Problem replacing run flats with standard tires
 

I am out of town and my wife took her 2007 x5 4.8 Sport with the 20" wheels to the local Firestone tire center to have her run flats removed and standard tires put on. Firestone said they could only get one tire to seal and ended up taking the other 3 to a Discount Tire down the street. They also said they could not get the tires to seal. To sum it up, both places claim that because it came with run flats the rims are not made for standard tires and the sidewall just slips down inside the wheel and wont seal.

I told them that they managed to get one to seal so their hypothesis was obviously wrong. This is in Indianapolis by the way and should have some experience with larger wheels and tires as well as run flats.

Stock wheels and the new tires are the exact same size as stock, any ideas or experiences with this?

Thanks.

I think the problem they are having is that they cant get the bead to hold air when trying to seat it on the rim. I have had this problem with tires that have been shipped stacked with the tread from one sitting in the center of another- this forces the bead to collapse to the center of the tire.

They can either use a bead blaster or do like I do in my home shop- get a 20" bicycle tube, partially inflate it and use the tube to fill the gap between the tire and the rim. Lube with RuGlyde and when the tire starts to fill, work the bike tube out from the gap. If they are careful, you can get several uses from a single tube. You should have more than one on hand...

HTH

The bicycle tube should not be necessary. Experienced tire mounters should be able to do this task easily. Recommend you go to someone else. I've used a tie down ratchet strap wrapped around the center of the tread and that causes the bead to move out closer to the rim. It's been a long time since I've worked in that industry but if memory serves there is a tool available to accomplish the task.

This.


OP- Your wife went to get tires???? :thumbup:

Lubehead,

I agree the tube should not be necessary. Unfortunately with the design of some rim clamp tire machines, there is not enough freeboard between the bottom of the rim and the machine table to set the inside bead by pushing down on the tire. In a normal situation, the installer sets the inside bead and then lifts the tire so that the outside bead touches the rim while inflating the tire and it will "catch". I have had tires where the strap around the middle wouldn't close the gap- the tire would buckle before the bead spread far enough- hence the bicycle tube. There are also air tanks available with a large hole and flexible nozzle that can be used to set a bead- (the other option (ether and a match) is dangerous and should never be attempted)

My point was that there are other ways to get the bead to set- that the rim design is not a limiting factor in being able to use a regular vs. run flat tire.

I ordered them from Tire Rack and put them in her 5 so that she could drive it to the shop to have them installed.

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to call them and tell them about the strap and bicycle tire trick and see they'll try it. Of course they want to sell me $2,000 worth of run craps.

They claim that there are some "pins" on the BMW wheels that keep forcing the tire to "pop off" and not hold air. I am really disappointed that Disount Tire couldn't figure it out.

I would love to see the mysterious pins that are a problem with anything but a run flat. Maybe I can learn something :)

My brother is a BMW tech in Boston and he said the same thing.