BMW 3-Series Run Flat Tires

be325

I am very grateful to all who responded and are still responding to my original question: "...new tire and after a nail?." Thanks and we all are much wiser and more informed about practicality of Run-Flats.
RFTires are a fiasco except when your tire finds a nail on a narrow bridge and you have to continue driving or ruin the tire and often a rim with the regular tire.
I will visit showrooms where good cars are sold with regular tires.
Thanks again.

cdnpinhead

If you lease, you can take the RFT's off & replace them with real tires sooner rather than later. Toward the end of the lease the GFT's will be well worn & you can put the nearly-new RFT's on for the return ceremony. You would have had to replace the original tires at some point during the lease anyway.

If you buy, do the same thing & sell the RFT's on E-Bay. Even with RFT's & no dipstick, the 3 is still at the top of my list if I had to replace my car tomorrow.

adethier

check out the new audi a5 -- it has a spare and is a 'looker'
I haven't yet driven it as it is not in showrooms until next month here in california. However, this might just be the car to get me to switch from BMWs... at least until they start putting spares/donuts again.

dt63944

You've gotten good wear on your RFT's. I only have about 4K on my 328xi but I purchased one OEM tire from Tire Rack just before taking delivery of the car. Some people recommend buying two and replacing both tires on the axle that took the flat. Seems to me if the treadwear is slight, it would be worth trying just one tire to see if the handling is acceptable. Speaking of handling, I do recall that their suspension is "tuned" for RFT's, so I think it would be a good idea to research further and check for any warranty issues that might transpire from switching to conventional tires. Good luck! Hitting a pothole with these RFT's is a jarring experience, as is what I consider to be above-normal road noise.

shipo

"Speaking of handling, I do recall that their suspension is "tuned" for RFT's, so I think it would be a good idea to research further and check for any warranty issues that might transpire from switching to conventional tires."

Warranty issues such as? Oh, yeah! If you replace your RFTs with GFTs then you won't be eligable for the BMW/Bridgestone tire replacement program. :P

The fact is that RFTs are heavier than conventional GFTs, and unsprung weight is still unsprung weight. The lighter the wheel/tire combination, the better the ride and handling will be, regardless of whether the suspension is RFT "tuned" or not.

Best Regards,
Shipo

cherod

SHIPO,

I have read a lot of your blogs and you seem to know a lot about BMWs. I have a quick question as far as RFT's go. I need your advice, should I buy the exact bridgestone RFT's for my 2006 330i with Sport package or do you reccomend go with GFT's. IF so what brand of tires do you recoommend. P.S. ANyone outhere that can help me with this issue, your advice would be greatly appreciated.

idoc2

After 9500 miles on my 2007 328xi non-sport the Bridgestone EL42's had become progressively more noisy with a very "grainy" ride. My local dealer here in CT in accordance with BMW's TSB replaced all 4 with Continental ContiProContact SSR's at no cost. The new tires are definitely much smoother, more compliant and much less noisy. A huge improvement. Thank you BMW for stepping up to the plate and thanks to the guys at BMW of Watertown for great customer service!

shipo

Sorry about not getting back to you sooner, I'm on the road, in fact, it's early in the morning of the 25th for me right now. :-/

A few questions:
1) Are you leasing your car?
2) If so, how many months & miles do you have left on your lease?
3) Would you be comfortable with a "Spare tire in a can" type of approach to dealing with a flat tire?

Best Regards,
Shipo

skobola

I am a little bit confused that some Bridgestones have been replaced under TSB but still at different costs to owners. For example, mine were replaced with $189 extra for balancing (I had less than 10k miles), which they told me was not covered, but some people here say that theirs Bridgestones were replaced at no cost whatsoever. How is this possible (I thought that this would be regulated by BMW)? Just as a comment, I paid $189 because the noise started to be unbearable, and at that time, there were not that many others who replaced their tires, so I could not compare (I replaced mine very much immediately after TSB was announced).

rfl

It all depends on (1) who your dealer is and (2) how loud you scream. My dealer replaced my Bridgestone's with Conti's at 4000 miles- NO CHARGE for anything! Anyone who pays ANYTHING to have that horrid brand replaced on a $40K + car should think again. These tires are and continue to be a mistake and I think BMW is beginning to realize it. Some dealers are still pigs though. I'd suggest that if you are staying with BMW (I will not be unless they get rid of the RFTs and go back to a spare and GFTs,,,FIND YOURSELF A NEW DEALER.

