crypto

I'm a terrible person in advanced for also putting this in E60 discussion but burning short on time and this forum gets 200x the traffic as the tires forum. Bear with me if you don't mind and can help me on a semi-short timeframe here.

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Hey Guys

If someone doesn't mind giving me their thoughts and/or expertise it'd be greatly appreciated. Unfortunately I am about to sell my car. I might list it briefly on the forum to see if anyone wants it with all the mods but I am anticipating putting the stock wheels back on and swinging by Carmax. Problem is.. I got 1 of my 4 stock wheels with an unfixable flat just recently. I have my 19" MORRs on right now but I need to put stock wheels back on for Carmax.. after market wheels actually decrease their offer..

My wheels are all the original Goodyear 17" RFT tires. Question is.. what's my best course of action? I'm giving it a college try to find someone on the forums that has a used 17 Goodyear RFT that would somewhat match. I'm not holding my breath on that so my question is.. what's my best next options both in terms of 1) what's the right thing to do and 2) what I can get away with and not get dinged by Carmax / a potentially buyer.

I've never just bought 1 new tired. I assume that's not really an option or good idea. It'd be very uneven with the rest of the car.. right? Correct me if wrong.. so that in my mind leaves me with two options:

- Buy two new tires and put them on
- Buy two used tires that are even with one another and put them on.

Someone tried to tell me with the AWD cars you need to replace all 4. Is there any truth too this? seems a bit hoky to me that 1 wrecked tire would mean you need 4 new ones. Would anyone complain if I had 2 goodyear RFTs in the back and 2 different (either new or used) Continental, Michelen, etc tires in the front? Does this raise any alarms for anyone?

I just want to make sure I don't waste my money fixing this tire issue to find it causes a bigger problem in the eyes of Carmax. Any ideas/thoughts/feedback/recommendation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

turboawd

i'd try to find a used tire. ebay has quite a few.

if you cant find a used, just buy one new one, and put that in the rear.

turboawd

i'm not sure which model tire you have exactly, but here's an example of whats on ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-LikeNew-Ti...eeca43&vxp=mtr

twh

I've also used eBay for tires successfully.

Few things you need to know.

(1) Most of the tires listed have a repair of some sort. 95% of the listings say somewhere in the listing if there is a repair or not. I won't buy a RFT with a repair. Not that there can't be acceptable repairs, just isn't worth getting one with a repair when you can find one without.

(2) Having tires with the same rolling distance is a real thing with AWD cars. So, you must pay attention to the treadwear. Measure the treadwear on your current tires and get a tire that has the same treadwear. Then you won't have any issues with differing rolling distances and the AWD system. Plus or minus 1mm is what I used as my own measure.

(3) Get a tire that is around the same age as your tires. Some of the tires on eBay are very very old and have no business on the road. The tire manufacture month and year is in the DOT code. You can even get a tire built in the same factory around the same month and year. See this for the decoding of the DOT code: Tire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You can also get one tire from TireRack and they will shave the tire to whatever treadwear you want for a fee.

crypto

Cool thanks for the tips guys.. didnt even think there'd be so much stock on eBay.

This guy appears to be worn about the same as my tires. The ones I have seem be around 4.5/32 or 5/32. I got the 94W on mine (not H) .. this one seems to be about the same level of wear:

1 Used Tire Goodyear Eagle Authority 225 50ZR17 94W 225 50 17 2255017 S113176 | eBay


Can't see the DOT code but maybe I'll call and ask 'em.

crypto

Bleh just noticed the tread pattern on that looks nothing like mine. I just have three straight lines and not this zig zag stuff. Weird. Everything else about the tire seems fairly identical.

Looks like this guy is close enough but ... looking @ the DOT code is from Feb 2005 .. 4.5 years older than my tires..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-EXCELLENT-...00c20c&vxp=mtr

Looks like I could just buy a set of two around 5-6/32s (about the same wear) that are newer and perhaps be better off than going with an oddball single old one? FML .. I'm probably way over thinking this and just need to git'rdun.

twh

No way should you be using a tire from 2005. Keep looking. Use the eBay search carefully. You can get a tire depth guage for cheap from Fairfax Auto Parts or Advance or Auto Zone.

twh

Another thing to look for is the "star" on the tire. That is the BMW approval for the tire. If you have the original tires that came with the car, go look at them and there is an asterisk on the tire.