What started out as trying to find a replacement center cap for one of my 15" OEM Euroweaves turned into new wheels and tires. I had not been aware that Maxilite started making bolt-on ready 16's for the E30 in the relatively recent past. After a bunch of reading of reviews (largely Porsche guys, and a few folks on here), I decided to take my chances and pull the trigger on a set. These are sold by Bimmerworld and a few other places that I consider to be highly reputable. In the front I am running 7" wide wheels (205/50), and in the rear 8" wide (225/45). The bolt pattern is 4x100mm, and the offsets are perfect (ET25 front, ET28 rear). No more tire rotations for me lol.
Are these forged? No. They are "flow cast" which is apparently a considerably better process than regular casting, but maybe not as good as forging. Normally I would be a little skeptical, but these wheels have TUV approval which is not easy to do, and it means that they are likely to be just fine mechanically. The company Maxilite is Swiss, but the wheels are made in China. Again, my skepticism was rising when I was looking in to these, but BMW and other Euro car makers use all sorts of China-made parts at this point too.
When I received the wheels, they were well packaged and had zero shipping damage. The finish on them was nearly perfect, with one small imperfection in the paint of one wheel that you would only see if you had them off of the car and were really looking hard for it. The center caps are basically copies of the standard Euroweave designs, made from an aluminum waffle plate and injection molded plastic center bits. They do not have as positive of a rotational position lock as the OEM BBS ones because the wheels do not have the little protrusions cast in which nest into the waffle plate. Instead, they have a little plastic nub in the middle which is supposed to catch in a milled recess in the hub section. It works, but not well. I may design some little parts to go in the center section to better lock these into place. So far, with ~125 miles on them, nothing has come loose or rotated.
The only other thing is that the section that the lug bolts go through is like 1mm thinner, so the ends of the lug bolts were rubbing on the front driver's side heat shield behind the brake rotor. This is not really the fault of the wheels since that shield got bent by me several years ago. I just bent it back out a tiny bit and the noise was gone. I did not have this issue on any of the other corners.
So, overall I would give these a 9 out of 10. They look awesome, the quality is great, and I love having more tire options. The center caps are the only thing that brings my review down one point. On the upside, the center caps are made by Maxilite and are easily replaced, unlike the OEM ones!
I did not weigh these, but AFAICT they weigh in within a couple of pounds of the OEM 16" weave wheels. Since I did not take the tires off of my 15" Euroweaves there was no point in doing a comparison.
Here are some pics of the wheels on the car after it got detailed. I am rocking OEM springs + Bilstein HD shocks, which sort of puts the ride height up in offroad territory lol. Not scraping in driveways is worth it.
Are these forged? No. They are "flow cast" which is apparently a considerably better process than regular casting, but maybe not as good as forging. Normally I would be a little skeptical, but these wheels have TUV approval which is not easy to do, and it means that they are likely to be just fine mechanically. The company Maxilite is Swiss, but the wheels are made in China. Again, my skepticism was rising when I was looking in to these, but BMW and other Euro car makers use all sorts of China-made parts at this point too.
When I received the wheels, they were well packaged and had zero shipping damage. The finish on them was nearly perfect, with one small imperfection in the paint of one wheel that you would only see if you had them off of the car and were really looking hard for it. The center caps are basically copies of the standard Euroweave designs, made from an aluminum waffle plate and injection molded plastic center bits. They do not have as positive of a rotational position lock as the OEM BBS ones because the wheels do not have the little protrusions cast in which nest into the waffle plate. Instead, they have a little plastic nub in the middle which is supposed to catch in a milled recess in the hub section. It works, but not well. I may design some little parts to go in the center section to better lock these into place. So far, with ~125 miles on them, nothing has come loose or rotated.
The only other thing is that the section that the lug bolts go through is like 1mm thinner, so the ends of the lug bolts were rubbing on the front driver's side heat shield behind the brake rotor. This is not really the fault of the wheels since that shield got bent by me several years ago. I just bent it back out a tiny bit and the noise was gone. I did not have this issue on any of the other corners.
So, overall I would give these a 9 out of 10. They look awesome, the quality is great, and I love having more tire options. The center caps are the only thing that brings my review down one point. On the upside, the center caps are made by Maxilite and are easily replaced, unlike the OEM ones!
I did not weigh these, but AFAICT they weigh in within a couple of pounds of the OEM 16" weave wheels. Since I did not take the tires off of my 15" Euroweaves there was no point in doing a comparison.
Here are some pics of the wheels on the car after it got detailed. I am rocking OEM springs + Bilstein HD shocks, which sort of puts the ride height up in offroad territory lol. Not scraping in driveways is worth it.
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