Tyres
 

Right, I am going to have to bite the bullet and get some tyres, it isn't going to be cheap, but they need doing...... my e70 3.0d needs some new boots...... on all four corners :wow:

Front, drivers side (I'm in UK :P ) so I will translate -- "front right" outer edge has worn down, still enough so that I don't need to panic if pulled over by the lads in blue, but it is getting too close for comfort.

Rear, passenger side (YES, I'm still in the UK:-)) so rear left tyre, outer edge has also worn, but centre has worn too, getting very close to the wear marks, and I mean VERY close, and if caught by the boys in blue, it would cause brown marks on the underpants, points on my "clean licence" and a hefty fine.

All joking aside.... I really am looking for some honest advice.

I have read so many things about tyres, and I accept that people have their favourites, for whatever reason....... I just need someone to sell their preference, as I have been drowned by information, and really can't work out which I should go for.

My current tyres are Duellers, the sizes are front: 255/50/R19 107V and rears: 285/45/R19 111V

I have decided that I am going to stay with Run Flats, the car was designed to have them, so who am I to argue with the designers.

These 10 items in order of importance are the only things that I ask people to consider, when replying to my request for peoples opinions/advice.

! - 9. I carry my kids in the car, there aren't any other cargoes that I value more than my kids. Which brands do people consider as being the best tyres?

10. On the budget side, and in defence of my wallet, I would like to get a few miles out of a set, rather than worry about the road noise, the radio/CD volume can be increased after all :P

So, it's definitely safety first and if possible, a little bit towards value for money..... At £1000+ for a set of four matching tyres, I am looking for real advice from you experienced owners..... PLEASE !!!! :D:thumbup::D:thumbup::D

There will be thw usual littny of 'run flats suck' and 'validte my choice and buy the tires I chose'..... I wont do that.

But two things.

1. Do you NEED run flat tires? ie Do you have a spare tire and jack in the car? yes or no.

2. Do you know your current alignment numbers???????????????


People onbcess over tires and 'how many mies I got', yet they blithely ignore their alignments. A bad alignment will accelaerate tire wear. In fact, a 'less than optimal' alignmnet, that is still INSIDE the BMW specs, can result in one half the life as compared to an optimal alignment.

So, first concept: an alignment isnt a 'binary thing', as in "I took it to BMW and they aligned it". They may, and it may still suck.

So, I will tell you were you want to INSIST they set your alignment:
0.01 to 0.02 TOE IN on each of the 4 wheels

Camber and caster at the middle of the BMW range, but MOST IMPORTANTLY, balanced side to side (ie on each axle, these should be roughly matching)

Just off the top of my head, I will say you will be very toed in. The rear your camber on the RR is extreeme, with much less on the LR. LR toe may be more. Your LF camber will be larger. This is just utter speculation.

Finally, DO NOT assume they know what they are doing. Dont just get it aligned. Set it to these numbers. Insist they agree to this as part of the job.

GL

Thank you for your reply.

In all honesty, I bought the car, knowing that it would need some new boots within a few months. I have no information with regard to the current alignment numbers, but have taken onboard what you have said about the toe in etc

The car doesn't have a spare wheel, and the space under the rear floor is really handy for storing things like my electric tyre pump, various tools that I like to have to hand, some jump leads and a few other things, that would otherwise be taking up a lot of space. I have to admit that my main criticism of the X5 is the general lack of storage space, my (4) Mitsubishi Shoguns (known as Montero in USA) that I have owned and driven over the last 11 years all had plenty of places to hide stuff away, but of course they are very agricultural in comparison to the luxury of the X5 .

I have mulled over the pros and cons of not having a spare, and have read so much information, the authors of these topic related posts seem to repeatedly say how the car was designed for these expensive rubber bands (very wide but very low profile), and that the ride comfort would be compromised by changing from run flats to normal type tyres.

Obviously, I am aware that people have their opinions, and there are many people out there who have far more experience than I have with Beemers. This is only my second in nearly 40 years of driving, and my first with these "run flat tyres".... so that is why I am asking for people to open up and say what they have experienced with them. I am not against going to buy a spare from a scrappy somewhere, though which size tyre to put on would also be an issue due to the rears being wider than the fronts. My back pocket is likely to benefit from using normal type tyres, but if it causes any issues with insurance or whatever, then of course I would have to take that into consideration also.

