s rear bodywork is slightly damage, if it is only side that is where the problem needs to be located,

hopefully someone might be able to give you better advice, good luck with resolving the problem, enjoy the forum.

[Snypa-D]

Welcome to BMWOC :)

[mart77]

if they are wheels off a 5 series the offset is going to be wrong.can we have a bigger picture?

[IanIOM]

Bigger Photo will help, but yes 5 series wheels are the wrong off set!

[colinnorman]

OH DEAR..................DOES THAT MEAN GETTING NEW RIMS THAT FIT?? OR CAN OFSET BE MODIFIED............CAR IS WITH GARAGE AT PRESENT BUT HERE ARE SOME PICS............THANKS FOR ADVIVE SO FAR

[colinnorman]

THIS MIGHT BE BIGGER PIC?

[IanIOM]

I am sure they are E60 m5 reps, although im sure Snypa-D will correct me, really without taking a wheel off and finding out what off set is stamped into it, we are playing a guessing game

[colinnorman]

ALMOST CONVINCED MYSELF THAT I NEED TO GET E46 WHEELS ! I KNOW OF SET OF ACS BUT THEY ARE 8.5J WITH ET43 OFFSET.........WOULD LOOK GOOD WITH MY ACS BODY KIT.............BUT CAN I FIT 8" TYRES (FRONT) AS WELL AS 8.5" ( REAR) TO THESE AS ALL 4 ARE 8.5J

IF EXISTING E60 M5 WHEELS ARE REPLICAS HOW MUCH MIGHT THEY BE WORTH ( GOOD CONDITION) WITHOUT TYRES??

[Snypa-D]

TBH Im fairly clueless on this one mate.Aktho I do know that quite a lot BMs sit lower on the drivers side,not sure why altho Im pretty sure somebody did tell me once,lol.mine sits lower on the o/s too ???

[colinnorman]

thanks for all earlier responses. got this fixed by swapping for wheels with correct off-set - surprising what a few mm difference makes -- where have I heard that before?! O/S still looks a bit lower but not rubbing on wheel arch. cheers.