Run flat carnage

[hertfordshire1]

All.
A word of warning for those buying X5s with run flats.

My car had the wheels painted yesterday.  The firm called me to report that the rear tyres were knackered and one of them was heavily damaged.

I went to inspect the tyres and took the pictures below.
The tyre had been repaired twice by the looks of it and driven while flat and the carcass was split the entire length of the tyre. Note from the outside the tyre look fine..

It could have easily failed. As this is a family car, I dread to think of what could of happened if a rear tyre exploded on the motorway.

When I bought the car (it's an approved bmw) they replaced the front 2 tyres but left the rears. What's more concerning is that before I collected the car the alloys were re-furbished due to the common corrosion issues.  So someone would have seen this tyre and decided to do nothing about it...

Pictures speak a thousand words..




Alloys now painted


Cheers,
Steve

[X5Sport]

That's scary!

The effects of a failure at speed could have been catastrophic.

I wonder if it's worth flagging this to BMW GB as it had been worked on prior to you getting it, but the damage had been ignored?

You can see why manufacturers say do not fix these types of tyres....

Richard

[hertfordshire1]

Richard,

I do intend to flag to BMW GB.  I expect an AUC from BMW to be better than that.
To be frank the supplying dealer were so useless, i'm not at all surprised to find out things that were missed.

When I collected the car the drivers door handle was broken and so the comfort access didn't work! They tried to tell me that it didn't have comfort access. After demonstrating using the other doors (that it did have comfort - nudged them into action)..
One of many issues I had...

>:D

Steve

[Ashway]

How old is the car, if the still in warranty those wheels should have been replaced under warranty as they're known to corrode especially around the centre caps. I've had 2 sets on mine.

[BullyB]

wow, lucky you found it before it failed again.

There isn't really a way of telling the condition of the RFT tyres without taking them off I assume.
I think I will consider getting normal tyres on mine when due and just rely on foam, pump and RAC

[graemeX5]

Wow that is scary and as you say it was an Auc approved BMW a letter/ email detailing the problem would see a sensible way forward to bring it to their attention.

One only wonders how safe the repairs are especially the one around the rim, I do not know how safe that would be, but from what your tyre chap said saying it was knackered is scary.

I'm sure you will find the appropriate words to express your dismay and the unnecessary risk that they may have put you and family at by being sloppy or dare one say possibly careless when the wheels were refurbished.

Surely there must be a process that BMW have that to cover this issues as it can't be the first case of wheels being refurbished and tyre issues  whether they do the wheel refurbishment or it's outsourced.

Hope they do get it sorted out for you.

[Barney]

The AUC approved scheme is piss poor, some of the sheds I saw prior to buying mine were unbelievable, shocking repairs and poor examples. On mine they opted to put four new tyres on as part of the deal, I would complain to the top with that sort of tyre damage !!

[535dboy]

Very scary.

Welcome to shit BMW customer care...

[RenoHuskerDu]

I took off the Bridgestone Dueler RFTs today and put on non-RFTs instead. There were a few of those little rubber balls in the carcass of the tire, just like the ones in your pics.

I intend to sell two of the RFTs. After seeing your post, I'm going to look them over closely first!

Thanks for sharing it.

[kjb1]

Im guessing the damage wasn't there until after tyres went back on.  Don't believe they would put that tyre back on if they knew. 

[hertfordshire1]

The tyres were damaged prior to me taking ownership.  The tyre in the pic had been plugged twice.. Therefore. It would have been punctured twice and driven on twice. Hence the state of it.

With regards to the wheels being replaced under warranty, that's a long story..
Basically they first had them refurbed as there was some kerb damage along with the corrosion around the hubs, but who they used for the wheel refurb could not sort out the centres. So they had to be diamond cut properly. When I kicked off about that (as this meant me waiting longer to get the car) they suggested that actually as the car was under warranty they could replace all the wheels. Great. Then I get a call to say because they had tried to refurb them first, bmw wouldn't replace under warranty. So they were sent off for a full refurb which lasted all of 6 months before the corrosion came back.

Like I said. Dealer was hopeless.



Cheers Steve

[RenoHuskerDu]

[quote="hertfordshire1"]
The tyres were damaged prior to me taking ownership.  The tyre in the pic had been plugged twice..
...[/quote]

Here in France my tire guy says it's illegal to plug or patch an RFT. You can do it yourself, which may be what happened in your case too. Plugging means no dismount, remember, so the condition inside is unknown.  I plugged one of mine but replaced it as soon as I received new tires.

[steve burnett]

I contacted Bridgestone regarding the repair of run flats.
They are happy for it to be done as long as the tyre is in good condition. This seems to be the hard part and why so many places wrongly tell you that it can't be done.

[Sanj]

RF's can certainly be repaired (as long as they're done right and only in the centre 75% of the tread). Think they say no more than an inch from the tyre wall.

Have had them done in the past and they work fine for years on end.