I expect that I am looking at this with an enhanced amount of caution due to the many posts that I have read...... things like, make sure that the tyres have a "star" and that they are BMW recommended etc..... I just feel that £1000+ is a lot of money for 4 rubber bands that are only expected to give 12,000 miles...... I have put 3 full sets of tyres on my current Shogun in the time that I have owned it, and I have driven it for just over 100,000 miles in those 7 years, I think you may well understand what I am saying, and I want to get it right without spending even more of my kids inheritance, and when the time comes, they will be the ones that choose my last home..... so need to keep them on side :-)

I just replaced my tires and went to the all season sport Continental DWS 06's versus the Bridgetone run flats I had on it. I got around 40,000 miles on the run flats and these are supposed to be 50,000 mile tires. I like them so far (traction, stability, noise and ride) over the Bridgestones. I paid $1050 for the set (I have 20" M Sport wheels) which was a savings of around $300 - 400.

I have not had the need for the run flats yet and my vehicle comes with a spare tire kit. I have a small air pump, fix a flat can and the tools to plug holes so my need for run flats wasn't prevalent. For those reasons I went with the all seasons. Also the lips on the continentals help prevent curb rash as they protude past the metal lip.

Unfortunately not sure what your options in the UK are, but I previously just researched the heck out of tires at tirerack. Most recently I used what was available at Costco, and did a cross check with tirerack with reviews and prices of what I could tell where comparable tires.

I know you didn't want to get into it, but there's X5's out there with non run-flats on them that came that way from the factory. So don't worry about going against what the engineers designed it for. If anything most people feel ride quality improves moving away from run-flats.

The front and rear tires are PREECISELY the same outer diameter.

In fact, the tires on the 18: rims, the 19: rims, the 20" rims (etc) all have the exact same OD.

HENCE, the BMW compact spare that will fit in your car is exactly this outer diameter. It is skinny, but it will work on any "OE BMW Tire+Rim" size combo. So there's that.

I will leave it to you to determine if YOU need winter tires - er tyres- for your locale and use. If you never see temps under 40F, you might not need 'all seasons'. (In looking up your sizes, it looks like you already have summer tires, without issue, so this might be moot.)

Finally, I dont mind run flats on my X5. Its an SUV. I run michelin latitude RFTs. Works for me. I DO NOT care one bit about what BMW says and BMW 'star ratings'. IMO this last thing is a marketing ploy to pay the tyre manufacturers back for their cheap OE prices on supplying new tyres for the BMW production lines. Any blather about 'careful design to work in conjunction with the BMW engineered suspension blah blah blah' is nonsense. IMO

(BTW- rented a bunch of Mitsu Panjero's over the years in Australia- pretty swanky 4x4s for off-road, off-sealed driving. Similar to the shogun/montero)

So do get an alignment check/reset when you fit the new shoes. Here in the US its a $100 job.

GL

Again, thank you for the replies. I think that I need to explain why I am so concerned about this subject, as in reality, I am quite a balanced person, and after reading over the posts, I might appear to some as being a right plonker :-)

Every summer we, as a family, drive from UK through several European countries to Ukraine for our summer holidays. It is a 4200 mile round trip, plus whatever mileage we clock up while we are there, so rather than leaving it to the last minute, I am looking at getting things ready to remove any last minute decision making..... and July is only 3 months away.

So, after reading the replies, I now understand that run flats aren't mandatory to insurance companies, if having to make a claim, they just worry about the tyres being legal. In which case, buying normal tyres plus a spare and carrying the associated tools is worth considering.... and are much cheaper.

It isn't the diameter of the tyres that I was talking about in my previous post, although I know that it is very important that they are the same, if the tyres were different sizes the car would suffer from wind up, I was meaning the tyre width.

Due to my car having wider tyres on the rear than the front, I was wondering if getting a spare the same dimensions as the front tyres would be a better idea, as I assume that a rear tyre fitted to the front of the car would surely rub when steering. As much as the thin "get you home" tyres are useful, I think a full sized tyre in the boot, that if needed, would allow us to carry on our journey at a reasonable rate, plus I have never liked the idea of driving a car with a bicycle wheel on one corner and feel that a larger tyre would be more beneficial considering the journey that we will be making.

