Hello all e60 fans,
I have a question about run flats. Last night was my 1st time I got a flat tire alert after driving the car in NYC for 8 months and have about 8,500 miles on them. I went out and checked the tires and all seemed normal. How does run flats work? would i've seen the defected tire with less air then others? If the tire is flat, can a regular tire shop fix it or do I have to buy a new tire? I think i have the dunlops, sad to say dont remember and to lazy to go check now. Thanks in advance for you help.

 

It's hard to visually see a low or flat run flat. I split two wheels and had immediate decompression. All four tires looked normal to a casual observer. I have the photos somewhere.

 

Several here have had them repaired, depending on the "wound." Many repair shops are NOT equipped to deal with them, and even those that are, can botch the job AND YOUR WHEEL finish. I'd be very careful, and I'd search runflat repairs in NYC; there was a detailed post here within the past 10 days that described several NYC shops.

Good luck,
Ray Hull

 

Check your pressure with a tire gauge. And, you could try resetting your monitor. You may have had a false alarm. I have never had a RFT repaired, but it can be done if the sidewall is not affected. Some tire shops may refuse to repair a RFT for potential liability reasons. If you can find a shop that will do so, then you might have your tire repaired provided that you are not going to do any demanding driving, including high-speed driving.

 

Got my tires repaired twice by NTB in Nashua for 40 bucks.....had several high speed runs and it was all good....if sidewall is not damaged....i guess nothing would go wrong with repairing them...

 

I am glad all was good. I was giving conservative advice, which I would follow myself, since I am not completely sure what all the uproar over repairing RFT's is all about. Do you know exactly why some are hesitant to repair RTF's from the physical perspective (i.e., not the liability perspective)?

 

I discussed this issue with my local tyre supplier in the UK - they run a 6 series with RFs and hate them! They've the ability to repair them and have been happy to do so, but apparently all the manufacturers of RFs have now issued information stating that they would advise against repair and would recommend replacement. This obvioulsy places the tyre fitter/repairer in a difficult situation regarding litigation. There would appear to be no sound (practical) reason not to repair, but the repairer is effectively going against the manufacturers advice and may suffer any consequences. It looks like the tyre manufacturers are stitching us up?

 

In Germany they are not allowed to repair high speed tires! It has nothing to do with RFT or non RFT.
But the RFT's we use on our E60's are high speed tires, so they can't be repaired legally.

 

"The system is therefore able to detect a possible loss of air by checking the wheels' speed of rotation. Since the roll radius of the tyres alters as pressure decreases, the wheel rotation speed changes accordingly and is measured precisely by the Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS) sensors on the wheels."

1st of all, check the tyre pressure at each wheel.Maybe you've just to reinflate a little a tyre or another. But if it's realy flat ....
You might also get a false alert with a difference of worn between 2 tyres.

Here in Belgium, they say it's forbidden to repair a RF tyre ! You are supposed to buy a new one, and even, if the other tyre of the same axle is not quite new, you'll have to fit 2 new tyres !! :thumbsdown:

That's why I think that RF tyres are not the right choice !

 

The reluctance to repair is beacuse the repairer does not know how much damage may have been dome to the sidewalls by driving on them with less air in the tire than normal.

Some driver may travel 50 miles on a tire with no air in them in which case the side walls will have taken a lot more strain than say a driver who only drove a couple of miles with a slow leak.