My wife has a 2017 Clubman S All4 with the standard suspension (non adjustable) and 18" wheels. First, on the original OEM summer tires, I noticed a bulged sidewall just 6 months or so into ownership. The replacement tire was over $400 at the time and with winter approaching, I decided to change to all season Continental DWS. Eventually, I found a matching tire for $150 of the original summer tires, so I filled out the set but haven't mounted and balanced them since. With the Continental DWS, I've had one other sidewall bulge and 2 other tires develop very very slow leaks that were also from sidewalls being compromised. In 23k miles, this is literally going to be the 12th ****ing tire I've put on this car. My wife drives the car like a grandma and I drove my FR-S on the same garbage roads without issue.

The 18" wheels look good on the MINI, but I'm concerned that the standard suspension and the general heft of the Clubman S All4 is simply not very compatible with the 18" wheels and lower profile tires. There is a particular spot in a road we always take that I literally can't go slow enough for it to not make a harsh crash. It is almost as if the suspension just refuses to act in this particular scenario. Again, in my FR-S, this spot was never an issue in 4 years time on 215/45-17 tires. I'm trying to figure out my next step.

Anyone else having issues with regular tire problems on the 18" wheels and standard suspension? Is buying a 17" wheel with 225/45-17 tire (and the subsequent 11.3mm of add'l sidewall) going to be enough to stop this nonsense? I really don't want to plunk down $2k on wheels and tires when I have wheels and tires on the car with plenty of tread left. I also don't like dropping $150 every 6 months on a single replacement tire the another 5-8 years.

 

What a nightmare!

We put all of 600 miles on the 17" OEM run flats and then changed them out to regular tires and had 20,000 trouble-free, and more comfortable, miles. We have the spare.

The Service Manager at the dealer who re-installed our run flats last week prior to lease return strongly encouraged us to give the run flats that came on our new 2020 Clubman a longer trial. He feels they have improved.

So far, the new 17" Pirelli all season run flats do seem a bit smoother and quieter than the ones that came on the 2017 Clubman. But the ride is definitely harder than non-run flats.

Also, at least with Pirelli, there is a good OEM warranty for the first year. In the case of that first bulge you experienced six months in, I'm wondering if that should have been covered under warranty.

We have the non-sport suspension with dynamic dampers on the 2020. Also had it on the 2017. And we did go with 17's again on the 2020. I feel the ride and handling are better with the 17's and I like a little extra sidewall. If I do decide to shelf the run flats again, I plan to look at 225/50/17, if they fit nicely, just for a little extra cushion. The roads are so poorly maintained everywhere now.

 

I have a 2019 F54 with 17s, and I can't imagine going bigger. That's just not much rubber.

 

Maybe try change the tires to 235/40r18 first? This create 4mm extra sidewall height.

 

Good news: most recent issue seems to be a screw that the tire picked up. Plugged and back on the road.

Bad news: found a screw on the front tire today. It appears to be the same style but that tire isn’t losing air. Yet.

I took a peek under the car and there appears to be a ton of space to go with a taller sidewall on the 18” if I wanted. Maybe 225/45-18, 235/40-18, or 215/45-18.

 

Tire Rack has specs for the tires they sell and, in most instances, provides lots of data regarding rim size, tire diameter, and revs/mile, so you can calculate how overall size will impact fitment, speedo and odometer readings.

 

I used this to compare the size differents:

https://www.wheel-size.com/calc/?wheel1=225-40-18X7.5ET57&wheel2=225-45-18X7.5ET57&fcl=50mm&scl=50mm&wcl=30mm&sr=0mm

Our wheels should be 18x7.5 and 57mm offset. And 225/45 18 give you the most sidewall (almost same sidewall height to 17") but your speedo will be off a few mph and the car will seat taller.

I wouldn't used 215 as it may be little thin for our heavier car.

 

More bad news: the rear tire is still losing air after the plug repair. I’m figuring that she has another busted belt in the sidewall.

I’m thinking now that I might get a 17” wheelset with winter tires as a test. If I like the look, I’ll run the 18” summer tires until she inevitably has another failure, shitcan the tires, sell the wheels, and buy 17” 3 season tires to alternate with the winter tires running 17” year round.

If I don’t like the look, I will run the 17” setup winter only and upsize the sidewall of the 18” tires for 3 seasons.

