bleudyno

On the way to work this morning, the FTM alert came on saying that I have a flat tire. I pull over and do a visual of all the tires. They look fine so I hit the road again thinking that it was a FTM malfunction like I've read about on this board. When I get to work, I pull out my tire pressure monitor and it turns out that my front passenger side tire has a low pressure of 27 when the others read out about 36.5. I do have the runflats but I couldn't see anything stuck in the tire or any punctures. I will have to take it to a tire shop at my lunch break. But my questions is, can run flats be repaired like any other tire or do I have to get a brand new one? I only have 4600 miles on my car but on all my other cars, when i got a flat i couldn't fix, I would change the tires on both sides so the wear on the tires wouldn't be off. Do you think that is necessary? Its such a bummer when you i get a flat. It just ruins my whole day. Anybody had a flat on their runflat and got it fixed? I need help on what to do.

David

jksanford

I don't think so, but maybe someone else has more details. I thought once they went flat, that was it.

James

zippers525

They can be patched as long as the puncture is not on or near the side wall.

JDN

That's what the dealer told me when trying to sell the run flat insurance. It really doesn't make sense to me.

Rudy

I think they can be repaired just like any other tire (no sidewall repairs).

Keep in mind that not any tire place can deal with the mounting and dismounting of RF tires. They are extremely difficult to deal with...

IrishEyes

Unfortunately, the ftm doesn't indicate which tyre has a puncture and a visual may not show as the sidewall keeps the tyre up anyway. So u really have to use a pressure guage to show which tyre has lost air. Without checking, I would have thought 36psi was a little high but I think I'll have to RTFM. After ftm initialisation, in my case, a drop of about 10psi triggered an alert.

Re repair/replacement, I think BMW are covering themselves by giving the official line - replace if punctured. I'm led to believe that they can be repaired is it is a nail or something similiar along the tread line.

The issue I would have is: would normal tyre shops have the appropriate equipment to remove and replace a rft without damaging the tyre or alloy rim. Because the rft's have stiffer sidewalls, I'm led to believe thay are much more difficult to remove from the wheel and need somewhat different equipment.

As with any tyre, sidewall damage is somewhat more serious and a replacement should be sought in this case.

I wonder what it would take from BMW to modify the software to indicate which wheel is sendng the alert?

Jimbo

I contacted Bridgestone about my run-flats and had them fax me a data sheet. It states that my rft cannot be plugged.

After about 1200 miles, after drying by a construction site,a drywall screw took up residence in the middel of the left rear tire. Shelly BMW took a bunch of paint off my rim while changing the tire. They repainted at no charge but first delivered the car for pickup all thrashed. I had to point it out to them.

My right rear tire (since new) had a slow air leak where I had to inflate the tire every week. I was always getting the flat tire display. I had the dealer examine it to make sure there wasn't a puncture. I never got around to taking it in to the Bridgestone shop. It just recently started holding air consistently after about 5k miles. Guess it wasn't mounted just right or something?????

I would take your ride in to the dealer and have them examine the tire befofe doing anything else.

Good luck.

btw, the dealer charged $75 for tire removal/installation and about $350 for the tire. My tire insurance covered about $400 of the total.

colejl

The official line from BMW and the tyre manufacturers is that you can't. I don't understand why not but I guess if you did plug one then you would lose any claim rights for any subsequent issues...

My dealer managed to replace my tyre without any alloy damage - very impressive! The cost wasn't so impressive though (275/35/18s aren't going to be cheap now are they!!! )

Iceman

The official line from BMW and the tyre manufacturers is that you can't.[/quote]
Well, technically you can. But it's not legal. It is only allowed to tires up to a certain speed class. All tires from that class on upwards can't legally be fixed - it's too dangerous when they warm up while you're driving.

So the reason is: your safety!

sam545i

You can absolutly patch the run flat tires. 2 weeks ago I took my car to the dealership to check out a slow leak in one of the tires and they discovered a nail in one of rear tires. They told me to take it to a local tire shop and get it patched. The tire shop patched it and I was on my way. BMW would have charged close to $100 and the tire shop only charged $35.

The car has only 6000 miles and there is no way they can expect to you keep buying new $380 tires for simple nail punctures. Sidewall damage would be different and that would certainly justify replacement.

sammy