[ChrisMWard]

We had our first puncture in an RFT last Sunday at six o'clock in the morning. I found a screw in the nearside rear tyre just 25 miles into a 300 mile journey. Fortunately the tyre had not gone completely flat, it had just lost a few lbs of air.

I pumped the tyre up, reset the RFT monitor and continued the journey. The monitor did not trigger again, suggesting that the screw had been in there some time and it was a very slow leak.

Because of the bank holiday we couldn't do anything about it until the Tuesday morning. Kwik Fit at Falmouth managed to find a tyre at another depot and got it sent down and we had it fitted on Thursday. The damaged tyre had a puncture in the centre part of the tread but Kwik Fit had been told not to repair them even though Michelin allowed one.

The guys did a really good job, cleaning the wheel and carefylly fitting the tyre without the slightest mark. The correct tyre pressure was used and the wheel bolts torqued by hand.

The cost of the tyre was £245 but was covered by the insurance (£234 for five claims in three years) so we're already in credit.

I'd recommend everyone carry a good tire pressure gauge as the low pressure tyre may not be at all obvious.

Regards

Chris

[vladinecko]

wow, you're lucky. once i get a flat, i'll be looking to fork out full price of the tire

[ZiM]

whos you're tire insurance with matey?

[ChadE]

Damn go lucky and blamed it on the dealer when i got a puncture, told them that for all i know it was in there when i baught the car so they replaced it for free. Should have gotten insurence tho

[ChrisMWard]

Originally Posted by ZiM

whos you're tire insurance with matey?

We bought the insurance at the dealer (Cooper Group, Inchcape) when we got the car.

Regards

Chris

[silverbmwz3]

Presumably it covers against punctures only? I've never had a puncture (other than on a hire car) so on that basis presumably it would be cheaper (there or thereabouts) if I did have one to replace the tyre?

Or are these tyres more susceptible to them for some reason?

[Serjames]

Chris, did you buy from Cooper Cobham? or one of the other sites ?

My e93 is on order at the cobham site - long wait though

SJ

[Cafe.Racer]

£245 ? Ouch!

[agh!]

So if the puncture had been severe enough that the tyre could not hold pressure your car could have been off the road for 4 days!!!!!!!
I find that totally unacceptable and it is one of the reasons I use a £35 tyre treatment product called Ultraseal to protect from punctures of this nature. The other reason is I don't have RFT's anymore, I use standard tyres which you can generally count on being in stock somewhere nearby.
I do travel to Cornwall and Devon a couple of times a year.

[handyman]

After visit to B&Q, spotted nail in tyre. No RFT loss of pressure warning but nevertheless checked pressure manually - no loss, therefore no damage to wall of tyre.

Kwik-Fit refused to mend (company policy) but offered to extract nail which I rejected. Went to another garage and explained position i.e. if tyre does not suffer significant loss of pressure, wall cannot be damaged. Mended it for £15 which is a lot cheaper than a new tyre and common sense prevailed. I will buy any replacement tyres from them.

The whole issue of not repairing RFT's is a con and ecologically unfriendly. I would accept that running about on an RFT that has no pressure in it would damage the wall of the tyre but if there is no pressure loss, why not mend it?

Sure, it is open to abuse i.e. reflating tyre immediately before calling in for puncture repair but only an idiot would do that and idiots hopefully do not buy Bimmers/Beemers.

[SiBurt]

Cracking thread and good advice Mike!

Just organised some similar cover from these guys...

http://www.car2cover.co.uk/tyre_protection.php

Si.

[SiBurt]

Mike? What AM I talking about? I meant, thanks Chris!

[roofer]

The whole issue of not repairing RFT's is a con

It is, i had a mates repaired for him.....twice.

Was also quoted £190 for a 255 Bridgestone replacment from local indy.

Merc have no problem with RFT repair.

[ChrisMWard]

Originally Posted by roofer

It is, i had a mates repaired for him.....twice.

Was also quoted £190 for a 255 Bridgestone replacment from local indy.

Merc have no problem with RFT repair.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have been worried if the tyre had been repaired properly, I know it hadn't been running with less than 30 PSI in it. I would have retained the tyre and had it repaired if it wasn't for the engineer from the insurance company needing to inspect it at Falmouth.

Our last 330d had two punctures in the same tyre and I've personally repaired many tyres in the past without worrying about them or having them fail under racing conditions.

Regards

Chris

[330cdsport]

Originally Posted by handyman

The whole issue of not repairing RFT's is a con and ecologically unfriendly. I would accept that running about on an RFT that has no pressure in it would damage the wall of the tyre but if there is no pressure loss, why not mend it?

I totally agree. No way would I replace my tyre because of a standard puncture which can be fixed.
I think the 19" tyres cost about £280 each for me!!

[peterg1965]

Originally Posted by 330cdsport

I totally agree. No way would I replace my tyre because of a standard puncture which can be fixed.
I think the 19" tyres cost about £280 each for me!!

