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[x97Melbourne]

Hi All.

Just had my car in for them to do maintenance. They told me my tires are starting to look worn. I only have 16,600 miles!!! They told me 16K-20K is common to replace. I drive my car fairly gentile...but I do have the sport package. I don't really burn around corners too often or do burn outs. Traction control is always left on!!!

When did you guys have to replace your tires??

I do want to stay with the runflats....I don't plan to keep the car for more than another 12-18 months. The dealer here charges $499 per tire if you can believe that!!!

Where is a good place to buy.....I'd appreciate any hints or ideas!!
THANKS

[Bowzyr]

I toasted my stockers after about 10k miles

[Monterra]

Tire Rack, and have a local guy or even the dealer mount them up for 15-20 per corner. Holy chit 276/332 for what looks to be the only F/R matching RFT option- the OE Bridgestones, although that would bring it down to about 350 per shipped and installed. I'd go Yoko S. Drives for 127/145 and mob kit in a heartbeat, they should last longer too 140 vs. 300 treadwear.

[RPM90]

Originally Posted by x97Melbourne

Hi All.

Just had my car in for them to do maintenance. They told me my tires are starting to look worn. I only have 16,600 miles!!! They told me 16K-20K is common to replace. I drive my car fairly gentile...but I do have the sport package. I don't really burn around corners too often or do burn outs. Traction control is always left on!!!

When did you guys have to replace your tires??

I do want to stay with the runflats....I don't plan to keep the car for more than another 12-18 months. The dealer here charges $499 per tire if you can believe that!!!

Where is a good place to buy.....I'd appreciate any hints or ideas!!
THANKS

What would you stay with tires who's fast wear is as bad or worse than real performance tires, while giving you the performance of a high performance tire without that type of tires much better wearability?

If you're leasing, get a used set of stockers to put back on on turn in, and go get yourself some nice real tires for a MUCH lower price.

The other major reason for the fast wear is because we can't rotate our tires. It's a big fault in BMW design imo. There isn't any real performance benefit. It's more of a look. My 325i has the same tires all around, while same model year 330i's has staggered setups. the 330i didn't handle any better than my sport 325i, and I easily rotated my tires regularly and got great mileage from them, same with the A4.
I do NOT like staggered setups and I wish BMW would stop doing it, especially on a car like ours where some understeer could be dialed out if the front tires were the same size as the rears.
215 in front and 245 in the rear is ridiculous.
245 all around would have been just fine.

[Monterra]

Most RWD sporting set ups esp. higher powered ones are staggered to get power down out back and mitigate oversteer to an extent. That said, it seems like they got it wrong on the 135, square would suit it better but 245 is a lot of rubber up front and would probably make it too twitchy. Staggered would've been fine (4 tires don't need to be replaced at the same time) had they got the suspension right, which I think was made wrong (too soft) to accomodate the damn RFTs!!! RFTs are the devil imo. Good idea that's not ready for prime time. Scrap the RFTs then firm things up a bit- beefier sway bar/bushings- coilovers whatever and you can make your own M1, oops I mean 1 series M 35 idrive

[RPM90]

Originally Posted by Monterra

Most RWD sporting set ups esp. higher powered ones are staggered to get power down out back and mitigate oversteer to an extent. That said, it seems like they got it wrong on the 135, square would suit it better but 245 is a lot of rubber up front and would probably make it too twitchy. Staggered would've been fine (4 tires don't need to be replaced at the same time) had they got the suspension right, which I think was made wrong (too soft) to accomodate the damn RFTs!!! RFTs are the devil imo. Good idea that's not ready for prime time. Scrap the RFTs then firm things up a bit- beefier sway bar/bushings- coilovers whatever and you can make your own M1, oops I mean 1 series M 35 idrive

I ran 235's in my 325i all around and it handled beautifully.
245's on my A4 all around and it too handled beautifully.
Tire width is dependent on the suspension and steering design.
Using the E46 as an example, it shows that a staggered setup doesn't improve anything.
The wider tire in the rear to gain traction is ok, except what width is enough, 245, 255, 265? If we use that as a reason for staggering, then why not 265 in back?
Mustang GT runs same size all around, G8 GXP same size,
Pontiac GTO same size. Those are examples of high powered RWD's.
370Z runs 225F/245R, MB C300 same size C350 staggered.

