E46 Non-M Fitment – Staggered and Aggressive

Article | 08/14/2013 by Tom Maloney

Updated on 08/06/2024

edited 6/6/23: Note that our 18x10 ET43 fitment has been discontinued but 18x9.5 ET43 can be substituted for a less aggressive bolt on fitment.

THE FRONT IS 18X9″ ET31 WITH 18×10″ ET43 ON THE REAR

This is a much-wider-than-stock but surprisingly easy fitment with a few suspension mods. No spacers are necessary with this fitment, and as long as you have a minimum of -1.5 degrees of camber* up front and a fender roll in the rear, there are no clearance issues. With a little work to create the additional front camber you can give your E46 a much more aggressive look and significantly increase its handling performance.

It’s not easy to see but our test car is a lot more than a lowered BMW E46 on coilovers. It has had an S54 conversion, custom exhaust, and some very significant suspension modifications. Suffice to say, we want it. But even with its extensive modifications the car does represent this fitment as it will be on any E46 non-M: wide, aggressive, easy, and spacerless.

SPECIFICATIONS

Car/chassis: 2002 E46i 330i.
Wheel model: EC-7, Race Silver, 18X9” ET31 Front and 18X10” ET43 Rear.
Tires: 255/35/18 Toyo R1R front, 265/35/18 Hankook R-S3 rear
- We mixed different tire models in our photos for testing only
Suspension: KW Variant 2 Coilovers.
Camber: -3.1 degrees front and -2.0 degrees rear.
Ride Height: 25.5” front and 25” rear.
Spacers: None.
Fenders and body modifications: Front and rear fenders were already rolled**, although the front was not necessary
Brakes:
- Front – Alcon/Stasis 6-piston 365mm BBK
- Rear – Stock brakes
Clearance
- Front: Rim/Tire – Strut; 10mm, Tire – Fender; 1mm w/o fender roll – 6mm w/ fender roll.
- Rear: Rim/Tire – Strut; 34mm, Tire – Fender; 6.5mm w/o fender roll, 11.5mm w/ fender roll.

* -1.5 degrees of front camber can be achieved through the use of camber plates or by punching out the Strut Locating Pin and sliding the top of the struts inward. ** Rolling fenders means to flatten the inner fender lip against the outer fender. Doing this creates, approximately, an additional 5mm of outer clearance.

Please contact us with any questions you may have.

DETAILS: TIRES, SUSPENSION, CAMBER PLATES, SPACER, BRAKES

WHEELS

The new 18×9″ ET31 front wheel is similar to our previous 18×9″ ET42 wheel which was commonly used with a 10-12mm spacer when meaty tires were used. This new offset accomplishes the same fitment without the need for spacers, and at the same time allowing for an increase in spoke concavity. The 31mm offset is only necessary to achieve the wheel to strut tube clearance required for extra meaty tires or for coilovers with long or cone shaped main springs. An alternate fitment that keeps the 9″ wheel width, and in many cases even a 255/35/18 front tire, an 18×9″ ET42 wheel can be used in combination with a 5mm spacer, allowing the effective offset to be 6mm more conservative.

The 18×10″ ET43 wheel was created to allow for the fitment of a 10″ wheel on the E46 non-m and some E36 applications. It is wider than our 18×9.5″ ET43 wheel, but works for owners who are willing to roll their rear fender and/or add additional negative camber in the rear. The rear is definitely considered a flush fitment, and the 265 size on the 10″ wheel allows for just enough stretch to allow this to fit. On cars with extra low suspension, or low cars with soft springs, marginal tire rub could still occur.

TIRES

The 255/35/18 Toyo R1R in front and 265/35/18 Hankook R-S3 are much wider than stock. Both tires are true to size so you can feel comfortable choosing almost any street tire in these sizes, knowing they will fit easily.

The only tire size consideration is if a meaty tire such as an Toyo R888 will be used. This will run slightly wider than either of the tires used in our test and could cause inner and outer clearance issues.

SUSPENSION

The E46 uses the KW V2 single adjustable coilovers. This fitment with the KW has more than enough clearance from the tire to the spring/spring perch in the front and over 30mm of clearance in the rear. Suffice to say, rubbing on the springs or struts is not a concern.

CAMBER AND CAMBER PLATES

Adding negative camber with camber plates is almost always recommended to customers looking to run a meaty tire in the front of a BMW. It creates more outer clearance without affecting clearance of the strut/spring in the front. “shimming” the strut is possible on some cars to add negative camber, although this method results in a reduction of wheel to strut tube clearance, and is not adjustable.

This E46 has quite a lot of camber in the front, -3.1, but we feel that this fitment would still be fine with -1.5. Coincidentally, you can get -1.5 degrees of camber on an E46 by knocking out the alignment pins on the strut hat. Even though they’re called alignment pins they only align the struts during production and have nothing to do with wheel alignment.

SPACERS

Spacers are not needed for this fitment.

BRAKES

The Alcon/Stasis 6-piston 365mm BBK on the front had 20mm of clearance to the barrel and the spokes. Needless to say, clearance for an OEM front brake isn’t a concern. As expected the rear brakes have no issues.