pearl

glad to hear that your dealer replaced your tires. I too, have an 07 328 non-sport with EL42's. I have just under 6K miles on the car now and while they were fairly quiet for the first couple of thousand miles, I notice that they are getting progressively louder. I plan to ask my dealer about this too. I would love to get a set of Conti's to relplace these EL42s.

idoc2

My dealer was very gracious about replacing the Bidgestone EL42's at NO cost. Zip, zero, zilch! They simply did it after my mentioning that the tires had become noisy and I was aware that there was a replacement program. No further discussion and my 328 now has the Continentals. A fantastic improvement!

$189 to balance tires is a total rip off! Even at $100/hour labor rate this is at most a $50 job! As one other member has suggested that piggish.

adbuerk

Wife wanted a new BMW, we were looking at a 2006 325 (dealer demo-9000 miles)at local dealer. She was happy with car, but after some surfing for potential problems with car, I found this site. I took a longer test drive and had discussion with dealer who initially plead ignorance of the concerns but said he would look into it when I said it could be a deal breaker. They agreed to replace the Bridgestones with Continentals, and gave me a deal on a full size matching rim and spare tire. They said that BMW has authorized replacement (maybe bs?) but at any rate I'm satisfied. Now..if they could squeeze in a dipstick so I can check the oil!! Anyway, thanks to this forum for info.

idoc2

Keeping in mind that many 328's had defective oil sensors the omission of a dipstick ranks up there with the omission of a temperature gauge both of which pale in comparison to the lack of even the ability to store any sort of spare tire. I don't know who should be held in greater contempt: the arrogant designers at BMW or the fools who empower them by continuing to purchase their cars. I know the answer because I still love my car!

owner6

I get my tires rotated every 5K miles and Balanced/Rotated every 10K miles.
The local tire shop (been in business for 67 years) in Easton Maryland. $24 to rotate and $38 dollars to rotate and balance. Modern wheel equipment. They also re-do air pressure with rotate. I had original Bridgestones, Free second set Bridgestones and now running 1/2 Price replacement Conties. I sure love those Conties. FYI. GS

owner6

Are they still delivering new cars with bad tires. I cant believe it. All this sounds like Law Suit material. The pain I went through on two sets of bridgestones for a total of about 18 K miles is wort $1K DOLLARS for 18 K miles ill settle for $18,000.00. Thats how bad it was.

Owner6

nsvlbimmerguy

so I have the misfortune of having the staggered 18's on my 335i... I have a stress break on the front pass and a screw in the rear pass.... and both are on "national back order"... I'm afraid to go the GFT route, but I can't find anything in RFT's that fit.... (225/40/18-255/35/18)
as much as I love the car, I'm beginning to wish I'd bought the G35...
anyone know if anything else is out that fits and isn't 500 a tire?

dan12

Have you checked tirerack? $280 for front and $340 for rear. America's Tire Co also has them. Unfortunately, I don't see any other RFT's that fit. You can go cheaper with GFT if you don't mind a spare in the trunk or using the spray stuff.

actualsize

FYI: Dodge ditched the RFTs on its 2008 Viper and went to GFTs + a sealant kit. Scan about halfway down the page.

jp900

I just bought a 2006 325i (non-sports package)from a BMW dealer. When I asked he suggested taking off the new Conti RFT's and replacing them with GFT's. He provided a sealer kit with a pressure pump. I agreed and figure that if I get a flat I should be good for about 100 miles with the sealer kit, but will be able to go to any tire dealer for repair, 7 days a week. For me, this is better peace of mind. If in a couple of years RFT's are easy to replace then I will put them back on the car. The car rides fine, although perhaps a little less rigid. My next car however will not be a BMW unless this is resolved.

mgaimee

I have a 2007 328xi and have just had to replace two run flat tires - one tire was pothole damage and one was a nail. I was told specifically by my dealer that I could not put regular tires on this vehicle. After reading these messages I thought there was a replacement tire program but dealer said that was for 330i. Can anyone verify that?

shipo

Whoever told you that you couldn't put regular tires on your car was lying to you. Period, full stop, the end.