As for tools, I already have a 2 tonne bottle jack that will fit into the under floor storage space (I have tried it for size already) and I wouldn't set off on a long journey without carrying a certain selection of tools anyway.... of course boot space is going to be a concern because of there being a lack of other stowage in the X5 other than the two small cupboard places either side of the boot, and a spare in the space where it would normally be kept.

Well, I have jumped in with both feet...... a set of 4 Continentals (non - run flat) tyres have been ordered, and will be fitted on Saturday.... now to find a spare rim to put the better of the two fronts on.

I did phone my insurance company to check that it was OK, they said that as long as the tyres are the right size and speed rating, they aren't worried whether they are run flats or not.

If they are the DSW06's I think you will enjoy them, I like mine quite a bit.

o/p - I dumped my dunlop runflat, for continental dsw as well. Dunlop RF, were burning out at 15k intervals. At $2400 a set. On my third season with the DSW, and still plenty of tread. As you have no spare, you will most likely also have no jack or tools. For additional fun, I now carry a scissor jack, wrench, air compressor, tire goo and tire plugs.
Here is a thought for you. On your summer trip. A run flat tire will get you an extra 50 miles. How is that going to help in your 42oo mile journey? You're still stuck. Run flat, or traditional tyre.

I have used a full sized front wheel as a 'spare' on my older M5. Just sits in the boot.

I do like the idea of being able to swap a tire and have, basically, unlimited range until I get a new replacement....basically 2 or 3 days for a tire to be ordered and shipped to a tire shop along my route, or where I am located.

If you are going the spare tire in the boot route. Make sure it is secure and tied down tight. 6o lbs loose projectile will make a mess of the vehicles occupants.
A lot of cars with runflat have the old area for the spare filled with sub-woofers or air suspension compressors. Rendering that old storage area useless.

The X5 has the space under the boot floor for a spare, the floor is locked down, not the most secure of locking devices that I have seen, but none the less, will stop the spare from flying around, especially with a couple of suitcases and all of the paraphernalia that gets put into the car, just in case, and never gets used... all sat on top of the floor covering the spare etc Luckily there are also some places, one of which is large enough to stow my bottle jack, and a few extra tools as well as those very few items that BMW supply, I will have to find a boot tidy or something similar to put the extra bits that I like to carry, don't want tools and the like floating about in the back, and it should keep the boot area tidy for when I am not carrying the 3 tonnes of needless holiday luggage that my Mrs will insist is taken with us, two pairs of shorts, a few t-shirts, a spare pair of trainers and maybe a sweat shirt just in case it drops below 30C, that's my packing done :-) unfortunately the wife and youngest sprog are very different :-( I expect that the xBox will be in there somewhere too

I now, just have to find a matching front wheel, Ebay seems to have sets of 4 that have been kerbed or want silly money for a single rim. At least I have 2 or 3 months to find one, before setting off on our trip.

I am not sure which model of Continental tyre they have ordered, I spoke to the tyre bloke that I use and he recommended them, and they should be delivered tomorrow, but because I have also asked for a full geometry set up to be carried out on the car, he couldn't fit it in until Saturday morning.

o/p - your tyre bloke should be able to find you a one off rim. It does not need to be a BMW brand. As spare? Who cares. Get your bloke to get you a rim and use one of the old front tyre to put on that rim. An 18" rim here runs about 2oo bucks, surely your bloke should have an option at 140 sterling-ish.
Mind you.... a 20" tyre may not fit under the floor???

1. I was speaking of my full size front tire in an M5 boot (aka trunk) which by definition means it is NOT in a passenger compartment. ;) If you are keeping a spare in the cabin (like the X5) then yes, you need to secure it. And really you should secure luggage, etc as a matter of course. Most dont.

2. A full size front tire/wheel will NOT fit in the E70 X5 spare tire compartment. The only thing that fits is the custom compact (skinny) spare. An 18", 19", 20", 21" rim ALL will **not** fit in this location. Has nothing to do with the rim size.

