So 4x 245/35/18 Asymmetric 6 were fitted today on the BOLA FLC 18x8.5 ET41 (no way to confirm this requested ET value as wheels write: "ET25-45" on them). First, the good:
a) This combo fits fine both inside and outside. Inside it's very tight but there is maybe 3-4 mm strut clearance. Outside, there has been no rubbing at all against the fender when driving over the same bumps where on 18x8.0 ET30 with 225/40 there was constant rubbing when compressing hard. Front is practically flush (maybe 1mm left or so) and back is a few mm inside but still no need for spacers whatsoever
b) The 245/35 has brought back some needed arch gap to my car as with H&R springs and the bigger 225/40, there was practically zero arch gap. So even with little loading the tires were hidden inside the arches at the back before.
c) Subjective, but despite my obsession with gloss black alloys for years, the matt gunmetal is such an amazing colour and I am thankful to all the car buddies that insisted on going for that over gloss black. It has given the car a lot of OEM+ aggressiveness without looking "generic/cheap". It also changes so much depending on light angle and intensity from "dark silver" to "light black" without ever looking like any of those two extremes. Even in these photos below under extreme sunlight, they can look almost black from an angle. The gunmetal tone is thankfully a bit on the darker side which I love but the design is clear at all times and never disappearing. I am really in love with how the car looks after this.
d) The steering. It has become noticeably lighter and more direct it was hard to believe it at first and convince myself it's not placebo. Sport+ steering feels like Comfort on the previous winter alloys which were very similar weight to OEM 436M, coming in at 11.7kg each. The FLC were weighted at 8.5kg so a good 3.2kg down per corner. The whole front end feels like a 80kg bag of sand was strapped on there before and now ditched.
All perfect then? Well...
I wrote already about some weight imbalance noticed at the test fit and today they had done the balancing before my arrival to the shop on all 4 trying to get the best results, I don't know how much deviations were present (I can of-course go take a look inside the barrels) but, a small vibration comes on at around 90mph (detected on Autobahn which is very close to me) and goes away at 110mph. It's not strong and thankfully it's at speeds that you can stay away from on daily driving but it still is extremely annoying to have on a brand new set of wheels and brand new set of tires. I will go back for some further balancing, wheel swapping etc but that combined with the fact the bolt holes have some metal burr left on them from drilling, shows a poor/sloppy machining job from BOLA.
Could it be the tires fault? ( a friend suggested this), then what options do I have if I want to completely get rid of it? rotate the tire again relative to the alloy? Machine-rectify the alloy?As i said it's not a huge issue but once you notice it then you are just waiting to notice it again every time you hit those particular speeds and it does my head. Once I was doing these speeds and realized I had not thought about it, and then immediately noticed it 😒
Another friend suggested simply trying a different shop (that fixed a similar issue he had) for a new balancing although I have been satisfied with that particular shop for years so it would be a surprise to find out they could not do it properly this time.
Overall, very happy though especially with fitting (size/ET combo) and how the colour works on the car, as well as the handling benefits but I just want to make this 100% perfect. Pics following: