Ricracing

Living in this new world, breathing polluted air, eating junkfood, walking downtown, flying, driving a car not to mention a motorcycle, all has some risks involved.

I'm OK with that.

But RF tyres do not lower my (nor my family nor friends) risk to die or injure more than some promilles of promilles.

I'm much more afraid of other things happening in this world than to drive my safe E60 without RF's on icy roads.

But everyone has to go and live by their own choises... Safe driving, at least, to everyone!

aybeesea

We seem to all agree that runflats are more of a convenience than a lifesaver (unless otherwise you have to change tyres on a motorway that is...)

ABC

Uk525i

I drive 20 miles on punctured runflat ( slowly ). It felt like I was driving a car with a standard puncture, terrible. I was very nervous. Also the extra shocks & jolts caused a few extra rattles in my dashboard. Then, guess what, BMW didnt have a replacement ( 18'' Dunlop ) so I had to wait 5 hours to get a replacement locally, at great expense. As it happens it didnt matter, but if I was away from home it would have been a nightmare. Give me standard tyres & a spare anyday..

andymac

I had exactly the opposite experience. I had to get out and check that I actually had a puncture and that it was not just a software glitch. On continuing my journey below 50MPH the car handled fine.

Must admit the thought of changing an offside tyre on the side of the M6 on dark wet night. I think your life expectancy would be about 2 minutes!

aybeesea

They's not that expensive...

ABC

steve_gus

I asked my dealer wether i should bother with a space saver spare.

I had already pretty much decided to do so as i didnt fancy buying 170 quid runflats when std tyres are 100 - i use 5-6 tyres a year, and over the cars 4 year lease thats a potential 20 x 70 (1400 quid!) saving.

At the end of the day, you still have inconvenience as you have to change the tyre at the dealer so your day will be disrupted anyway. Ive had flats in the past on std tyres that i just continued (illegal) to drive on at lowish speed until i could reach a safe place to change to the spare.

My dealers response : get the spare. You could be on a rush to get a ferry to europe on hols, have a RF puncture, do the 130 miles and then have to search in france for a tyre dealer. Or, be on a business trip that takes you past the range of the tyre on your return home.... RFs can have a range of less than 50 miles at motorway speeds.

Personally, if I had the option, id go for non rf as there is a greater choice of tyres and you have to mess around getting the tyre changed within hours anyway!

I have rarely had a puncture (hope it stays that way) - but 6 months ago we picked up a brand new fiat for my son and it had a flat within 3 hours of collection ! my wife was driving and didnt even notice (!!!!!!) untill we were flagged down by a following driver. Hurt me that did - new tyre after less than 100 miles! These were not RFs but behaved perfectly (too perfectly) after a total rear tyre deflation

cheers

steve

aybeesea

In the event of a puncture if RFT works to spec, you only have one wheel changing event.

ABC

netjazz

Within the last month I have gotten two seperate nail puntures in different runflat tires. I was able to drive less than a mile after the flat tire indicator appeared on my screen. Being that the side wall of the tire probably suffered no damage in such a small space of time , I felt it was OK to get the puncture plugged with no problem and save the cost of $450 for a new tire. The tires have about 22,000 miles on them and maybe another 9 or 10,000 miles left of life. Than I will switch to a non-runflat to gain a smoother ride and get rid of the dreaded tramlining that I hate most with the runflats, so I did not want to replace with another runflat tire.
I believe everyone should carry an ELECTRIC TIRE INFLATION DEVICE in the trunk of there car. I was able to pull over when the runflat indicator came on, thus saving the tire from furthur damage and inflated the tire. That gave me ample air to drive home from work, which is 66 miles without furthur damaging the tire. To my knowledge the reason not to plug the tire ( as long as the puncture is not on or to near the sidewall) is that most people continue to drive the car a longer distance thus breaking down the sidewalls. Most puctures, as long as you don't immediatly remove the nail or whatever is still buried in the tire, will hold air for quite a few hours (drive slowly just in case). This has worked for me many times over the years on both RUNFLAT and NON-RUNFLAT tires, and enabled me to drive to a garage, that or the next day, without having to change the flat on the side of the road which can be quite dangerous. The tire inflation device is a must to carry( Great for the family bikes also)
The plugged tires are not losing air at all, and so far are performing well, but I do keep checking the air in my tires to be sure.
I am not saying this is the recommended thing to do, but it has worked for me.

aybeesea

!

ABC

xBMWx

With the tyre set up I have, according to my dealer there is no RFT available. Because the car was originally delivered with RFTs, I do not have a spare.

netjazz wrote about an electric tyre pump, so that is another option for someone in my position.

Is there not also some kind of tyre foam that can be used to keep you mobile and get you to the next garage etc.? Anyone tried this stuff?

Cheers