Information needed

[d.lundigan]

Just bought an 2009 x5. It has 20" wheels, anyone know the tyre sizes ???


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[X5Sport]

Genuine wheels or copies?

Genuine Style 214s are...
front: 275/40R20 106Y XL
rear:  315/35R20 110Y XL

Ideally should be '*' marked and run flat.  Approx £800 - £1,000 a set.  More from a BMW Dealer 

[d.lundigan]

[quote="X5Sport"]
Genuine wheels or copies?

Genuine Style 214s are...
front: 275/40R20 106Y XL
rear:  315/35R20 110Y XL

Ideally should be '*' marked and run flat.  Approx £800 - £1,000 a set.  More from a BMW Dealer 
[/quote]
What's with the whole star marked and run flat. Another fake rip off by any chance [emoji23]


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[Alan Gunn]

Star marked tyres are exactly the same circumference to avoid dif windup.
I personally don't have them fitted on my e53.
This video tell's you all about them well sort of lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2s34tRfQwI

[X5Sport]

[quote="d.lundigan"]
[quote="X5Sport"]
Genuine wheels or copies?

Genuine Style 214s are...
front: 275/40R20 106Y XL
rear:  315/35R20 110Y XL

Ideally should be '*' marked and run flat.  Approx £800 - £1,000 a set.  More from a BMW Dealer 
[/quote]
What's with the whole star marked and run flat. Another fake rip off by any chance [emoji23]
[/quote]

If all of the wheels & tyres are the same size it isn't an issue, but with a staggered setup (common on most E53s) you need to keep the tyre circumference with 1.5% front/rear.  '*' marked do that by default at new.  Non '*' marked could be more than 30mm out and that is per tyre revolution.  That as said above winds up the transmission and can destroy either a diff or transfer box.  Several owners have suffered expensive failures and others have had odd noises and grinding which has gone away as soon as the correct tyre type was fitted. 

It doesn't happen to everyone but is is happening more frequently now the cars are worth less and spending a large proportion of the value on tyres gets harder to justify.

BMW transmissions seem to be very 'soft' and unable to put up with what most other AWD cars have no problem with.  Audi & Merc have similar marking systems too.  On a newer car, use on non '*' tyres can result in BMW rejecting warranty claims.