With this being such a safety issue this thread should get permantly stuck at the top of the forum until a resolution is found.
JMHO

 

I went to my BMW service center yesterday to drop off my car. All the SA's stated that they have never seen a rim split in two. I referred them to this wonderful site and told them at least 5 or 6 people have had similar problems with 124 style rims. Because I have Tire & Wheel insurance, they were happy to order a new tire and rim. Here is where we have a problem. I don't want another "defective" 124 rim on my car. My biggest concern is my wife's safety. We were fortunate that this "defective" rim did not cause bodily harm to us or other drivers on the rode. Who's to say that we will have the same luck if it happens again.

I spoke with the General Manager this AM. He told me he contacted BWMNA and they were looking into the problem. I will post an update when I hear back from the GM.

I agree that this is a hot topic that should be at the top of the forum until it's resolved. This is a major safety concern for all of us.

Tony H.

 

I don't believe this is a safety issue. Please note I am NOT saying it's not dangerous to have a wheel split in two while driving. What I AM saying is that I do not believe this represents a broad safety issue with E60 and/or Style 124 wheels. We do not have enough data, from a statistical standpoint, to make any determinations in the context of asserting a defect with Style 124, nor are there enough occurrences to represent anything else other than a freak, extremely isolated issue. I hate to say it, but if some failure mode is associated with x number out of tens, or hundreds, of thousands of wheels globally, and x is a very small number, I don't personally believe it to be a major issue. Further, I don't believe that any sales advisor would be pushing wheel and tire insurance because they "know" that Style 124s fail. They're pushing it to make money, period.

 

DAS - understand your points but it is certainly significant (neither you nor I can determine statistical significance) that there have been similar failures on 3 or 4 vehicles owned by the relatively small population of 545i sport driving e60.net members. Further, even if the frequency is very low, the severity associated with such a failure at the wrong time (middle of curve at high speed) is potentially very high. This IS a safety issue.

More than anything, I would like you to make this thread sticky so that others who may have experienced the failure can post. It would be a valuable service to your members to do so.

My personal view is that it is ABSURD to have any wheel fail in the manner that the 124's have failed. INobody expects a low profile wheel to survive an impact without possibly being rendered untrue, but I would wager a great deal of money that you would not be able to find a single knowledgeable driver who would find this type of failure to be expected after a pothole impact. Further, I think that the same group would absolutely find this type of failure to be a safety issue.

My $0.02 from a current 540i-6spd driver waiting for his Feb 06 delivery 550i-6spd w/124's.

 

Good point(s), but when it happens to you (meaning me) your level of concern is raised. I know the number of occurrences is low. It's just strange that only Style 124 has been reported. And we are only talking about a few thousand members on this forum. How many of us actually have Style 124 wheels? Who knows how many other occurrences have been reported. I can tell you I spoke to a mechanic at a German Auto repair center in town tonight and he confirmed seeing it twice on 124 rims. I also agree that the SA was not intentionaly pushing the insurance because he knew the 124's would fail. Again, when it happens to you (meaning me) you tend to have a different take on things.

 

I'm not sure but haven't all the rim split occurred with style 124 and runflats? Could be that the runflat is keeping things together because of it's additional strength or it could be the problem in the first place...

 

So far, only style 124 has split. IMO, the runflat is definitely holding things together, but don't see it as the problem with the 124s splitting. The stiffer walls of the runflats should offer more protection for the wheels. I would expect a normal tire to give less protection and hence more splits wo runflats. The runflats split down the middle. In my case, the impact point was likely concentrated on a single point in the middle of the wheel. The low profile offers less protection and the wheel needs a either a more malleable alloy or more metal to resist the split. The splits may be occurring because the wheels are too brittle to take a lick. Instead of bending, they split.

 

My wheel split without the Run Flats.

 

There you go then. I wasn't aware that there were any cases where the wheel split on conventional tires.

Obviously, the extra forces that the runflats exert on the wheels are not causing the split...

 

Finally got my car back. The dealer replaced my tire and rim without touching my tire & wheel insurance. However, it doesn't end here. I received a call from my SA telling me that my car would be ready for pickup in 30 minutes. About 10 minutes later I received another call from my SA. This time he told me that the detailer dropped the hose on my hood and put a big scratch on it. He asked to keep the car for two more days to repair the scratch. You can only imagine the number of F-bombs I dropped. I had them deliver the car to me on Friday. The tire and rim looked great and so did the hood....until Saturday morning. The car was still wet from Fridays rain. I dried her off to get a better look at the hood. Wouldn't you know it. The rain left dark spots all over the hood. I'll post pictures when I get back from the dealer. I have to tell you we're not off to a good start with this car.

We purchased our Certified 2004 545i from a local BMW dealer on 11/20/05.
* We went home with a loaner car because a mod that controls the nav screen was out and had to be ordered (5 days at dealer)
* Two weeks later, another mod goes out. This one dealing with the stereo (4 days at dealer)
* 12/24/05 cracked front passenger rim and dealer scratched hood (5 days at dealer)
* 01/03/05 I'm bringing the car back to have the hood repaired/repainted (who knows how many days at the dealer).

We've had the car roughly 6 weeks and have been driving a loaner for 14 days and probably another 5 more after I bring it in today.

Sorry for the long post. I'm just a little frustrated.