The only exception to the above rule is if you have a lease car (via BMW-FS), in which case you MUST return the car to BMW with RFTs mounted.

Best Regards,
Shipo

jp900

Ditto. It was my BMW dealer who suggested I replace them with regular tires.

danbeemer

I only drove my car for 4000 miles. today the tire warning light came on. I called BMW right away and they said to take the car there. I have been told that they do not patch the tires for "safety reason." also the tires were not under warranty. I took the car to a different tire repair shop. they looked at it and they noticed that the tire was completely gone and I did not even drive 20 miles after i saw the light. I went back to the dealer and they did not accept my claim. I had to pay $580.00 for the tire and installation. I do not recommend this feature. any one had the same problem with these tires?

bdkinnh

>"...they noticed that the tire was completely gone..."

I'll just walk right past the obvious joke here and say "Could you expand on this a bit?"

mgaimee

Thanks for all responses. My dealer finally agreed that there is a replacement program for these tires on the 328xi for wear/tear and noise problems. Before reaching 10,000 miles, BMW will replace the Bridgestones with the Continentals at no charge. While they are still run flat tires, they are considerably less expensive than the Bridgestones. I had to replace two tires, with labor and balancing, the total was $1000. Dealer still will not agree to the possibility of using regular tires! I will check with other dealers in my area.

earnie

I took our 2006 3251 (sport package) to the local dealer (Paducah, KY) with 17,000 miles and again at 18,000 complaining about the RFT problem. In the process of trying to get their help, we had a family emergency and now mileage is 20,204. According to BMW North American, we must pay full cost since the car has over 20,000 miles(under 20,000 miles 1/2 price) even though the dealer was informed. BMW has a bulletin (360606) about the problem but has failed to notify affected owners. We have another BMW (Z3) and will getting rid of both soon. Also understand there is a class action lawsuit being formulated that I will be glad to be involved with.

earnie

I took our 2006 BMW 325i (sport package) to local dealer (Paducah, KY) with 17,000 miles and again at 18,000 complaining about the RFT problem. In the process of denial, we had a family emergency and now mileage is 20,204. According to BMW North American, we must pay full cost because the mileage is over 20,000 (under 20,000 miles 1/2 price) even though the dealer was informed. BMW has a bulletin (360606) about the problem but has failed to notify affected owners. We have another BMW (Z3) and will getting rid of both soon. Also understand there is a class action lawsuit being formulated which we will gladly be part of.

shipo

Assuming that your "3251" SP is actually a RWD 325i SP, then your local dealer wouldn't have been able to help you even if your tires only had a couple of thousand miles on them. Why? Because your car has the Sport Package which includes (among other goodies) high performance summer tires (which aren't covered by the replacement program), tires BTW that are lucky to see the far side of 20,000 miles.

I'm guessing that you didn't read the fine print when you bought your car because if you did you would have seen BMWs disclaimer that the tires that come on the Sport Package don't last as long (as All Season tires) and are more susceptible to damage.

All of the above is a way of saying, "Be happy that you managed to get more than 20,000 miles on your factory tires, and it's time to start shopping for a replacement set."

Best Regards,
Shipo

tan2

Hi, I went to the dealer in Westchester but they haven't been very helpful. I'd like to try to bring it to the CT dealer. Please let me know which one you went to.
Thanks

cherod

SHIPO,
I apologize for not getting back to you sooner, but I was out of the country and just got home today; no internet access.
1) Are you leasing your car?
YES i am leasing but was thinking of buying it.
2) If so, how many months & miles do you have left on your lease?
I have about 24 months left and about 13000 miles left.
3) Would you be comfortable with a "Spare tire in a can" type of approach to dealing with a flat tire? Yes

Thanks once again for taking your time out of your busy schedule.

Best Regards,

CHEROD

shipo

Yeah, I was out of the country too when I wrote you, HK in my case, got back Saturday.

Okay, here's the deal, IF you turn your car in at the end of the lease then you MUST have RFTs (in good condition) on the car. In that case, unless you still have at least 5mm of tread depth on your current tires, you're going to have to pony up the $1,250 (plus shipping from TireRack) for the Bridgestone Potenza RE050A RFTs that you are currently running.