Back in the days of hot rodding and poor traction bias-ply tires, sure get as much tire to the rear as possible.
This though is the modern era and once you get the traction in back you need, you can get the same size tire up front too. These aren't drag cars and they use modern traction control.

I would welcome some more "twitch" up front as I feel our steering is a bit slow to react. But, thinner tires tend to speed up response, but lose overall grip. Wider tires tend to give more stability not twitchy-ness.
Our cars tend towards understeer. A wider tire would give greater grip up front and thus lessen understeer.
For these reasons I think BMW and MB do this staggering thing more for looks. It's not like we're running 500+HP engines here, and these cars are not designed to be drag racers.

I'm just not a fan of staggered tires on these cars as I don't see why they need them. Put that together will fast wearing RFT's and it's simply a high cost of upkeep thats just not necessary.

[WhiteOne]

You can buy used RFT's from other addicts...and save a lot of coin.

[MadMan77]

It might have something to do with the fact the tires have a 140 treadwear rating. I would think your mileage is about right with it being a non-rotatable rear wheel drive vehicle.

I have about 14,500 miles and my rears are going to need to be replaced in a few thousand miles. The fronts look like they could survive another 10,000 miles at least.

[lacrosse]

Originally Posted by x97Melbourne

Hi All.

Just had my car in for them to do maintenance. They told me my tires are starting to look worn. I only have 16,600 miles!!! They told me 16K-20K is common to replace. I drive my car fairly gentile...but I do have the sport package. I don't really burn around corners too often or do burn outs. Traction control is always left on!!!

When did you guys have to replace your tires??

I do want to stay with the runflats....I don't plan to keep the car for more than another 12-18 months. The dealer here charges $499 per tire if you can believe that!!!

Where is a good place to buy.....I'd appreciate any hints or ideas!!
THANKS

My first set of rears lasted about 20,000 miles. Replaced them 4/09. My fronts were replaced at 26,000 (7/09) because the side wall was bulging (damn pot hole). Today I will replace the rears again after only 6,500 miles. I am not at all happy.

I do not drive llike some crazed lunatic (as is evidenced by the mileage I got from the first set). Between April and today the car spent 2.5 weeks at the dealer getting wastgates and turbos replaced (7/09). It has been suggested that the dealer either a) "tested" the turbos he replaced by being a cowboy and driving my car like an a$$hole or b) replaced my relatively new tires with some fairly worn ones figuring I wouldn't notice. In either case I am not happy having had to lay out a total of $2,100 for tires THIS YEAR.

[jeremyc74]

I replaced mine with about 14k miles on them, but they should have been replaced sooner. The rear tires were useless by 12k.

You couldn't pay me enough money to put run-flats back on this car. They cost and wear like ultra performance tire, without any of the performance benefit. I put a set of all seasons on the car when I replaced the RFTs and I've got almost 20k miles on them, and expect that they'll proabably go another 5-7k miles which will get me through the winter.

[oasis3582]

Tire Rack - buy non-RFTs for a ton cheaper.

[Yes2m3cs]

Well I guess I can chime in here. I have about 25k on my original runflats and the rears are about done. The fronts still look perfect. A majority of my miles are highway commute to work.

I live in florida and the roads are pretty good overall so they haven't bothered me that bad.
I bought two new rear bridgestone runflats from other board members and will be installing them shortly. After this set wears, I will probably try out some S drives all around to see what the difference really is.

So you can go tire rack or other forum members if you are going to stick with runflats.

Good luck

[3liter1]

This thread brings up an interesting question - I have a call into the dealer on this. Does a leased car have to be returned with run flats ? If so, then it makes sense to take them off sooner, and put them back on before returning the car!

[3liter1]

Dealer is investigating. Lots of 3 series with runflats have come off leases so they should be able to get an answer

[Spartikus]

I couldnt wait to get those runflats off my car. My tire replacements came around 15k if I remember correctly.

