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[gio]

So I hit a pothole on the highway today and I got a flat tire (front driver's side). I'm debating whether to get a new OEM runflat tire ($250 on tire rack) or whether I should just get 4 different, better, cheaper tires. I only have 4250 miles on my other 3 runflats. I wonder if I can sell them on ebay (would anyone buy them?). What is a good replacement tire that people out there are using? I guess I'm going to end up going 225/40/18 and 255/35/18 on the stock rims because there are more options in that combo than the OEM sizes.

In the meantime, I hope I didn't damage my rim. I can't really tell what part of the tire is damaged but it appears to be the inside of the tire, near the sidewall and when I drove home on it (about 20 miles), it went thump thump thump like any other flat tire (I don't see how the runflats helped).

[Artmasterx]

Crappy massachusetts road claim another one...

I am starting to be afraid, even with 17" wheels.

I bet you could sell the rear wheels to someone on the forum, some people will likely wear those pretty quickly.

[JME]

If you blew it out hitting a pothole you might have actually seperated the tire from the wheel, in which case I would NOT drive on it until you replace the tire and have it remounted.

I have no experience driving on a deflated runflat, but I do have experience driving on a flat tire (blew it out off the beaten path with no celphone coverage and didn't have to tools to change the tire with me, worst experience of my life) and when the bead actually popped out of the rim and the tire began to come off it started to make the horrible thump thumping and luckily I was almost within range of civiliation.

I would definitely take the wheel off the tire and check to make sure the bead is still firmly secured in the rim, and have the wheel looked at if it isn't.

[gio]

Originally Posted by JME

If you blew it out hitting a pothole you might have actually seperated the tire from the wheel, in which case I would NOT drive on it until you replace the tire and have it remounted.

I have no experience driving on a deflated runflat, but I do have experience driving on a flat tire (blew it out off the beaten path with no celphone coverage and didn't have to tools to change the tire with me, worst experience of my life) and when the bead actually popped out of the rim and the tire began to come off it started to make the horrible thump thumping and luckily I was almost within range of civiliation.

I would definitely take the wheel off the tire and check to make sure the bead is still firmly secured in the rim, and have the wheel looked at if it isn't.

I think you might be right. The tire has bubbled pretty severely and it looks like its torn at the base of the sidewall along the edge of the rim and perhaps separated from the rim. It did make a loud thumping noise when I drove it (is that normal for deflated runflats)? I already drove it 20 miles or so. Will it last another 5 or so to take it to get new tires put on? I don't have a spare or anything to put on it although I suppose I could have it towed. I'll be really pissed if I end up needing a new rim (any idea how much the OEM rims cost?). The rim doesn't look bent but I guess you can't really tell when the tire is still on.

I ended up buying a set of Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Specs from tirerack. They should be here in a day or two. I think it's funny that tirerack calls you up to remind you that you are buying non-runflat tires if you buy them for a 1.

I put my OEM runflats up for sale in the for sale forum if anyone is interested.

[WhiteOne]

Do not drive the car anymore with that tire. It is ruined and you will damage your rim. I would take the rim to the shop and have the new tire put on. After putting the wheel back on your car, you can drive over and have the others done. JMHO

[gio]

Originally Posted by WhiteOne

Do not drive the car anymore with that tire. It is ruined and you will damage your rim. I would take the rim to the shop and have the new tire put on. After putting the wheel back on your car, you can drive over and have the others done. JMHO

ok, I have AAA, so I suppose I can have them tow it to the shop when the new tires come in. It would be difficult to get to the shop and back with a rim and without a car and I'm not comfortable leaving the 1 up on jack stands parked on the street while I bring the rim in.

[Artmasterx]

Will BMW roadside assistance only take you to a BMW dealership?

[WhiteOne]

Tirerack can deliver the tires to the shop so you do not have to haul them. The car should be safe sitting on 3 tires and 1 jack stand for an hour or two. Depending on the area, you could just leave it on the jack. Let us know how the new tires feel...

[roldan]

Oh man.. just read your post on the New England forum. Good luck! That sounds exactly like what happened to me - highway pothole, driver's side front tire, ominous thump thump thump noise - make sure whatever shop you take it to checks the rims for any damage. I drove it from Somerville to Waltham since there are tons of shops I can walk to from work here.

If you want you can borrow my rim with a slightly scalloped RFT on it to get to the shop - they're all just sitting in my basement now.