If on the other hand you decide now to keep the car at lease end, then you've got LOTS of options. Below are a few sets of GFTs that I've heard good things about:

Summer Rubber:
$1,020 - Michelin Pilot Sport PS2
$848 - Bridgestone Potenza RE050A
$820 - Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3
$672 - Yokohama S.drive

Longer lasting High Performance All-Season rubber:
$920 - Yokohama ADVAN S.4.
$522 - Kumho Ecsta ASX

I've heard very good things about all six tires, and as such you probably cannot go wrong with any of them.

Keep us posted.

Best Regards,
Shipo

mgaimee

My dealer first insisted there was no replacement program for the 328xi. After reading these messages, I told my dealer I was going to check with BMW North America. He called me back a little later and told me there was a replacement program for this vehicle due to wear and tear on the tires only. If you report problems before you reach 10,000 miles, BMW will replace the tires with Continental tires, free of charge. If the mileage is between 10K and 20K, the customer must pay for 2 of the tires and BMW will pay for the other 2. If mileage is over 20K, the replacement program is not in effect.
Push your dealer more. Complain about noise from the tires. Good luck.

tan2

Thanks for your help. I am so frustrated. I have a 325xi that I simply do not feel safe in. I noticed a flat tire when I was leaving to work but based on the sound I knew I couldn't drive it to the dealer to have it replaced. I figured I would put the spare on and drive it to the dealer the next day. To my surprise (and my mistake for not checking when purchasing the car), the car does not have a spare, has no jack and no spare tire storage room. When purchasing the car, the seller talked up these RFT. Well, they still say that you are supposedly able to drive it for a limited amount of miles - not in my case. There was no way I would have felt safe driving that and the rims would have been ruined for sure if I did. Then I would be out for the cost of tire plus rims. In addition, my flat tire monitor didn't even work! According to BMW, the last time I had it calibrated at their service dept it was done incorrectly. Boy, do I feel safe. I would like to change to regular tires and put the spare in my trunk - the cost $1800. I have close to 18,000 miles on my car. Also, BMW told me that the car's suspension is not designed for regular tires. They do not recommend it. I feel that BMW's concern is not the safety of customers but rather their pockets. Very upsetting. I told them I do not feel safe in the car especially since I drive on the highway a lot- why talk up RFT when they know it is a problem. So much for spending over $40,000 on a car. I am a first time BMW buyer and the last. Needed to vent...

P.S. pending litigation involving deceptive trade practice pending in CA. I will be watching this carefully.

I encourage everyone to write letters to BMW, Consumer Protection and Highway Safety about these tires.

circlew

I feel for you but you need to take more care to understand the car you are buying before you make the purchase. The RFT issue is a problem for sure but I am also sure based on your post that you would have never purchased the car in the first place if you read this thread on the BMW forum and other blogs on the net. That should have been part of your purchasing strategy to review all of the aspects before a buy decision is made.

In my case, one e-mail got me free tires and it was largely due to feedback from this RFT thread.

I wish you the best regarding getting to a satisfying position to this issue.

Regards,
OW

tan2

You're right. This was my first car purchase. I researched the car but didn't research the tires. Now, I want regular tires on my car - never had a problem with regular tires before and I felt a little more safe knowing that there is a spare but BMW does not recommend putting regular tires on the car. It's a little fishy that they hype up RFT, you have to replace not repair these tires and they are the ones that can install it properly. What are our options?

shipo

Not that I'm defending BMW's choice to use RFTs (I'm not), but I do have a couple of problems with some content in your post.

1) If your car does truly have RFTs, then the visual difference between a properly inflated tire and one with no pressure is very slight, so slight that only the most acute eye would notice the difference. Then again, if the sidewall was shredded, noticing the problem is child's play. Was your tire really destroyed?

2) Whoever told you that you cannot mount GFTs on your car is lying to you.

