10 days ago I hit a pot hole coming home from NYC, had to get a new tire and rim. Three days ago my flat tire sensor came on, I figuired I might have spun some wheels, so that it was a false alarm. I went home, looked at the tires and they looked good, so I reset the TPM thru I-Drive. Yesterday It came on again, and I felt a very slight pull in steering to the right. Got home looked at the front right tire more closely and it looked a little low. I dont have a tire pressure gauge to check. By the way this was the same tire replaced 10 days ago. It was 4:30, but I still decided to goto the dealer and have it checked out. I went in and told my SA, he said no problem we will check it right away (4:55pm, service closes at 5:00pm) He came back fifteen minutes later and asked me how I got along with my neighbors, because they tested the tire and there were no leaks or damage whatsoever, and that the tire had ZERO psi. Me neighbors are great people so im thinking it either happened at work, or when they put the tire on last week they forgot to put air in it. Last time I talked about run-flats I hated them, this time, I must say, it was incredible to be able to dirve a couple days with no air, and barely notice it.

 

Very Strange if possibly true. OTOH, I once picked up my motorcycle from the dealer, having had the forks rebulit and new tires mounted over the winter. Being my first ride (home) of the year, I thought it seemed a bit snappy over mild bumps, but attributed it to the fork rebuild. A week later, on my first official pleasure ride, I decided to check the pressure of the new tires : Rear 34, Front 80! Obviously, they had never released the high pressure after seating the bead. It's amazing that I wasn't pogo-ing right off the road. So, it can happen, even at the dealer.

One suggestion: never reset your TPM without confirming BOTH tires on that axle.

Good luck,
Ray Hull

 

Hey, that's a good report for the RTF's. Finally, someone had something good to say about them, well, except for me. I am glad you had a better experience this time. I suppose that other possibilities are that the RTF was not set on the rim properly or there was a problem with the stem--since these explanations are consistent with the air leaking slowly and you not noticing the problem for a while.

 

PLEASE, buy a good tire gauge. Even for non run flats it is necessary to keep pressures at proper levels. You may have ruined a perfectly good RF tire cause you looked at it and it appeared OK. You cannot tell easily. They only cost about $8-15 compared to $$$ for tires and the safety issue. Its not that hard (my fog lights??)

 

I don't understand why people assume that the FTM is faulty when they get a notification, and then check their tires by looking at them and assume all is OK--especially with run flats, which are designed to not collapse, even with no pressure.

I check my tires once a month--they lose 2 - 4 lbs per month, and even without run flats, that's something you're not gong to notice with a visual inspection--but will cause premature tire wear, and lower gas mileage.

 

Good points and good question. We have started assuming the RTFM is faulty on our X5 since it has notified us several tires when tire pressure hasn't changed (and, consistently, there is nothing wrong with the tire).

 

Well this happened again yesterday. I went back to the dealer for the second time since it was originally replaced, they re-tested and said they again couldnt find anything wrong. At that point I had to be more firm with them because they didnt want to do anything about it. After raising my voice, I had 5 SA's trying to figuire out the problem The warranty manager decided to replace the new rim, to see maybe if that is the problem. After talking with one of the SA's outside he told me 90% of the time when this occurs it is the rim. They should have done this when I first walked in, instead of trying to get me to go away. Anyway hopefully this is it. The one good thing is that I had them put on my Black kidney grills for free, wich I have had painted and sitting in my basement from before I got the car. They look GREAT.