e90 wheels on e46 -pics attached

[Filter_nz 0]

Maybe one for the archive -e90 wheels fitted to my e46 323i

Took a punt and brought some e90 Style 161 BMW wheels, 17x8 to replace the 16x7 on my e46.

NB: I purposely brought 4 fronts as e90 rears are 8.5†and I didn’t want to run a staggered setup.

If you’d prefer staggered I understand it will also work no worries.

Offset for an e46 with 8" wide rim should be 47, the e90 is 34 so fitting these rims will look like I'm running 13mm spacers bringing the wheels close to the fender lip and widening the stance 26mm.

Fitted with no issues and drives like a new car. Highly recommend.

The purpose of this thread is to help anyone who is considering different wheels for their e46 know that e9x wheels are an option and fit and ride really well. I would say even if you’re going with new aftermarket rims anything 8†wide will look best with an offset of 35-40mm. The factory 47mm at 8†look to sunken in IMO.

Edited November 20, 2010 by Bradley_nz

[joshnz 2]

Very nice

[my_e36 43]

+1

[Jamez 2147483647]

looks good, what camera/lens are you using?

[Filter_nz 0]

looks good, what camera/lens are you using?

Cheers.

Nothing too flash, it's the wifes car and camera

Canon DSLR 400D, which isn't anything flash as far as DSLR. Really the lens does all the work.

Those pics I used a Canon Prime EF 85mm 1:1.8.

Usually I'd take a car shot at about f2.2-2.8 (small enough that most of the car is focued but large enough t to blur out the background i.e My Mondeo wagon in the bg on last pic) but because of the bright overcast day I think they're at f3.5 ISO 100

[Filter_nz 0]

]For a laugh, I lowered it in Photoshop to give me an idea of the final look.

Edited November 20, 2010 by Bradley_nz

[joshnz 2]

110% more awesome, those wheels are actually pretty sweet for oem

[zenetti 0]

I would say even if you’re going with new aftermarket rims anything 8†wide will look best with an offset of 35-40mm. The factory 47mm at 8†look to sunken in IMO.

Correct. Most of the wheel we import for 3 series BMW are in that offset range. E46 do have big guards and the factory wheel does tend not to fill out the guards that well. This is because of the combination of the offset and the relatively narrow wheels they come out on factory.

BTW: Welcome to the forum, car looks really good.