A couple of weeks ago we had one of our tyres blow on a fast raod - thank god for run flats, as it turned out to be a 10-12 inch hole on the inner wall.

When the tyre fitter looked at the car to begin with, he said we were lucky all things considered as the tyre that blew was 'nearing the legal limit'

Now, I have to confess, I'd not been paying much attention to the tyres (I know I should) but when he removed it, the inner shoulder was through to the beading.

Are 5s set up with this (negative?) camber to make them handle better? And if so, is this excessive to experience such a difference from outer shoulder to inner?

Even if I had checked the tyres, I'd have missed that as it was on the rear and there's no way I could have seen it.


I guess, it means that:

a) I need to be more fastidious about checking them and,
b) They need to be replaced earlier.

 

Yes, negative camber on the rear wheels is quite normal. If you search the forums, you'll find many more posts about this...

Glad you remained safe when things blew out on you!

 

I kind of figured it would be sort of right, but it seems odd to be set up (from a manufacturer) to experience uneven wear across the tyre. I suppose it's part of the price you pay for a car that doesn't handle like a barge.

The other two annoying things are that the tyre fitter checked all the other tyres and noticed a bulge in the outside wall of my other rear - something I will be keeping a close eye on and that the car went in to BMW the week before because the Sat Nav screen wouldn't work and the puncture warning kept coming on.

I'd have thought that if they were checking to make sure that there was no puncture, they'd have noticed that that rear tyre was about to go.

I want to have a go at them, but am wary of spoiling an otherwise good relationship with them over something which, in all actuallity, is my own responsibility.

 

With the RFT you have to check the tire pressure very often because once it has a stronger tire wall, you can run with lower pressure without any pressure warning or visual tire belly. And when running with lower pressure, it will damage quickly the tire walls (on the rear it will wear also very quick the inside tire due to the normal negative camber), leading it to blow in highways.

 

I had the same problem on my 05 530 DAT with Dunlop RFT. It seems to me that the previous owner has run with low tyre pressure. With the stiff side wall, negative chamber and low pressure this gave extensive wear on the inner part (approx 2 cm) of the tyre.

 

What tyre pressures are you running?

I've followed the manual (which I can't remember now), but wondered if anyone else has any differing views.

 

I think it is 2.5 and 2.8, at least as written on the tag. I've replaced the RFT's with conti3's and that was a huge improvement. My thoughts is that maybe the previous owner has either tried lower tire pressure to get smoother riding and/or just dident bother about the tires... I cant imagine that the negetive chamber alone could made this extensive wear on such a limited area.

 

Manual + 0.2 psi. Works great!