Flat tire on the e90
 

The wife called after work yesterday. She said it sounded like something was banging around in the wheel well, so she pulled into a gas station and the noise went away. When she got out of the car she heard the drivers side rear leaking air.

I got there and it was out of air. We found the debris that caused the puncture, some sort of grey ABS plastic cylinder that had a nasty sharp edge on it. I imagine she picked it up (didn't see it because of the color) and it bounced around in the wheel well for a while.

Because you can't plug a run flat, I now have to buy two tires. I had planned on buying a set of non-run flat summer and winter wheels and tires, and now I have to decide exactly what I'm going to do. I have issues spending money on new run flats that I'm going to turn in at the lease end un-used. At the same time, if I keep using the OEM's and get another puncture... I'm going to have to buy a whole new set of tires.

To top it all off the Run flats have been getting louder and are driving worse all the time. We've got about 21,000 miles on them and they're driving me nuts. These run flats suck, IMHO.

That sucks. BMW's obsession with runflats really bothers me.

Everytime I think of how badly the Z-rated Pirellis on the R suck, I realize I could be driving on runflats and I make myself feel better.

Might you buy some lightly used run-flats from someone who's switching to real tires? I'd check Bimmerfest's tire classifieds.

Good call. I'd imagine there's an army of people ditching the OEMs.

+2

Check out E90Post. I am certain someone there is selling some.

it is my understanding that once a run flat has been removed, you can't remount it. :dunno:

Sure about that OP? You can't patch them supposedly, but it turns out that you can patch them if you have the right kind of puncture, the right kind of equipment, and the right kind of training. Most places don't have those things, so you get the "can't be patched" answer. But if you can patch with all of that stuff present, it means you can dismount and remount.

Our service dept. told me different when I was considering purchasing a low mileage set from a seller on E90Post.

You could always buy a set with wheels and then sell the wheels separately. The tires have to be worth nearly nothing.:dunno:

Not sure why a run-fat couldn't be patched, as long as the puncture was in the right place and of the right size. I'd trust a patched run-fat before I'd trust a patched real tire. Maybe there's something about the run-fat that I don't know, though?