DrumGuruEC

I have the Potenza RFTs and they'll be ready for replacement soon. I think I'm gonna go with RFTs again because with such low profile tires I'm worried about screwing up my wheels if I get a flat (18" sport package wheels). It seems like nobody likes the Potenza RFTs... does anyone actually LIKE a particular run-flat? I was thinking about the Dunlops. Suggestions?

E

Hailander

I had factory continental all seasons but they were size 16's which were brand new when I purchased the car. I wanted something bigger and got 17's with Bridgestone Potenza RFTs and honestly, I can't tell the difference in ride quality. They are both smooth. The old Continentals are maybe a little more quiet as far as road noise. Are the folks who hate the RFT's, are you all running them on 18's or bigger? The 17's seem to ride just fine on my 04 525i.

juris335

Sounds like an interesting story there Stu. How did Sir Rudy secure the tires from Dunlop and BMW?

Gene

I just made the switch from RFT's on my oem 18" 124's to non rft's on my oem 19" 166. Definitely a smoother ride now with better performance/handling, but who's to say it's the wheels not the tires.....

studavis

Sir Rudy, the patron saint of the e-60, and a few others posted a tsb when I first joined the forum, back before the big war. The tsb stated that if you had a certain wear pattern on the inside tire of the run flat; a scalloping effect you might say, BMW would replace all four tires. You have to jump through some hoops, complain that they make a lot of noise, and pretty much waive the tsb in front of their faces at the service window. If just a single tire met the qualifications, then you got four new ones. When I read the topic, I filed it away for future use, and forgot about it until my service advisor informed me that I needed to fork over $1100.00 US for two new back tires that were shot at 16 thousand miles. I ignored the suggestion, got out my lease contract, handed it over to a fresh out of law school geek we just hired and he determined that the car could be returned to at the end of the lease without OEM rfts. So I priced out a set of four new Goodyear F1s, which I run on both of my Porsches, and then remembered Rudy's TSB. I got the flashlight out, climbed under the car, and sure enough I had the scalloping on the interior edge of the tire. I took the car back in, and they replaced all four. At this point the story would have had a happy ending, except driving home; I noticed significant feedback coming through the steering wheel above a certain speed. I called and complained, and before reaching home I turned around and went back to the dealer. They said it was a 15 minute fix. 2 hours later, the SA advised me that the front tires were problematic, could have been sitting on the shelf to long, and needed to be replaced. I asked why the vibration did not show up on balancing, and they said they use only a low speed balance test on these tires, and this did not show up. They promised 2 days for replacement, and on the sixth day I got them. They called me to inform me that the tires were in, and I trundled out to drive the 500i back to the dealer for the changeover. When I was doing my preflight, I noticed the left rear tire, with a whopping 18 miles on it was flat. I called the SA, he then told me to use the SOS button to call for assistance, and about two hours later they hauled my car off to the dealer. Upon inspection, and after they replaced the 2 front tires, and made me pay for a $50.00 alignment, they found a screw in the rear tire. They then tried to tell me that the screw was not covered under warranty, and that I needed to buy a new rear tire, because the rft tires could not be fixed, because the speed rating changes on the tire. I argued, I threatened, and in the end, I had them change the rear tire to the spare, and drove it to the tire shop by my house, and they fixed the tire for me. This was the final straw for me on the dearership, and most likely BMW.

Angelic0-

Get a set of Toyo T1Rs..... 4 go for the same price as the two of the Bridgestones....

You won't be disappointed..

JMC

G'day Diggy. I've had 3 E60s now. The first two had runflats. The 530i I had came with Dunlop runflats which were truly bad. Very noisy, twitchy in the wet and seemed to tramline a lot, wet or dry. I changed them to Pirelli non-RFTs on a 17-inch wheel and couldn't believe the difference. When I got my 535d it came with Bridgestone RFTs. They were MUCH better than the Dunlops. They were reasonably quiet, and had way better wet weather roadholding. In my opinion they were as good as the Pirelli non-RFTs for a couple of reasons. First on the roads we have here in SE England you can seldom hit any speed where the handling characteristics of tyres are going to make any real difference to the handling of an E60 (poor road maintenance, neverending road works, traffic congestion and speed cameras see to that). Second, there is such a load of crap on the roads over here that punctures are pretty common. Third, I was on a 17-inch 50 profile tyre on an SE (non-M-Sport) E60. The ride was much softer than a Sport with 18s anyway. I don't want to offend anyone, but I would take the opinion about ride quality from anyone running 18, 19 or 20 inch wheels with a pinch of salt. Bottom line is that so long as they are Bridgestones I have no problem with RFTs.

I suspect that from my memories of driving around Sydders / Newcastle the roads are still mostly long and straight and in averagish repair, with a few too many (kinda scary) cops to try any epic speeds. If that's still the case if I were you I'd stick to Bridgestone runflats.

Anyway I thought all you Newcastle boys drove hot FJ Holdens with chrome plated grease nipples and double reverse overhead twin cam door handles?

diggydrdre

Hey JMC.
I'm on my own trying to class this joint up!
Thanks for your advice. I have decided to stick with the Bridgestone RFT's, that is, replace the two rears, as the fronts are okay.
The local KMart guy gets them in for $370 (aust) a tyre.
Not too bad.
Go the Knights!

BMW M5

+2

shakalliberec

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