My son has just bought BMW 2 Series with Michelin Primacy run flat tyres.
In my many years of motoring i've never had a car that doesn't even have a jack let alone a spare wheel. Can anybody give me advice/opinions on these tyres.
Thnks in anticipation
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Only ever had a problem once, X1 showed a spurious alarm in France just as I was boarding the ferry home in 2011. Checked them out in Dover and everything was OK. Never re-occured on that or any other car. I guess they're as vulnerable as any other tyre to an unlucky puncture. They can be driven on with a puncture either to a BMW dealer or a tyre depot. Most depots have RF in stock. I felt vulnerable to a puncture in the Volvo and ended up buying a spare. You just have to trust the tyres
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What's the lads history concerning tyre care?
I ask as both of mine are terrible. One got stopped by the BIB and asked "do you know you've got a flat tyre"? To which they honestly replied " no".
T'other thought they pumped up their tyres at a garage, only for me to find there was around 5PSI in them when I checked!
One managed to roll the tyre off the rim shortly after coming off a motorway - underinflated.
A family member never had a puncture repaired, always had to buy new tyres. They once had to buy a new wheel as they thought they "could get home" on the flat.
That one also always carried an (empty) petrol can in the boot!
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In the 15 years that he's been driving he's probably had only 1 event of an under inflated tyre where i had to go and sort it out. He would't know how to change a wheel so perhaps it's a blessing in disguise ! Just make sure his breakdown cover is up to date.
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Part of the RF system is a decent monitoring system. Difficult to ignore if it detects low pressure.
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They do work. I was proceeding in a rather fast manner on the M3 when the tyre monitor system started to bleat about a low pressure tyre. Which I then watched in horror as pressure dropped to zero. At 60mph I drive the thing another 12 miles home, and then another 6 miles to a tyre fitter the next day.
So you dont need a spare, or a jack or gooo. The cost is a hard ride and noise.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 31 Jul 20 at 23:20
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Presumably repaired ok ? If unrepairable, and half worn, with the 4WD on the 540, you’d need to buy 2 new tyres?
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Runflats, when run flat, are junked. unrepairable. New tyres.
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Had you pulled over and put a plug in it, would it have been OK? Not that I would have on the M3.
The MX-5 has no spare or jack, although it has a place for the jack. It's supplied with gloop and a pump. In 2018 we took it across the channel twice so I found room for some extra gloop, a jack, and a tyrestring repair kit. Fortunately didn't have to use it.
Earlier this year the boss got yet another puncture on a nearly new tyre. Rather than put the temporary spare on I temporarily plugged it. It worked fine and took not very long to do. After a couple of day's thought I ordered a new one and got the mobile fitter to come and put it on, because it was near the shoulder (the alternative in my mind would have been a mushroom plug repair from the inside). The fitter thought that in practice my repair would have been absolutely fine.
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>> Had you pulled over and put a plug in it, would it have been OK?
No I don't even think they are repairable.
You carry a temporary tyre plugging kit around with you? didn't even know they existed, how do you find the leaking spot at the road side?
Last edited by: Zero on Sat 1 Aug 20 at 15:23
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>>how do you find the leaking spot at the road side?
Have had 4 or 5 flat tyres in the past 10 years - have always found the screw/nail/bit of wire within a couple of minutes.
All slow punctures though - if you went over something that didn't remain in the tyre, I agree it would potentially be a royal pita.
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That I can remember in recent years one nail, one screw, one unidentified slow puncture and 4 pothole splits.
The nail, screw and slow would all be equally handled by goop, run-flats or a spare.
How does a run-flat tyre cope with smacking into a hole and splitting the tyre wall? Because goop won't cope. So it's spare or run-flat if they work.
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>> You carry a temporary tyre plugging kit around with you? didn't even know they existed,
>> how do you find the leaking spot at the road side?
Just musing really, and wondering if there's a way of avoiding a guaranteed tyre write off if you have a puncture on a run-flat.
Not bothered at home, but on a road trip the more options the better. Not much you can do if you wreck a tyre of course. But with a jack (small scissor jack fits on top of the wheel arch behind the boot lining, the bracket's there) it's possible to have somebody take a wheel elsewhere without recovering the car, or remove the wheel to plug a puncture if you have the kit. I'm 99% certain pulling a nail or screw out and putting a plug in will work, not so sure about the gloppite.
If you have a jack and a pump but no spare, stick one of these in for another option. Also saves replacing the gloppite kit (about £50 at the dealer on the Mazda) and any hassle over getting a gloopy tyre repaired.
smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00C5TJ1MM/
The hardest part was shoving the rasp through the hole - tough old things, tyres. Rasp for a minute or two, coat the tyre string in rubber solution and thread it through the needle, shove it in, half a turn, yank it out and cut the protruding bits off. It's not supposed to be a permanent repair (nor is the gloppite) and I wouldn't treat it as such but in practice once it's in properly it's going to be fine in most cases. The issue is that if you haven't had the tyre off you can't check for foreign bodies in there or internal damage, but how often does that happen? Especially if you've just pulled out the nail that caused the problem.
EDIT: I have one in the caravan as well!
Last edited by: Manatee on Sun 2 Aug 20 at 11:23
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>> If you have a jack and a pump but no spare, stick one of these
>> in for another option. Also saves replacing the gloppite kit (about £50 at the dealer
>> on the Mazda) and any hassle over getting a gloopy tyre repaired.
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>> smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00C5TJ1MM/
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Aren't those accepted as a permanent repair in most other countries?
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>> Aren't those accepted as a permanent repair in most other countries?
I wouldn't be at all surprised. I don't think it's illegal in any way here, an least not per se.
Always a risk if you can be held negligent I suppose, which might be the case if you used it more than temporarily, if something catastrophic occurred, and if an insurance company paid out £5m and then sued you to recover...
The tyre fitter showed me the inside of the nearly new tyre I 'repaired'. There was no way that was going to fly out, the twisted string had formed a big knot on the inside. He said it would have been fine (it was only just on the tread, close to the sidewall - and it's my wife's car).
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>> EDIT: I have one in the caravan as well!
I didn't know you were a shed dragger.
My Crossover Camping Vehicle has a spare, and a jack. (Just put some Alko sports shock absorbers on it)
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>> >> EDIT: I have one in the caravan as well!
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>> I didn't know you were a shed dragger.
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>> My Crossover Camping Vehicle has a spare, and a jack. (Just put some Alko sports
>> shock absorbers on it)
Ours has dampers - incredibly not all caravans do.
It's one of these
i.ytimg.com/vi/tniTMJd_qd8/maxresdefault.jpg
We do have a spare, slung under the back, but jacking up caravans in a situation not of your choosing can be awkward. Less so perhaps if it's smaller and lighter. Better when attached to car of course. The Eriba is 1200Kg gross so not the lightest despite being fairly small.
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Oddly, I know of two people who bought new cars from the local BMW dealer, they both had punctures within a few miles (my wife's G20 being one of them). Both had to have their tyres replaced. Neither had bought the optional tyre and wheel insurance !
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Guess Hamilton should have had them.
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He might OF if he drove for BMW ! (sorry)
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Run Flat Tyres - R.P.
