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BMW 3-Series (E90 E92) Forum > E90 / E92 / E93 3-series Technical Forums > Wheels and Tires Forum Sponsored by The Tire Rack > My Runflat Story



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      02-07-2006, 04:33 PM   #1
Paddy
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My Runflat Story

Started last Friday, I'm cruising home from work on the freeway. The one day in ages where the freeway is practically empty at 6PM and my Tire Warning goes on. I immediately drop the speed to 50MPH, and head for the right lane. Now I'm the slowest car on the freeway, holding up traffic and I'm sure causing a lot of people to wonder why someone would buy an E90 330i to drive at 50MPH. Anyways I get home and check the tire pressure on all 4 tires. The rear right is down to about 35PSI the Rear Left is up at 46PSI. I check the tire as best I could for a nail/screw (it was getting dark) and couldn't find anything. So my first thought was that the dealer never prepped the tire pressure correctly and this was just normal air loss.
I get on the net and check bimmerfest and e90post for various experiences on run-flats and tire-pressure in general. Next day I go out and buy an air compressor (I had a Home Depot gift card which was finally put to good use), and inflate my tires 33/Front 41/Rear (Stock 330i runflats 225-45-R17 Turanza's) as per door pillar sticker.
I reset the flat tire warning indicator and all is well.
Today, Tuesday, the warning comes on again (coincidentially very close to the spot on the freeway where it went off last time!!) so I head for home.
Sure enough the same tire had low pressure (around 35PSI). This time in borad daylight I give the tire a closer inspection and I notice a shiny metal thingy embedded in the raised thread around the centre of the tire.

Before I continue I should give additional background...
When I signed for the car at the dealer I also purchased the Luxury Tire/Wheel Warranty at $599 for 3 years. I had read, not in much detail, several posts about people having problems with their runflats, so at the time it seemed like a good idea.
Afterwards I wrote a post asking people if they thought that the Warranty was good value or not. Based on the responses and my own personal experience of not having a single flat in 10 years (Guess I was due!!) I cancelled the warranty, it had a 30-day cancellation policy, two days before I got the first flat tire warning!!.

Back to today...
Based on my previous quick reads of runflat posts I believed that the run-flats were not repareable, so I called the dealer and ask how much to get the tire changed.
Price was ~$350 for the tire, not including labor...now at this point I'm seriously regretting cancelling the warranty. If figure there's gotta be cheaper place to buy/install a tire than the dealer, so I go to TireRack.com. Same Tire is about $210. I checked out their recommended installers in my zip code and call Big-O Tire. They charge $280 for the tire (Tire rack price didn't include tax+shipping)..So anyways I figure that I'm in for about $300 including installation from Big-O. The guy I talked to in Big-O was very helpful and explained that my tire might be repairable. I wasn't entirely convinced as I understood the runflats to be non-repairable, but decided to do some research online. Turns out that it depends on the nature of the flat and my slow puncture in the middle of the thread seemed like a possible candidate. I drive to Big-O and they check the tire and find out that they can repair it, turns out a phillips screw driver attachment for an electric drill was the culprit. I feel confident that the repair will work well as the tire never went completely flat and the sidewalls were not compromised.

So in the end I got away with a $25 repair, but sure went through a lot of soul searching about cancelling the Tire Warranty!
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      02-07-2006, 04:56 PM   #2
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Great story, sounds like everything worked out in the end. You fixed it just in time for > http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...san+diego+meet
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      02-07-2006, 04:59 PM   #3
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And that's the way I feel. If the sidewall hasn't been compromised (due to FOD or being run without air), then I don't see why it can't be repaired. Good job with finding a sensible repairer.
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      02-07-2006, 05:04 PM   #4
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Good for you for not feeding that moneysucking stealership more than you absolutely have to!!
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      02-07-2006, 05:30 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by diesel007
Great story, sounds like everything worked out in the end. You fixed it just in time for
Funny you should mention that, one of the after purchase freebies I got from my dealer (Cunningham BMW) was a book on Weekend Drives in San Diego area AND a coupon for one free Apple Pie from Julian Pie Company.

Sounds like a good opportunity to use up that coupon!!
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      02-07-2006, 05:34 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Paddy
Funny you should mention that, one of the after purchase freebies I got from my dealer (Cunningham BMW) was a book on Weekend Drives in San Diego area AND a coupon for one free Apple Pie from Julian Pie Company.

Sounds like a good opportunity to use up that coupon!!
Should I add your name to the list?
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      02-07-2006, 05:38 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by diesel007
Should I add your name to the list?
Yeah, why not...
I'll set the alarm clock!!!
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      02-07-2006, 05:42 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Paddy
Yeah, why not...
I'll set the alarm clock!!!
:rocks:
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      02-07-2006, 08:31 PM   #9
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Good story, I enjoyed reading it.
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      02-08-2006, 01:21 AM   #10
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good to hear. a litle patience and researching saved you some serious mula.
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      02-08-2006, 05:41 AM   #11
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very fortunate. just keep a close watch on the tyre to make sure all is well for the long term hopefully the tyre will perform perfectly for its tread life.

nice happy ending story.
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      02-08-2006, 01:08 PM   #12
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I got the warranty just in case. You never know what can happen in the next 5 years. All I have to do is replace 2 tires and I already have my money worth. I got it for $450 for 5 years. THat's $90 a year. Totally worth it.
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      02-08-2006, 01:49 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BMWE90
I got the warranty just in case. You never know what can happen in the next 5 years. All I have to do is replace 2 tires and I already have my money worth. I got it for $450 for 5 years. THat's $90 a year. Totally worth it.
These are high performance tires on the car, I really doubt that they will last 5 years. I give the 1-2 tops, depending on how hard you corner, or how many miles you do per year.
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      02-08-2006, 03:57 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fredtoo
These are high performance tires on the car, I really doubt that they will last 5 years. I give the 1-2 tops, depending on how hard you corner, or how many miles you do per year.
I believe the warranty covers 5 rears regardless of how many tires you go through. It's not per tire.
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      02-08-2006, 05:51 PM   #15
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I had the BMW dealer advise me that it may be possible to repair the tyre but that the dealership was not allowed to do it for legal reasons. Rationale is that they don't know how much damage has been done to the sidewall since the tyre was compromised. Anyway, I asked to keep the punctured tyre (only 5000 miles on it) and I'll take it to be plugged and keep it as a spare (for the rear weels).
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