Another wheel question

[Striker]

Forgive a newbee question...
I need of bit of reassurance. I've had the 320 for a year or so and the tyres needed changing. A local internet car showroom are preparing for sale most of their Bimmers by first replacing the wheels and tyres as a set.
Their preference was a 19" wheel based the MV11 alloy design.
I have to say having seen them fitted, they look the business.
Needles to say I was persuaded and now have the 19's on with a set of Falken 235x35x19, these replaced the bog standard alloys with 205/55 x16
I was prepared for a harder ride, but if I am honest I did not really notive the difference.
My main concern, having seen the odd thread, is whether I have made a hasty choice

My undedrstanding is that as the car suspension is not a sports set up and the fact that the size of wheels and tyres are the same all round the handling should make little differnce. Am I generally correct?
I think the tyre calculation indicate there is a 4% difference between the two sizes which from what I can see if within the tolerance guidelines.
I would like to stick with them, unless someone is going to tell me they are inherently unsafe.
Also please advise if you can suggest tyre pressures, the old tyres needed 30 on the front and 36 on the rears.

Thanks a lot!

 

[tazza0712]

I don't really understand your question, but as a general response, I don't think what you've done is in any way unsafe. I upgraged my 17s to 19s about a year ago with Falken tyres as well, haven't had any problems. I do have the sports suspension. The ride is slightly harsher than before. As far as tyre pressure goes, I stick to 36psi all round.

 

[MMLJTIGER]

tire pressure

Hi there in UK,

Here in Canada, there are stickers on the door or the B-pillar that give several different tire and wheel options and their respective psi's.

Generally though, I normally set my front tire pressures about 3 pounds lower than the rears.

Hope this helps,
Tiger

 

[Striker]

Thanks for the info. I had been using 32psi and the whole think felt very heavy and unwieldly. Having increased the psi to 36 all round as suggested certainly made a difference.
The trye says max pressure is 50 psi and the 'tyre and wheel bible ' on line suggests using this as the benchmark less 10%, although I think I am reluctant to use 45psi ....Is this just trial and error as there does not appear to be any published BMW figure for my configuation.In fact I would go so far as to say BMW would not recommend increasing to a 19" wheel on a 320i without a sports suspension to support the extra wheel weight and dynamics let alone the pads, discs etc etc. The door pillar sticker only mentions tyre sizes and psi up to an 18" wheel.
My original concern is and still is the safety aspect. I have not seen a standard 320i with this set up and would really apprecaite reasurance from anyone using anything similar.
Thanks chaps.

 

[frolf]

that wheel and tire bible sounds like some bs. if you can't get figures from bmw then there are two ways to figure out what tire pressure to set your tires at. the best way is to use as pyrometer. drive down the road and heat the tires a bit, think drive straight for a while at speed, and then corner a bit to put some heat in the tires (remember to turn both directions). quickly hop out of your car and check the outside, middle, and inside of each tire. most likely you will want to do the fronts and rears on separate runs because tires cool down so fast. what you are looking for are EVEN temperatures, it doesn't really matter what they are as long as they are even or damn close. and obviously if you are getting higher temps on the inside than on the edges you have too much air in the tire, if you have higher temps on the edges than on the inside you are running to low. toe/camber can effect this as well, but this is sort of the best way to do it.

the next method is to grab some chalk and chalk up about 1/8 of your tread, hop in your car and roll it forward a few turns, go back and examine the tread pattern laid down with the chalk. make the call if the middle or the edges looks to heavy or light. it sucks to do, but it is MUCH MUCH better than just picking a number and going with it, which is pretty much where things are at in this thread so far.