OU812545

I brought my 04 545 in for some new RF tires in the rear only. The service technician called me over to show me that I had cracks in both rear rims and my front right rim was bent. All stock rims and tires on my car. I'm not sure how long I was driving it with these problems either. This has turned out to be a much more expensive tire change . Not happy at all.
After doing some research I'm finding out this is a common issue with the 18" wheels on the 3,5,6 and 7 series with the sport package. The owner of the tire shop mentioned that there may be an active class action suit going on.

Anyone else here of this?

inktoxicated

i just took my vossens off for winter to put the stock 18s pack on. clean them in my bathtub because the backs were black with grime. noticed one wheel had 2 small hairline cracks. the other 3 were fine. local place wants 125 to tig weld the cracks. i put them on anyways for now. coulda been like this for years io never woulda known if i didnt clean the backs off

v_therussian

There was indeed an issue with the style 124 rims. The inner lips of the rear (staggered) wheels were prone to cracking. This is compounded by the fact that the RFT tires do have stiff sidewalls, which transfer more of the energy from hitting potholes and bumps to the rims. As a result, to a degree, any wheel that is shod with an RFT tire is prone to cracking more than a wheel that is shod with a conventional tire. It is kind of ironic that the tire can "run on flat", but it creates so many problems with cracked rims, that you'll have a lot more problems with it, than a conventional setup.

It is a VERY ugly issue IMHO - BMW wheels being prone to cracking. One of the worst BMW f*ck ups with the E60. However, as Mel correctly pointed out, you are a newb for asking such a question Search around early E60 threads - there are lots of people who have posted about this. You may even find that BMW occasionally has come through for some owners and at least to some extent picked up the tab.

As for me - my solution was to switch to conventional tires. I have a spare in my car, so worst case scenario - I'll get a little grease on my hands. Compared to paying 100-150 for having wheels fixed every time, it is no biggie

jeffandjane

I have a 545i fitted with the 123 7 spoke 18 inch wheels fitted with run flats. I Drive the car really carefully and avoid potholes at all cost! still had a cracked rim on the front, and now think I have one on the back as losing pressure and all else looks fine.
I have had nemerous makes of cars in my 28 years of driving, the majority of which had alloy wheels and I have NEVER had any such problems with any other makes or car.
This is my first BMW and will certainly be my last. I dont buy the "Superior build quality" argument as my experience is that they are no better than any other manufacturer!