[ru55]

New tyres after 9k here


(ops)

[Monterra]

RPM: Your A4 was designed to run square on probably 235s so going to 245 probably not much diff. On the 325, did you get wider wheels to accommodate the wider tire in front? If not then you also may not perceive the difference. What I'm saying is if you went 8.5 inch wide wheel up front on the 135- A) it would overhang the the fender and probably rub, and B) look and perform badly. You can understand BMW going wider in the rear for the look as you say but why wouldn't that be true for the fronts too? Manufacturers stagger for a reason- Porsche, Ferrari, Lambo, Corvette, and I don't believe they do it for looks. The same look could be easily and more cheaply achieved by just spacing a 225 out 20mm. The cars you cite are also having to cope with big nose heavy V8s over those front wheels so it can benefit from wider front rubber and I wouldn't consider any to be awesome handlers and their buyers will likely want to be able to power oversteer them and induce smoky burn outs without having to try too hard.
Lastly, your complaint of going through staggered tires faster doesn't make sense to me. The rears are going to wear at one rate, the fronts at another. To me, all rotating accomplishes is the convenience of replacing them all at once, but you bear the added expense of having them rotated a few times for that convenience unless you do it yourself of course. But your net gain is at most convenience, not extended tire wear.

Having said that, I agree the 135 is no Ferrari and didn't "need" to be staggered, at least not the way they suspended the car. 225 or 235 square would probably work well, I just think 245 is pushing it, seems more front tire than would be beneficial to me.

[Add1ct]

I am at a crossroads on this too. I let my rears wear down too much to trade in on a lease so now i might as well wear them out. I bought a set of 245/35 18 contisport contact 3s new for a great deal for the rear and now have to find them for the front in 225/40 but I was thinking maybe just buy used runflats if I can get them cheap (found a set with about 60-70% and no patches for $100 from a local reseller) and pay less to just have 2 rear tires put on for now than 4 non-runflats and lose the risk of not havign runflats. but regular tires really are so much better. I've had the Sdrives on the breytons i had and they are good, but nowhere near PS2s, contact 3s or pirellis, all of which I had on my e46 at one point or another. In the end though I'll probably go non runflat and buy a set of nailed and patched or plugged runflats for $150 to trade teh car in with. I had to leave somebody with repaired tires but if that's what I can find a deal on when trade in comes then BMW forced me to do it. Now that I've rambled- get non-rfts or buy rfts used.

[Tom K.]

X97, are you sure you need to replace all 4 tires? Why not invest $5 in a tread depth gauge so you don't have to rely on the dealer? I say that as every BMW I've owned has worn the rear tires just about twice as quickly as the fronts. So I plan to buy 2 OEM RFT tires for the rear (but not from a dealer - check Tire Rack or a local tire shop) when the originals on my 128i go at about 24,000 miles (no less than 2/32" tread depth across the tires).

Tom

[lacrosse]

Originally Posted by AudiS4

This thread brings up an interesting question - I have a call into the dealer on this. Does a leased car have to be returned with run flats ? If so, then it makes sense to take them off sooner, and put them back on before returning the car!

In a word, "yes".

[JimD]

I had my wheels off today (painting the calipers) and looked at the tires. The wear rating was 240 (Goodyears). It seems like that may be higher than some of you with quick replacements.

My SUV is my first independant rear end rear wheel drive vehicle. My 128 is my second. My SUV definitely wears the rears harder. It's interesting to hear Tom say bimmers do to. It seems a little odd but what about swapping the fronts to the rear? I have the sport pack so they are not the same size but I think the fronts are wide enough for the 128. Might not be worth the trouble and slightly odd look but I like it when all 4 wear out at the same time.

Jim

[RPM90]

Originally Posted by AudiS4

This thread brings up an interesting question - I have a call into the dealer on this. Does a leased car have to be returned with run flats ? If so, then it makes sense to take them off sooner, and put them back on before returning the car!

My sales agent and finance lady said the car MUST be returned with RFT's with the required tread depth.

That's why I'm keeping the RFT's after I get my all seasons, then I'll just put the RFT's back on before return and they'll only have about 2k miles on them.

I'm sure this is probably fact as these cars don't have spares or a way to fix and reinflate. So for resale I'm sure they have to have the RFT's on there as OEM.