Anyone know if any tyre insurers offer the option of a monthly payment instead of a one of premium?

[vivekk]

One of the earlier members on the UK forum (paddywac) phoned me up today, just to let me know what happened about a punture he had.

He phoned me about a month ago, to ask what a particular symbol meant on his display.

As usual, he was travelling at ridiculous speeds, but, on this occasion, he'd managed to get a nail stuck in one of his runflats (although he wasn't sure at the time).

I told him that he was likely to have picked up a hi-speed puncture, so perhaps he had better slow down from 120mph to around 50!

His 320d MSport is leased & he could only deal with Kwikfit. The first garage he took the car to, told him there was nothing wrong with any of the tyres & those tyre sensors on BMs are always coming on when there's nothing wrong!

Strangely, paddywac spotted that one of the front tyres was bald, so Kwikfit replaced that tyre, after a week.

Paddywac continued driving his car, mostly at ridiculous speeds, for another 800 miles or so, until noticing that the TPM warning was still coming on, even after his stealership had reset it.

So, this time, he took the car to a different Kwikfit. They spotted in a nail in one of the tyres (which was different to tyre that was replaced)!


So, it looks like paddywac may now hold a record for the scariest speeds & longest distance driven with a punctured runflat!
Unbelievably, the Pirellis managed to withstand runnning under those conditions for a couple of weeks, without coming off the alloy!

Ironically, he has now managed to acquire another TPM warning since having the last tyre replaced! (He tells me he can't have both tyres replaced on the same axle, because of how his lease 'works' with Kwikfit).


Viv

[mjh93sa]

That sounds like Pads!

[booforty]

Originally Posted by vivekk

One of the earlier members on the UK forum (paddywac) phoned me up today, just to let me know what happened about a punture he had.

He phoned me about a month ago, to ask what a particular symbol meant on his display.

As usual, he was travelling at ridiculous speeds, but, on this occasion, he'd managed to get a nail stuck in one of his runflats (although he wasn't sure at the time).

I told him that he was likely to have picked up a hi-speed puncture, so perhaps he had better slow down from 120mph to around 50!

His 320d MSport is leased & he could only deal with Kwikfit. The first garage he took the car to, told him there was nothing wrong with any of the tyres & those tyre sensors on BMs are always coming on when there's nothing wrong!

Strangely, paddywac spotted that one of the front tyres was bald, so Kwikfit replaced that tyre, after a week.

Paddywac continued driving his car, mostly at ridiculous speeds, for another 800 miles or so, until noticing that the TPM warning was still coming on, even after his stealership had reset it.

So, this time, he took the car to a different Kwikfit. They spotted in a nail in one of the tyres (which was different to tyre that was replaced)!


So, it looks like paddywac may now hold a record for the scariest speeds & longest distance driven with a punctured runflat!
Unbelievably, the Pirellis managed to withstand runnning under those conditions for a couple of weeks, without coming off the alloy!

Ironically, he has now managed to acquire another TPM warning since having the last tyre replaced! (He tells me he can't have both tyres replaced on the same axle, because of how his lease 'works' with Kwikfit).


Viv

He phoned me to tell the same story!! He's gutted he missed the Ring trip. However, he's doing a rally next week from London to Prague!!

[M3-FAST]

Originally Posted by silverbmwz3

Or are these tyres more susceptible to them for some reason?

I dont have any hard facts BUT my business partner has a 320D - done about 55,000 miles over the last 2 years - the RFT's dont seem to wear very evenly and he has suffered 2 punctures in 18 months. He has never had a puncture otherwise in 15+ yrs of driving.

Mt neighbour has a 320D M-sport - also suffered a puncture in his 18" RFT the other week.

They dont seem to do a great mileage so maybe they are softer than 'normal' tyres??

He also has issues with the sensor coming on, as like the other guy in the above post, his car is leased, and will not allow the changing of tyres until worn to legal minimum - when a new tyre is fitted (especially on the rear) with a worn'ish one left on the other side, the sensor thinks it has a flat again (due to different rolling radius of the new and worn tyres)

Anyone else have any thought??

Paul

[steph.uk]

Hi currently have a 520d, and RFT are a nightmare. The puncture light is coming up every 2 weeks since I got the car. Been many times to the dealer, and nothing wrong, just lost of pressure. Therefore am I suppose to go to the dealer every 2 weeks just to check or adjust the pressure and reset the RFT signal?

[normanh]

Originally Posted by agh!

So if the puncture had been severe enough that the tyre could not hold pressure your car could have been off the road for 4 days!!!!!!!
I find that totally unacceptable and it is one of the reasons I use a £35 tyre treatment product called Ultraseal to protect from punctures of this nature. The other reason is I don't have RFT's anymore, I use standard tyres which you can generally count on being in stock somewhere nearby.
I do travel to Cornwall and Devon a couple of times a year.

I am considering changing to 19's and using 'normal' tyres with this product ultraseal where did you get yours?