I blew a tire once on the interstate and it shredded to pieces like the one you describe.

Another thing for those who've added different wheels than what came on your car, make sure the factory lug wrench fits. I found out the hard way that the wrench for factory 18's does not fit 19" "snowflakes". :(

Uh oh... So where does one find the 19" wrench?

that's horrible. i hop they are alrite. The jack broke, thats horrible!! also, what about the sos/wrench button?

This thread concerned me that my lug wrench wouldn't fit my 19" sport wheels (type 63?). I went out to the garage and tried it, it fits! Are the lug bolts different for different wheels?

I am definitely going to check my jack and see if its up to the job!Hayaku has confirmed that his is ok!I think we should all do the same!

By the way, I checked my jack too. It's not to beefy. I can see it would work only under ideal circumstances. If the jacking surface was uneven or the car not level, the jack could angle sideways and collapse.

sorry to hear...hope the wife and kids make it home safe.
breathe! breathe!

I used my jack the other day while installing my mudflaps. I agree...it is functional, but not the best I have ever seen. If I thought I would have to use the jack occasionally (like if I lived somewhere that required snow tire swapping), I would buy a better jack.

I'm a "gear head" and I've used the BMW jack and find it to be entirely adaquate. I'd hazard a guess that the person helping change the tire didn't have the vehicle adaquately "chocked" and while jacking it up the vehicle rolled slightly causing the jack to be compromised. This is not the fault of BMW's jack!

Additionally, if a tire severly blows out, and this can happen to ANY tire if a sufficient road hazard is encountered, than the tire may actually be damaged such that the wheel is bent and or the wheel makes contact with the pavement (you've seen the police spike strip videos and the sparks that fly).

I can understand your concern for your family, but I believe you should ponder this matter a bit further before launching into BMW.

Tomaz,

I don't know if they use different lugs or not. When my tire blew out on the 19" bmw rim I tried using the wrench that came with it (non sport package 4.4 with 18's) and it would not fit. Luckily, I wasn't out of town and a friend was able to bring a wrench that fit. When I got the lugs off, they were clearly a different size than the wrench head. I tried posting to see if a different lug wrench exists but didn't get any responses. Now I keep a ratchet, extension, and socket (17mm i believe) in the back of the car. Not that big of a deal I guess, but I would prefer to have an oem wrench that fits.