BERM

I was driving on the highway today doing 70mph, when I hit a pothole. Intently I felt that my tire blew up. When I pulled to the shoulder to see the damage, I notice that both my front and my rear tires have no air in them, but after closer inspection I found out that two rims are almost split in half. I didn't feel like the pothole was that big for rims to split like that. I have no idea what to do. Is this poor quality of the rims?? I changed my run flat tires about 7 months ago to regular non-run flat tires. Please advise what to do.

Chorethorious

WOW!!! Congrats on the ability to pull over.. I doubt you'll be able to claim any faulty manufacturing through the dealership, but it could be worth a try. Also, seeing as both front and back came to the same result, things point to the pothole solely. This had to be a monster of a pothole though. Especially since you were going 70MPH. I've hit potholes at that speed and it felt like a mere bump. I guess I'm trying to say that your rim had to have enough time to drop significantly within the pothole before reaching the otter rim of the pothole. ( ----- >)

I dunno, but I fall back on the statement that I'm glad you were able to pull over safely.

madmatt151

Unless what he is saying is exaggerated, I woudl say build quality. I live in NYC and have hit mopnster potholes with my aftermarket rims and stock ones on my M3 and at much faster speeds and I have never done that kind of damage. They split down the middle for God's sake. I would defintely bring this to the attention of the dealership and complain.

1600

Boy! That must have been some kind of cavernous pot-hole. You're lucky to have come out the other side!
Seriously though, the manner in which the wheel split should be of interest to BMW. Maybe they will have to redesign our wheels because of a possible design flaw. You should definitely hassle them for replacements.
Please keep us up to date.

red-max

Hmm... I seem to remember a whole series of cracked 124 rims ... ah, here's the thread:

[topic="6253"]E60 Alloy Wheel Cracked, Alloy Wheel Cracked[/topic]

http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=6523

1600

This REALLY looks like something BMW International needs to attend to. This is a design flaw.

andy545

Same thing happened to JDN HERE
Nothing wrong with the wheels...just bad luck !

Chorethorious

There was at least one person in that thread that got the wheel replaced under warranty.. Good luck!

BERM

The pothole didn't seem like it was a big one. I'm just happy that I'm ok, I'll be calling NA BMW tomorrow, and my dealer and see what they have to say.

whentmets

If you decide to go back to BMW for the wheels you may want to take a picture of the pothole so they can see what caused the damage. Its just a suggestion given the amount of damage on the rims.