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Sedans BMW 3-Series BMW 3-Series Run Flat Tires
2420 messages, Last post on Nov 29, 2009 at 8:10 AM
You are in the BMW 3-Series Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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Replying to: circlew (Jul 03, 2008 11:00 am) It's been a while since I reported in. I'm curious. My dealer told me that to rotate my tires, it's $33. To balance as well, it's $99. Since the ContiProContact RFs are about $175/tire, why not put 20,000 miles on them and just replace them? I know it's a little cheaper to rotate them, but then again, I'd have new tread every 20,000 miles. I have almost 12,000 miles on the 225 45R17's that came on my 335xi (which I love, BTW). Tread wear looks very good, and curiouser(?), BMW recommends NOT rotating the tires. By the way, for all you snow tire bigots, winter in the Boston burbs was absolutely no issue with all-season tires even in blizzards and huge snowdrifts. I STILL believe that BMW AWD ROCKS!! A little service history: The right front wheel bearing needed to be replaced. I heard a scraping noise from the right front when turning left. I took it to the dealer, left it for a week while I was out of town on business. They hooked up "electronic ears" somehow and determined it was coming from the wheel. No charge, of course. The dealer also gave me an $1,800 oil cooler for free when they couldn't provide a logical explanation why my 335xi didn't come with one while the 335i did. The reason that the wheels weren't 18" wasn't acceptable. Kudos for the oil cooler to the Service Director, Bob Fulton, and the dealership (Herb Chambers BMW of Sudbury (MA)), formerly Foreign Motors West, Natick, MA The 335xi is now paid off (less than 1 year post-purchase!) and we're about to buy a 328xi, black sapphire/black leather, with power/heated seats and the iPOD/USB adapter. I couldn't care less for the adapter but it's my wife's car. I got the turbo engine - I'm happy! She currently has a '95 318ti with ~136,000 miles. Get the revs up and it pulls like a rally car going up Pike's Peak! Anyone interested in a black/black HATCHBACK CAR? (can't get them anymore, you know!). The dealer is asking $1,570 over invoice for the 328xi. We haven't done any negotiating nor arrived at a trade-in value for the 318ti. I'm going to try to get the price down a little, especially as a repeat buyer. Thoughts? OK, enough blabbing. Any thoughts on any of this? xeye (Soon to be xeye SQUARED!)
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Problam with a rotation is that many of us have the Sports Package option, and therefore different sized front and rear tires. No rotation possible. As far as replacing the RFT's, the first set on a 2006 330i were a mess after 24,000 miles of a very normal mix of city and highway driving. I am 65 years of age and do not brutilize my tires in any way, shape or form. But they had to be replaced after the 1st 24,000 miles. I have a second set on the car now and some wear is showing at 32,000, some 8,000 after replacement. I have had the steering etc. checked by the local BMW dealer AND an independent tire dealer and they both state all is in perfect condition. When these finally do wear out I will replace with conventional tires costing about 1/2 what the RF's cost. I have done extensive research and there are plenty of name brand tires that have four (yes 4) times the wear rating of the RF's that come on BMWs. (They have a wear rating of 100 vs 350 - 450 on tires costing 1/2). This theoretically = 3 to 4 times the wear. John....Springfield, OR
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Replying to: johnsam (Aug 07, 2008 8:28 pm) 32K is great. I have never run any tire past 3 years/30K. I believe in good rubber at all times for safety. After 3 years, tires are basically not giving the same performance that I want and that relates to safety to me. I replaced the Contis at 23-24K but they had some good meat left. Regards, OW |
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Replying to: teeeye (Aug 07, 2008 3:05 pm) I replaced the second set of tires on my 330xi at 23 - 24K which still had about 20% tread life left. I had to anyway because I will turn in this ride in December as it is leased so I wanted good rubber for the last 8 months. Net/net it cost me one set of tires which I got for $580 + $20 tip for 4 225/45 R17 ContiPro Contact SSR's (including mounting/valves/Bal). The first set of BS bad rubber junk was changed for free in May '06 at 12K miles and were really loud with very uneven wear DESPITE tire rotation at 6K! I rotated the second set of tires (Conti) front/back each 6K miles and the wear was perfect. You don't have to but since I do it myself, it costs me 20 minutes per rotation. Good luck shopping because it's a buyers market out there...BMW is competing quite aggressively so let 'er rip! Regards, OW
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Here's the trick..if you have a floor jack, you can jack up one side of the car enough o change front to back in one shot...10 minutes for each side. Piece of cake! Regards, OW |
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I have BMW Roadside Assistance. I've used it a couple of times over the years with excellent results. On my 08 328i, I have the Bridgestone RFT's with about 10k miles on them. Compared to the Michelin Pilots that I had on the E46 that I traded for the '08, I'm not very impressed. I miss the turn-in performance, the dry grip, and -especially!!-the wet grip that my Pilots had. Since most of my driving (90%, really) is around a major metropolitan area, I'm considering dumping the RFT's, when they wear out in 10 - 15K miles, buying Michelin Pilots again and just calling Roadside Assistance if I DO happen to get a flat after that. Comments? Warnings? Will Pilots fit on the same rims? Thanks! |
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Replying to: sealoft (Jan 20, 2008 8:26 am) I get a lot of vibration through the steering column and the ride is uncomfortable and noisy. Not the reason I bought the ultimate driving machine. Could I check with you: did you have the dealer put on Continental ContiProContact SSR or something else? Did this void the tire insurance (which I unfortunately signed up for). TIA.
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Replying to: wiggling (Aug 14, 2008 6:41 pm) 36K Miles on it... Ok I am new to the BMW world, my wife had one when we got married. So we drive it quite often. Now just last weekend the gauge for the tire inflation when off. Ok cool, put some air in it, but the indicator stayed on. So we went to the BMW dealership (Atlanta, Ga) and after a long wait the told us $300.00 to change out ONE TIME, said they don't patch the RFT. Ok Cool, but I am no fool. I went down the street to Good Year and they had a Great Tire, I had to get two for the back, and paid 260.00 for them both, balanced and all rotated. The tires that came with the car "SUCKED" opps did I say that, they were the loudest tires I have EVER heard. I was like man this is a 40K Car and the tires sound like this... Anyway, I see nothing wrong with swapping the RFT for something better quality. I will pay for quality, not quantity and definitely not a gimmick. To to either Good Year or Michelin, leave those factory Continentals alone. Other than the tires, I like and respect the car. I am interested in trying out the M5. First thing I would do is change the tires... Have a Great Day
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