Unfortunately, the cheapest method would be continually putting new tires on this damn thing as needed, but I’m at the point I just want to pay to make the problem go away for the whole marital bliss thing. I’m also worried that the lead in to our driveway is part of the cause for these issues. When she pulls into the driveway, there is a ton of deflection on the sidewall to get over the small ramp from the road to the driveway. I’m suspicious that is causing the issue.

 

Stop hitting things while driving.

 

From my friend's experiences (I never used run-flat on mine) run-flat tires seem to get damage easier. I am running 235/40/18 Michelin pilot sport a/s3+ on mine now and will see if it survive the winter.

 

There are no belts in the sidewall of a radial tire. It is a radial ply that goes bead to bead, perpendicular to the road. Likely the plug is not sealing the leak or there is another puncture in the tire. What makes short sidewall tires a pain when hitting potholes is what happens to the tire from the impact. Keep in mind that what holds the air in the tire is not the belt package or the radial ply but the butyl rubber liner in the tire (this replaced the tube). When a tire hits a pothole, often there is a compression cut created in the inner rubber liner where air leaks to the outside through the radial ply to the outer rubber layer (seen as a bubble). In short, when you see a bubble on your sidewall, this is what is now containing the air in your tire and a fragile margin at that.

 

Yea, somehow this hasn’t been a problem in any other vehicle we’ve had (GTI, FR-S, R53 MINI). The GTI had the exact same tire size. My wife also drives very cautiously. I suspect that the suspension is overdamped giving it poor small bump compliance.

Anyway, I bought some 17x7.5” Sparco Pro Corso wheels and Michelin X-Ice tires for winter. 215/50-17 gives me 19mm more sidewall than OEM 18” and 7mm over the OEM 17” setup.



I don’t like the look nearly as well as the OEM 18”, but it is fine for winter.

 

No rubbing issues? Which suspension? Keep me up to date. The 215/50-17 I just put on don’t have a ton of clearance between the tire shoulder and strut (17x7.5, ET48 rim).

 

The Bridgestone Potenza S001 made it 2 weeks with the Denver potholes before they bulged. Mine came from Seattle and previous owner had the JCW 526 19" wheels on it with RunFlats. I've already added the Detroit Tuned spare and I think I'm going to go with the Continental DWS 06 235/35/19's from Discount Tire and adding the Road Hazard. They said any pothole bulges will be covered under Road Hazard. In the Fall I'm definitely going to get some 17's with some Michelin CrossClimate+ tires for the winter. For now I hope the 19's can make it thru the Spring without a major pothole bending them.

Pass. Side


Drivers Side



Fun Fact:
"Last year we filled a little over 67,000 potholes, that’s actually a little lower than we’ve seen in year’s past, we can fill anywhere up to 100,000 in a year," said Heather Burke, spokesperson for Denver's Department of Transportation & Infrastructure."

 

If that is a run-flat, you may have some small bend in the wheel as well. good luck with it. a regular tire will be a lot nicer ride and grip and be able to take the potholes much better! And out spare kit will be perfect just incase.

Chad
DT

 

Hey Chad at DT, didn't know you were on here, I'm a new MINI owner. Here's my post about adding your spare, I was planning to get rid of the run-flats asap anyway.
DT Spare Tire Fitment

 

I just installed ​​​​225/45-R18 Bridgestone DriveGuards on my 2016 Clubman S. They're a little taller than the stock 225/40-R18 Pirelli Cinturato that I replaced (at 30,000 miles) and definitely ride more comfortably.

I would have preferred Michelin Primacy MXM4 when the shop couldn't repair my flat, but this is what they had in stock and I wanted this size.

I'm looking forward to the extra sidewall, ride height and speedo correction. So far so good!

 

One year update: I ran the winter setup last year with no issues. I mounted the S001 summer tires (OEM) on the stock wheels in the spring and tossed the Conti DWS. The one brand new tire immediately leaked and I took it back to the shop to investigate. They found the valve stem was leaking. Fixed the problem and the tires haven’t developed leaks since. I’m suspicious that the shop saw these low profile tires, assumed a compromised sidewall was root cause, and decided to throw new tires (and my money) at the slow leak while blaming potholes. She is back on winter tread again and hopefully the saga is over.