NM...

""Use of this product on direct TPMS vehicles could also result in damage to the tire pressure sensor inside the wheel.""

Perfect timing on this thread as I just had to replace a Dueler this weekend due to a small screw. Noticed it sticking out of the middle gap between threads(almost dead center of the RR tire) when I was walking around the car. I thought it may have just gotten stuck in the rubber so I popped it out only to be greeted with a whoooooosh. Put it back in quickly and ended up driving about 30 more miles on it. No loss of pressure, no warnings from the TPM system. Should have been a simple 10 minute, $15 patch fix.

Because I was worried about it being a RFT and didnt want to drive around for hours, I called 4 tire shops in Omaha trying to find someone to patch it. No dice. No one would touch it due to liability. The only shop in town that had Dueler's in stock was the dealer, and since I'm leaving on a 2000 mile road trip tomorrow, I had no choice. My tires only have 13,000 miles on them, 9,000 of which are straight highway miles so I bought just the one tire to replace the damaged one. I can't tell any difference in handling so far. It only has ~2-3mm more tread than the other 3.

Bottom line is that a small screw ended up costing me $320 instead of $15. I'm done with runflats once these are used up. I'll take my chances with a can of fix-a-flat.

I had the Bridgestone Potenzas (not sure which model, but I think they were the RE050A) on the Z4, 3.0 with sport package, 18". They were fine. The rubber was pretty hard at low temperatures, but that was entirely to be expected. No noise when I sold them at 15,000 km, and no more wear than I would have expected, they looked pretty good. They were driven fairly hard, but it is a light car. Tire pressure was critical in that application.

I have the Dunlop SP Sport on the 535 with sport package, 18". They are also fine. They will be expensive to replace, but they are quiet and comfortable. I was happy enough with them that I chose the Dunlop Wintersport M3 (DSST, their code name for RFT) and they have been excellent. 40,000 km on the vehicle, divided between the two sets of tires. Wear is even, tires are quiet.

I haven't had RFTs on an X5. If they are noisy and wear quickly, I think that has more to do with the rubber compound and tread pattern than the RFT design. If they are harsh over small bumps, that tends to be due to the stiff sidewalls. I haven't heard good things about the Bridgestone OE tires. I have heard of lots of posters having tires wear out very early in the larger sizes on the X5, regardless of whether they are RFT or not.

All things being equal, I think I would rather have a spare as well, as it is what I am used to. That said, my RFT (or DSST) tire experience would cause me to replace them with the same when the time came. I haven't had a blow out at speed in many years (I think it was 1980, IIRC). If I was to have a blowout, though, I would rather have a RFT than not.

Bigx5er, I agree that manufacturers can cut corners by using cheap tires. Both my examples were with the top ($$) suspension/wheel/tire package, and the tires were pretty good. I wouldn't expect that the base model RFTs were necessarily anywhere near as good.

I had a screw in the rear tire on the Z4 with RFT. I checked the pressure, refilled it, and drove 30 km to a local tire store I trusted. I checked the pressure on the way, to see how fast it was losing air. I was able to tell them how far I had driven it, at what maximum speed, and how low the pressure had gotten. That was all they wanted to know, they fixed it fine. With a full demount, inside patch, remount, and balance, it cost me just under $40. I found out that when they ask how far, how fast, how low, if they don't hear the right answers they won't touch it due to liability. If they do hear enough to satisfy themselves, they are fine to fix it. Those were the tire manufacturer's questions, they were published guidelines, and they went over it with me. YMMV, obviously.

Guess you have better tire shops than Sears, Firestone, and 2 of our local shops.

Or maybe the Canadian tort system isn't as generous as ours.

Maybe, and yes.

But I think that the ability to tell the tire repairer what the damaged tire has seen is key to managing the risk (their's and yours).

How are the Duelers?

Well, they were fine at first other than the harsh ride. Omaha had a rough winter and the roads went to hell. The bumps are magnified by the stiff tires. Its getting to me even though I don't have the sport package like a lot of folks here. Standard 18".

Now though, they have hit 15,000 miles and the road noise has picked up dramatically. The whine is very noticeable on the highway and they seem to be wearing at a higher rate. Those issues coupled with the harshness and the outrageous costs are pushing me to normal tires even without a spare. Based on my experience last weekend with limited availability, I figure I'm screwed with a flat either way if Im out of town and away from a BMW dealer. Might as well save $500, take the screwing, and wait for BMW assist/AAA to save the day.

The most messed up part of the deal was that we have Firestone centers in Omaha. Even they did not carry Bridgestone Dueler RFT's.

I too can also vouch for the conti extreme DWS. i have had them on my x5 for the last 10k and still looks like brand new. Extremely comfortable and very quiet. Grip and handling excellent. Handling in the rain is excellent (the yoko advan st were actually quite scary in heavy rain, often aquaplaning).

Before these i had the yoko advan ST. These replaced the run flats at 4k as i hated the harshness of the run flats. I might add, the run flats were 18s and the yoko were 20s. Despite this the yoko was definately more comfortable. However after about 10k I found that they were wearing quite fast as well as becoming harsh, noisy and tramlining. I only got about 25,000 km out of them - despite 95% highway and driven conservatively.

Changing to the DWS was like night and day. I highly recommend it. I would definitely buy again and the bonus is that it was cheaper as well.

One more thing i noticed was that despite 315 width rears, the yoko looked a lot skinnier than the DWS, evident in the fact that the rubber extended pass the alloy wheel a little bit such that it would more likely protect the wheel from kerb damage. Also, despite same claimed dimensions the tire wall height was taller on the dws.

Thats great to hear. I just ordered some along with ordering the spare wheel for the trunk too. BMW no longer sell it as a retrofit, so you have to purchase all the pieces separately, which makes it quite pricey.

I refuse to use the mobility kit. I had two m cars with that thing ... and its completely useless. Still had to wait for a flat bed truck courtesy of BMW Assist .. which ended up taking 8 hours to arrive. Never again.