Re: Durability of 18" M-parallels question........ (archive)

After spending several years in the DC area I know the roads in the Mid-Atlantic states take a beating in the winter. However, your situation sounds dramatic even if you drive rural roads. Have you considered the possibility of it being the tires or balancing rather than the rims themselves?

I'm perhaps overly cautious as I try to avoid all road-hazards when driving to prevent any potential rim/tire damage. Being a forged rim it should be as durable, if not more so, than any other 18" rim on the market. Unless you are hitting every pot hole in the road and know the rims are damaged, I'd consider checking the trueness of the tires (are they out of round of flat spotted) and the balancing first.

If the roads you drive on are the culprit of the damage, you might consider going back to a 17" rim as more tire sidewall will lessen the potential damage to the rims.

I personally think the M Parallel is the best looking rim for the E34 M5, so I would have them repaired if they were untrue and avoid any road hazards that could do any damage in the future. I'd also guess that you can find a reputable shop closer than Dallas to minimize the down time. Any shop should be able to turn them in a week for you, regardless of their backlog of work. Unfortunately, the shipping gets real costly to expedite.

Hope this helps, perhaps it may provide you with a less serious problem if either of the area's I mentioned were overlooked.

Regards,

Ken Little

'91 M5 Mauritius Blue
'91 M5 Alpine White

For those of you who have owned the 18" M-parallels on your M5, the ones that came on the '95 M5, have you had problems with these wheels bending easily??

All four of my authentic BMW wheels are somewhat bent out of true, some much worse than others, but bad enough to where my car won't ride smooth at all. I need to make a decision about sending them off to be fixed to where they are true again or not. If I do, I have to ship each wheel to Dallas seperately, roughly taking a month for all four.

If not, I either have to replace them with OEM wheels (VERY EXPENSIVE), buy the imitations, or just give up the M-parallel wheel all together (which I love) and get something else.

Need help and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks
Robert Collins

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