2007 mini S with 17765 miles on it. the tires are wearing down to the steel on the far inside of the front tires and it seems like the back are nearly as bad. the tires are very pricey and my question is can I go back with conventional tires? (these are run flats). do these low profile tires wear out sooner than most? the wheel alignment costs a couple hundred and we have to drive over 2 hundred miles to the dealer? would like to just buy a spare wheel and tire and throw it in the back on long trips(will have to get a jack and lug wrench) this car does not have a spare.. any help will be great..thanks

 

You can use either conventional or RFs. The issue you have is same with all MCSs. Their camber is set negative to have an aggressive stance and take corners well. You can change this, but it'll affect your cornering performance. Some tire places will say it's a problem, but you set the tire at the camber angle you like.

Tires wear at various rates and you'll have to take a look at the UTQG ratings (a 500 rated tire will fare better than a 200 rated tire -- the 200 being much sticker/softer). Note that the UTQG ratings do not match between tire manufactures (a 500 on one does not equal a 500 on another brand). I think the OE run flats are 360 so they are not soft, but not hard and will run through fairly fast (don't quote me on number -- that's from memory 2 years ago).

 

Yes, you can run a non-runflat tire on the MINI without a problem.

Some do; based on the wear rating of the tire.
Tire wear is also attributed to alignment specs and driver use.

You can't get a 4-wheel thrust alignment at a local tire shop in your area?
Should only be somewhere in the $60 - $80 range.

Easy to create a spare; there's several archived threads creating a spare tire with tool kit from OEM listed parts.

- Erik

 

^^^^Thats good info, thank you.

Is the camber generally the same on MCS's, since some come with different factory wheels?

 

Go with run flats much less expensive to replace them. I would then rotate those tires to help them last longer. I sold my run flats and they paid for more then 1/2 of my conventional tires.

 

Just a couple of things...

If you mostly drive on the highway, then negative camber can lead to increased tire ware. Most of the time, it's the toe angle that kills the inside edge of tires. You hit a big pothole, a curb, something and slightly changed the toe setting. The tires then try to scrub down the road and that eats the inside edge very quickly.

Any shop should be able to do an alignment on a MINI. There is nothing special or magical about it. Except the price a dealer charges...

Set front and rear toe, adjust rear camber, done. Tell the shop that you would like very close too, if not exactly -2 degrees of camber in the rear. Front camber and castor are non adjustable without aftermarket parts.

BMW/Mini specs putting weights in the car when doing an alignment. so that the alignment settings reflect actual use. The place I go lets me sit in the car when they do it, so that how it gets used. See if they will let you do that.

Yes you can use regular tires. Tire life is DIRECTLY related to the tire wear index on the sidewall. The lower the # the more grip the tire has, the shorter the tire life. If you choose regular tires, make sure you have AAA, or a tire mobility kit, or a space saving spare tire.

 

Yes, all MCSs are set the same at the factory regardless of the tire. A tuning company or the local dealer may get spunky and determine the "optimal" camber for a particular car, but highly unlikely.

 

+1 for everything said here. It DOES make a difference if the car is properly loaded. and the BMW/MINI specs call for it to be loaded.

 

thanks,
we are going with the pirelli run flats cheeper and we purchased on-line, will let local guy install but we fear the alignment there so we are driving 200+ miles to the mini dealer

 

I think -2 degrees camber is way too much for the rear. I think you'd get better wear and handling with -1.5 or so.

Front camber is NOT aggressive at all from the factory....very weak actually. Non-adjustable so no worries there for the most part.

Toe should be set as close to 0 as possible for tire wear. Toe is the real tire killer.

My alignment is more aggressive than stock and I get nice even wear across the tire and the tires are lasting a good long time. I run -1.7 camber front, -1.3 rear, and about 0 toe front and rear. Handles extremely well too, with a few aftermarket goodies .

I use a good alignment shop that gets me exactly the specs I request. It helps.


- andrew

 

we are once again having problems with the tires. in a very short time 10,000 miles the same front tire has gone bad, this time worn on the outer edge. I saved the Dunlaps that were on the back when we got the Perrelli's. My question is would it be ok to put the Dunlaps on the front and leave the Perelli's on the back? same size different tread. I know I shouldnt do that but these tires are very expensive and we mostly just drive around a small town where the top speed is 35 MPH and rarely even rains, no snow.

 

Sounds like a poorly done alignment with too much toe. You need to get a printout when you get an alignment...post it here and we can look at it.

As for you question, if the tires are in good shape then it's fine.

- Andy

 

Also could be worn control arm bushings messing up the toe under load

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using NAMotoring

 

Thanks Andrew...very helpful. 2nd set of back tires need replacing at 52,000 miles:( When the first went at 25,000 I questioned the SA's statement that it is NOT recommended to rotate these tires. The SA helping me this times recommends it....who is right?

 

BMW does not recommend rotation. They say it will alter the driving characteristics of the car. This will wear out the front tires 2 or 3 times faster than the rears. This is fine if you are going to replace the front tires with the same or very similar tires to the ones you have. Some shops recommend that when buying the two new tires that they are placed on the rear.

Rotating uses up the front and rear tires at the same time if you are doing it right. This allows you to change type and sizes of tires if you want to. I have heard that you actually get less total mileage out of the tires this way, but can NOT verify this.

If you are doing street driving, I wouldn't worry about any big change in handling due to rotation.

 

Thanks much! Is it unusual to only get 25,000 miles out of the tires? Not a happy camper..I always enjoy when I am. I love the name Frodo BTW...I will have to come up with something