3. Buying a loose BMW 18 or 19" wheel is usually pretty cheap- personally I really like the quality that comes from OE rims.

So, from what you are all saying, it looks like it is going to be a narrow "get you home" wheel or it wont fit under the floor...... there is a company that sells these complete, rim and tyre for about £150 each. Maybe I will have to go down that route then, I don't want a wheel sitting in the luggage space, I need all the space that I can for carrying the wifes hair drier and the lads xbox etc...... nothing is ever easy.

Correct.

However with 'get you home' possibly being 4000 miles, it will be a 'get you to where the tyre will be delivered in a day or two'.

;)

Oh, I usually keep 'the best tire' from my old set of tires when replacing rubber. It sits at home in storage. (A point of contention with the wife in the barn...5 cars, spare tires, a set of track rims and tires....). However if I have a blow out, or other unrepairable damage, the old tire gives me that option if t makes sense. If it is a fairly new set of tires, I'll buy a new replacement- but if they are down to 60%. I'll use the old one. FWIW

If I was still running on "run flats" I would be in the same situation, the only difference is that I may have to get my hands dirty while I put the narrow tyre on, but I have saved a load of money and I expect getting a normal tyre will be easier than getting a run flat to where ever I might be, and I can travel a bit further, all be it at a much slower pace, to get to a town rather than driving a limited distance on the run flat before it could possibly give up, still having to drive at a slower pace..... anyway, decision has been made, and I am now off to get the new boots fitted, I will update you with the outcome.... thanks again for all of your help and advice :D:thumbup::D:thumbup::D

Well the new boots are on and I have given them a few miles to see how they are. First impressions are that they are very quiet compared to the Duellers and the ride is a lot less harsh when going over bumps etc, at speed they feel good too. So, I am very pleased with them so far, now just need to get myself a spare to fit in the boot and that is another thing crossed off the list ready for our trip in July.

Thank you all for your advice and putting up with my, no doubt, endless questions.

For my "spare" I picked up this rim AND tire for right around $200 new at Tire Rack.

http://i67.tinypic.com/kd5qvc.jpg

I miss those nice tie down rails...my 2010 had it, my 12 doesnt.


Say, let me make this comment/suggestion:

Having a full size spare, EVEN IF IT STAYS IN THE GARAGE, is a pretty good strategy for managing tire issues. A few scenarios:

1. You notice a flat one morning from a nail you picked up a day before. Change it, get the flat fixed during lunch

2. If you arent on a road trip, leaving it at home means you are always somewhat close. An uber away? A wife's drive away? Even a flat bed tow on your AAA plan away. (Not a BMW plan tow, they only tow to the dealer...hey, how else do you expect them to afford those free tows?!)

3. If you have a blow out, or get a flat that isnt repairable, having a tire to run on for a few days means you can shop for a used, shop for a new, wait two days for the new one to come in. OR...maybe you are at the end of the tire life...having a spare lets you shop for a new set of tires, best price, what model to get, etc,etc It just avoids that bum rush when you have no options, no car...HAVE to buy NOW.

Agree that on a road trip, having the tire in the garage does nothing.

Keeping an eye out for a single OE rim with a used tires- someone parting a car, ebay, etc, and you can usually get once cheap. And remember, no matter what OE rims you have, ANY of the other size OE rims will fit- without any damage, impact, etc

For now since Im running run-flats the spare is in the garage (too bad the well isn't deep enough to hold a full size) since we are never more than 50 miles from home.

The spare is mostly for trips when we tow the camper up to the eastern sierras. Getting caught out on the 395 by Big Pine Ca with an odd sized 18 inch tire that needs replaced is not much fun. LOL We have AAA RV so we can have it towed up to 100 miles. Thankfully haven't had to use that option yet.

Im keeping my eyes peeled for an actual BMW spare (used or cheaper then new) that fits to lug around in the tire well regardless what mode we are in (local, commute, trips). Options are always nice. :thumbup:

My PS pump died on my M5, I was 120 miles from home.

Guy said they charge 15 per mile over 100. I offered $60 cash to him, he said 'sweet!'


Two days later I upgraded from the 100 to the 200 mile plan. ;)