3) Eighteen hundred dollars to mount four GFTs and put a spare in your trunk? Ummm, only if you bend over and walk in backwards. Please consider the following:

- A set of four Continental ContiProContact SSR 205/55 HR-16 RFTs is $444 from TireRack. Figure a little over $600 with shipping, taxes, mounting and balancing.
- A set of four (higher performance All-Season) Yokohama ADVAN S.4 205/55 HR-16 GFTs is $536 from TireRack. Figure a little over $700 with shipping, taxes, mounting and balancing.
- A set of four (ultra high performance All-Season) Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 205/55 HR-16 GFTs is $536 from TireRack. Figure mid to high $700s with shipping, taxes, mounting and balancing.
- An inexpensive spare 16x7 alloy wheel with a Michelin Pilot Sport A/S already mounted on it can be had from TireRack for less than $300 (including taxes and shipping).

So, even if you went with the most expensive of the above, you could still do the entire deed of changing your car over to GFTs for under $1,100.

Best Regards,
Shipo

ash1924

Sorry OW, but I take issue with you statement “you need to take more care to understand the car you are buying before you make the purchase”. When researching a car how many of us look into issues such as the tires? I can’t say it was really ever on my radar to check tires before these issues with BMW (although it will be on all future car purchases, so BMW is out). By way of example, I’ve always checked the reliability ratings on cars, resale values, and good and bad performance points, as I think many people do, but do most reasonable consumers know what causes a car to get lower reliability or other issues? Do we know that it’s the engine design, the transmission, or the belts? Can you even get this information on new cars from research? These issues seemed to show up around 1+ year as expected given the failure mechanisms. Generally, I would say this is not the type of information the average “knowledgeable” consumer will research. I think BMW was misleading as it has not (and continues to deny) than these tires, at a minimum, are higher than typical maintenance issue with its cars and that they have additional problems. I my case the RFT just didn’t work.

I would say when I called the BMW Customer Relations line the rep gave me the line “In theory the tires are superior and offer greater reliability and safety to the consumer.” Of course, in theory and in reality are very different. My wife’s car became un-drivable (the tire collapsed to the rim offering no sufficient support for driving and loss of control) when the RFT when flat, and it took the dealer more than 24 hours to fix it and I lost half a day at the office waiting for the tow truck. She now drives my Accord, because she needs to be safe and not stranded on the side of the road at night without a spare waiting for a tow truck for a simple flat tire.

As an example of how to address this issue, if you buy a rally edition car from Mitsubishi (such as the Lancer) they make a point of telling you about the limited lifetime of the chosen tires. I have to side with Tan2 here and say BMW, at a minimum, is deceptive about the benefits and lifetime of the RFT given the knowledge available today. Hopefully with discussions like this we will start seeing more attention paid to these issues in more consumer reports, such as Edmunds.

ash1924

"2) Whoever told you that you cannot mount GFTs on your car is lying to you."

I asked the dealer the same question, and they said "Yes, you can mount regular tires. However, the car (suspension) is not designed to support these tires and it will invalidate your warranty." Got the same story from customer relations.
At this point I'm probably just going to buy a spare RFT and a jack and leave it sitting in the trunk for the next flat tire.

tan2

Hi Shipo,

My car does have RFT (wish it didn't). Here's my response...

1. Just wondering -why does visual appearance matter? I'm petite and was able to touch the rim of the tire just by putting a little weight on it. My tire had a nail in it. I got into the car - usually don't check my tires all the time and started to drive. I heard an awfully loud sound and the drive was awful so I didn't feel it was safe to continue.

2. BMW dealer told me that the car is not designed to have any other wheels but RFT because of the suspension. Of course, I can put other tires on it but am I further risking myself? In addition, BMW will then be able to argue that they didn't recommend this and thus not liable.

3. Although hesitant to do so, BMW quoted $1800. This includes regular tire, spare and the jack.

BMW e'ees acknowlege that there are problems with these tires. So what are they waiting for a fatality?

shipo

Here we go again...

The fact is that any suspension that is tuned for RFT tires will perform BETTER with lighter GFTs. Why? Simple, the more unsprung weight any vehicle has at each corner, the worse the ride and handling will be, this has been a basic truism for literally decades. Unsprung weigh is unsprung weight is unsprung weight, and RFTs are both heavy and stiff. Every report I've read from folks who've switch their E90 or E60 over to GFTs has raved about the improvement in both the ride and handling departments.