I made the mistake of getting another RFT which I immediately wore funnily at the advanced driving skills school, plus it turns out my rims were all bent up - the lemonade from the lemons was a great excuse to get BMW Performance Rims, though, so it wasn't all terrible.

[gio]

Originally Posted by roldan

Oh man.. just read your post on the New England forum. Good luck! That sounds exactly like what happened to me - highway pothole, driver's side front tire, ominous thump thump thump noise - make sure whatever shop you take it to checks the rims for any damage. I drove it from Somerville to Waltham since there are tons of shops I can walk to from work here.

If you want you can borrow my rim with a slightly scalloped RFT on it to get to the shop - they're all just sitting in my basement now.

I made the mistake of getting another RFT which I immediately wore funnily at the advanced driving skills school, plus it turns out my rims were all bent up - the lemonade from the lemons was a great excuse to get BMW Performance Rims, though, so it wasn't all terrible.

Was your rim all bent up from the flat you got? Or were all of them all bent from Boston roads in general? Did you notice the car driving funny with the bent rim(s)? When my TTs rims got bent I used to hear a thump-thump all the time and it drove me crazy!

I saw your rims on Sunday! They look really nice! How much did they cost you?

Thank you for the offer, but I'm going to get a spare (since I've ordered non-runflat tires) and I'll use that in the meantime to get to the shop.

[roldan]

The bent rims were somewhat noticeable - it was imperceptible below 30mph, then slightly irritating around 45mph, annoying around 75mph and really worrisome over 85mph. The rims were definitely mostly bent from the flat, although I'm sure Boston roads are generally unkind to 18" rims.

I got the performance rims from dan@united and they were $1300 shipped plus another $800 or so for tires, TPMS sensors, and mounting and balancing. Not cheap, but they are pretty.

[gio]

Originally Posted by roldan

The bent rims were somewhat noticeable - it was imperceptible below 30mph, then slightly irritating around 45mph, annoying around 75mph and really worrisome over 85mph. The rims were definitely mostly bent from the flat, although I'm sure Boston roads are generally unkind to 18" rims.

I got the performance rims from dan@united and they were $1300 shipped plus another $800 or so for tires, TPMS sensors, and mounting and balancing. Not cheap, but they are pretty.

What kind of tires did you get?

[gio]

Originally Posted by roldan

The bent rims were somewhat noticeable - it was imperceptible below 30mph, then slightly irritating around 45mph, annoying around 75mph and really worrisome over 85mph. The rims were definitely mostly bent from the flat, although I'm sure Boston roads are generally unkind to 18" rims.

I got the performance rims from dan@united and they were $1300 shipped plus another $800 or so for tires, TPMS sensors, and mounting and balancing. Not cheap, but they are pretty.

In the event that my rim is destroyed, would you be interested in selling one of your front rims (the one that didn't get the flat)? I don't know how much they cost new but I have a feeling they are more than I'd want to spend on a rim.

[roldan]

I got Bridgestone Potenza RE760s in 225 in the front and 245 in the rear.

Not sure if I want to sell the rims.. I think I'm going to try to use them for snows if there turn out to be any reasonable ones for 18s.

[Bdh821]

roldan what kinda rims do you have now? That sucks about the tire tho gio... Hope you get that resolved before autox this sunday

[roldan]

I got the BMW Performance Rims. Kinda crappy pics I took here.. I should do some new ones.

[gio]

Originally Posted by roldan

I got Bridgestone Potenza RE760s in 225 in the front and 245 in the rear.

Not sure if I want to sell the rims.. I think I'm going to try to use them for snows if there turn out to be any reasonable ones for 18s.

I've been thinking of using the stock rims for snows and getting new rims in the spring but the only winter tires available for the stock rims are sized 225/40/18 and 255/35/18 blizzaks that are pretty expensive and that is an awfully wide tire for the snow. Tire rack is selling packages of 17" rims (205 width) plus snow tires for less than $1000 (not including TPMS sensors, though) so I probably will end up doing that. I hate to lose all the performance for 5 months though due to narrow snow tires.

I'm not really sure what to do about the winters around here. I can work at home so I rarely need to drive in the snow if I don't have to and some years the winters are very light. But then there are years when the snow is bad (like last year). I used to have a lot of fun driving my AWD Audi TT with 4 snows around in the snow, I doubt the 135 will be anywhere near that good even with skinny snow tires on it. Obviously we'll need some type of snow tire but I'm not sure how much performance I'm willing to sacrifice.