XSeries-forum

I've just ditched the run flats for normal tyres on my 3 series, I did the same on my previous 5 series.
We set off for a trip to France last Monday, we had stopped at a service station an hour away from home for some munchies, only to run down a pothole leaving the services.
An hour later the pressure loss indicator sounded on the IDrive ! We stopped at Watcord gap where I got the compressor out to check the pressures to find the NSR was well low. I pumped up the tyre , only to hear a slight hiss. We googled tyre shops near by, drove to Daventry to a tyre shop, they removed the wheel , only to tell me the rim was cracked and they couldn't help, but direct me to Northhampton to a fab shop who welded up alloys.
We had to call at tyres Northampton to again remove the tyre which was then been run on flat for several miles, run the wheel around to the welders, 45 mins before they closed, get it welded returned to the tyre place where I bought 4 new non run flat tyres. Finally got away and resumed our journey to Dover . Stayed a night in Dover and caught a ferry to Dunkirk at 10 am the next day.
Stayed 24 hours in France in torrential rain before chasing the sun and ending back in Manchester !!!!
Moral of the story, ditch the Runflats.

Hi thanks , what size tyres are you using on the 330 ? as it is a well known problem with runflats on the 19" wheels running a low profile ! I havent  come accross any problems with the 19" X5 wheels cracking with runflats ?
  I use runflats on the X5 and the X1 for safety reasons if the tyres do fail at speed they are less likely to come off the rims , I can still get to my destination within reason & if they are flat I would just call out a recovery wagon .
  I am not sure about welding the wheels as once damaged they loose a bit of strength and are more likely to fail again so would recommend that you change them instead  .

I'm running 18" rims , 255/35/18 rear and 225/40/18 front.
I test drove an e 92 Msport coupe running 19" Runflats and told the salesman to direct  me Back a shorter route after half a mile, as I couldn't live with that ride 
The wife's TT runs normal tyres with no spare, as does the daughters fiesta, as probably most cars do these days.
As for cracked rims, speak to any tyre fitter, it's a massive problem, they crack on the inner lip down to the bead.usually on the wider rear rims on the staggered Msport setup. They says it happens very rarely once normal tyres are fitted. I had a spacesaver in the 5 series, but no room for one in the 3 series as  the space is already taken up in the boot.
As you stated, cracked rims not a major problem on the X5's, must be a meatier construction,

I did have none runflats on the X1 225/40/19 fronts , 255/35/19 rears ride was very good but as you say no place for a spare , very poor design ! So any long journeys were done in the X5 , Had to change to runflats for piece of mind for the wife . Car feels a lot stiffer in corners proberbly why they crack .
  I think most of the cracking wheels are down to the 3 series style 225m wheels they ran 225/35/19 and 255/30/19 no problems as such with the X1 even though similar floor plan , although the 19" wheels were a 4k option not many have them .
  Back to the tyres still for sale !

The whole idea behind RFT is no spare needed, so why design a space for what the manufacturer never intended to be on the car?

It's not bad design if that is what the manufacturer intended.  If owners choose not to use RFT then that is their choice, not a piece of poor design.

The X1 came with none runflat tyres as standard , also no spare available as no space , as we speced ours with a towbar the car had to have runflats fitted !

still for sale !

still for sale

still for sale !