As for the preposterous notion that mounting GFTs on a late model BMW will void the warranty, not happening. Why? By law BMW cannot void any warranty on any individual component that is unrelated to any owner installed aftermarket components, additionally, if a failure occurs, they need to PROVE that the aftermarket components directly caused the failure. Said another way, they cannot void the warranty on the car at large just because you put GFTs on your car.

With the above in mind, what warranty items will be negatively affected? The tires? BMW doesn't cover the tires anyway so what's the difference? The suspension? Lighter GFTs will cause less suspension wear, so no issue there. The brakes? Lighter GFTs store less energy when rotating, and as such require less braking force to slow the car from any given speed, so no issue here either. Anything else? I doubt it.

Regarding risk: Only drivers can answer the following questions for themselves.

1) Would you feel safe enough with four standard GFTs plus a jack and a spare in the trunk?
2) Would you feel safe enough with four standard GFTs and a can of tire goo or something like the Continental Tire ContiComfortKit in the trunk?
3) Would you feel safe enough with four RFTs and no spare?
4) Would you feel safe enough with four RFTs plus a jack and a spare in the trunk?

Best Regards,
Shipo

bdkinnh

>"Yes, you can mount regular tires. However, the car (suspension) is not designed to support these tires and it will invalidate your warranty."

Total BS. Ask them to point to the section of the warranty that says this.

As long as the tire is the correct size and is mounted professionally (as opposed to you doing it with a screwdriver), they cannot invalidate the warranty.

Edit: Dealers will try to talk people into anything, as long as they sound convincing. Ask them to put it in writing, and it's another story.

When I was buying my Lexus, the sales manager asked what other cars I was looking at. I told him the BMW 530i, and he said that BMW was getting rid of their free maintenance program; when I asked his source, he said he read it in 'one of the trade papers' but he didn't remember which one. Nice try.

When I was at the dealer another time I asked the parts department for a quote on some winter tires. As expected they were about twice as expensive as TireRack. The parts guy told me that TireRack only sold factory reject and blemished tires, which is why they were so cheap. Yeah... right.

I'm really sick of this "regular tires will void the warranty" response. Let 'em try it when I order my 535i!

tan2

I'm not a car expert so if the manufacturer says it is not designed for it and is not recommended than I will likely not do it esp on a car I spent over $40,000 on.

Who wants to spend that much on a car to find out it is likely that we would have to spend over $1000 annually to maintain these tires. Never had this problem with my SUV - tires were fine for over 30,000 miles. I looked at ASH's statement and agree - shouldn't this have been disclosed to us?

As to risk, RFT have been found to wear and tear quicker and unevenly. This could lead to easier punctures to the tire. Compared to regular tires which tend to wear and tear more evenly and generally need to be replaced after 30,000 miles - Yes, I would feel safe with regular tires on my car. There is very little predictability with RFT based on uneven wear. Numerous complaints are being made after just 1000 miles on the car. In my experience, I couldn't drive with the flat RFT and the FTM was not working so I don't feel safe. I want options.... (1) RFT with a spare; or (2) Regular tires with a spare.

If you didn't buy a BMW yet, great. You have that opportunity to negotiate but back when I bought this car these issues were new to consumers.

bdkinnh

>"...if the manufacturer says it is not designed for it and is not recommended..."

It isn't BMW that is telling you... it's the dealer. Don't take their word for it. I'll provide a little translation:

What dealer says: "BMW has tuned the suspension for the run-flat tires, and does not recommend using anything other than run flats. Doing so will void your warranty."

What dealer means: "BMW wanted to eliminate the spare tire and save 20% on the wheel & tire cost for the car but not lower the price. Knowing that the run-flats give a harsher ride, they had to change the suspension. If they admitted that go-flat tires gave a better ride, they would have to come up with an excuse as to why they didn't just stick with them in the first place.

Also, there is a higher profit for the dealer on run-flats.

Oh yeah - please don't notice that they don't use run-flats on any of the M models. Thanks.

And that whole warranty thing? I know I'm lying to you, but I'm going to say it anyway in the hope that you will believe me. If you do, and you buy run-flats from me, I'll make more money. Also, I can charge you more to mount and balance them. And if you switch to go-flats, I may be able to talk you into paying for something that I know should be covered by warranty."

There ya go.

tan2

Actually, it is BMW. BMW Service is an agent of BMW and is acting under apparent authority so BMW can be held liable for BMW Service's acts.

