I was looking at Alpina or replica alloys on ebay and noticed a pair advertised as genuine with the Alpina part number, but with the valve visible on the rim, not under the cap. I thought the valve had been hidden on all alpina alloys since the mid 80's, anyone know if some have been produced since then with a visible valve?
Alpina Alloys
Feb 14, 2006
6 Replies
I've never seen a wheel with the valve anywhere other than out on the rim. Now I'm curious as I've heard a few people with newer M3's (late 90's - 03's) that brag about Alpina wheels and the valve has always been out on the rim.
I've seen rim mounted valves on 16" wheels being sold as ALPINA by a BMW dealer and on photos of early hubcapped wheels on E28/30/34(?)/36 so it seems they made some, 16" and early 17"[1] but not AFAIK 18"+...
I've never seen 16"s with hidden valves, nor 18"+s with visible ones.
...I'm going to have a good look at the next 17"s I see though.
My B10 keeps its valves under the lockable hubcaps, air gets to the tyre via a hollow spoke:
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...no valve on the rim.
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[1] In "BMW ALPINA" by James Taylor there are photos of wheels of the same pattern as mine with valves on the rims of 16" (E30 B6 3.5S) and
17" (E36 B6 3.5, E34 B10 Bi-Turbo) and 17"s with hidden valves on an E34 B10 V8.
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I'd agreed to buy the car before noticing. :)
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I took a photo of what lurks beneath the hubcap in case anyone is interested:
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Thanks for that. It appears Alpina have a Classic and a Softline version of the wheel. They look pretty much the same but one has the hidden valve and one doesn't.
Cheers.
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