I know that BMW is making more money off of the RFT however, I am more focused on their deceptive trade practices and safety. We shouldn't be paying this much annually to maintain tires.

BMW Warranty generally does not cover tires so lets just drop the whole warranty - not relevant to my points.

circlew

I understand your frustration but I have to say the replacement Continentals made a huge difference on my '06 330xi which were changed out at 13K and now have 15K on the Conti's. I knoew going in regarding the RFT and no spare and it did not sway my choice. The faulty rubber on the original Bridgestones became evident at between 5K-10K miles.

My point is that I knew of the RFT and no spare. I completely understand how that would freak out others.

Now that the rubber is good again, I really have no concerns because the service from the Conti's give me a better replacement option as I lease and need to have RFT's when the car is returned. If I bought, I would have used Shipo's GFT approach, be that it differs with the recommendation from BMW (which is utter nonsense). That's like saying "We do not recommend using a manual toothbrush because the electric toothbrush cleans your teeth more effectively"!

BTW, I drove over 100 miles at zero pressure after the tire monitor indicated a pressure loss condition (about 15 months ago). Why? Because when I checked the tires, the tire EL42 BS tire did not look like it was flat (which did not register to me at the time that was because the stiffer sidewalls support the weight of the car at that corner). So off I went. It was all highway driving at 65 MPH with little appreciable change in control.

Regards,
OW

shipo

Another couple of comments: ;-)

"Who wants to spend that much on a car to find out it is likely that we would have to spend over $1000 annually to maintain these tires."

I'm not quite sure where you get the $1,000 per year number from, as I stated earlier, "A set of four Continental ContiProContact SSR 205/55 HR-16 RFTs is $444 from TireRack. Figure a little over $600 with shipping, taxes, mounting and balancing". These tires should be good for an easy 30,000 to 40,000 miles. Since they are RFTs, they will not cause you to run afoul of your dealer's unjustified bias and all will be well.

"As to risk, RFT have been found to wear and tear quicker and unevenly."

Ummm, not exactly. The early version of the Bridgestone Turanza EL42 RFTs have been found to wear fast and unevenly. The jury is still out on the second generation of those tires (apparently a different tread compound). Most folks who either got Continental tires from the factory or who got BMW to pay all or part of the cost of converting to the Continentals report MUCH better results from their tires.

FWIW, I agree with you on the whole Spare Tire thing.

Best Regards,
Shipo

tan2

I can't speak for everyones RFT - I have the Bridgestone Turanza so that is why I am very concerned about it. I am sure future RFTs will be better developed but the ones I have are not.

As for price, this is a general reference for people who are in a similar situation. That is they own/lease a BMW, with similar RFTs and who paid a lot of money for a car. BMW should have disclosed the high cost of maintaining these wheels and the frequency to us so that consumers could have weighed this fact when deciding on their purchase. Instead they chose to hype these RFT.

shipo

"BMW should have disclosed the high cost of maintaining these wheels and the frequency to us so that consumers could have weighed this fact when deciding on their purchase. Instead they chose to hype these RFT."

What you're missing here is that assuming that the Bridgestone tires had performed up to the Bridgestone's own specifications, the extra cost of running RFTs on your car would be very small. Consider the following nearly like for like examples:

Tire ------------------------------------------- UTQG ------ Price
Bridgestone Turanza EL42 RFT ------ 300 ------ $181.00
Bridgestone Turanza EL41 GFT ------ 300 ------ $134.00
Continental ContiProContact SSR --- 400 ------ $111.00
Continental ContiProContact GFT --- 400 ------ $094.00

As you can see, the RFTs are supposed to last as long as their GFT counterparts (and by all accounts the Continentals do), and only cost something less that $200 per set extra. Back when you bought your car BMW was under the impression that the Bridgestones would in fact perform in the real world just like Bridgestone said they would. It wasn't to be and that's why the tire replacement program was put in place.

Best Regards,
Shipo

gja

"Actually, it is BMW. BMW Service is an agent of BMW and is acting under apparent authority so BMW can be held liable for BMW Service's acts. "

It's not "really" BMW unless you can get it in writing from your dealer or BMW N.A. Notice I said "unless you can get it in writing from your dealer" because I doubt you will.