Well, memories are being made i guess. My wife and I are on a 3000 mile road trip from Washington State to Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota and the "low tire" indicator blinked on - not a good feeling when it is 97 degrees in the shade even if you could find shade. Our 2012 Countryman All4 has Continental Run Flats in the 205-55-R17 size. I thought to myself that I am glad that MINI's Roadside assistance will come in handy so I called the number and the advisor on the phone asked what color the indicator on the dash was, when I told her it was red she told me that the car would have to be towed to the nearest dealer which is in Loveland, Colorado at 350 miles away and in the wrong direction from Washington.
We decided instead of going with the tow that we would buy a tire locally and be back on our trip - NOBODY carries run flats in Rapid City, South Dakota in our tire size and they would have to be ordered and it would take several days to get it here - not the answer I wanted to hear. Is that tire size such an odd size? We have found one tire dealer that can get us a tire tomorrow in our size but it won't be a run flat - the only type of tire he could find is a studless snow tire. I have been advised by our MINI dealer in Portland, Oregon along with the dealer in Loveland that I can get by with running a conventional tire with the run flats till I get home.

What are other MINI owner's experience with the run flats? I wish right now that I had a spare - where would a spare fit anyway?

Don't get me wrong, we LOVE our MINI CMSALL4 and are having a great adventure.

 

If I were you I would look for the source of the leak and assuming that it is a nail or something similar, try plugging it. Not ideal, but should at least get you back on the road.

 

I found a tire compressor and tried to put air in the tire so I wouldn't damage the run flat further but the air was comin out as fast as I was putting it in from a cut on the side wall on the back side of the tire - the tire is "trash".

 

Back when the MINI first came out, tire size was a big concern, just for your situation. Thought it would be better a decade later, but I guess not. the 205/55-17 is not a common size (nor is the earlier 205/45-17). Some people get a spare from a Cooper to carry on road trips. Not even sure that would work with the ALL4 brakes though.
Good luck, and enjoy exploring Rapid City...

 

call/email Alex Mouroulis at tirerack.com (alex@tirerack.com) 888 428 8355 ext. 294
or 574 287 2345 ext. 294

i bet he can get you the correct/matching tire overnight freighted to a tire shop in rapid city

scott

 

Not 100% sure about the CMSALL4 but, most other all wheel drive OEM manufactures do not recomend putting a tire on that is not EXACTLY the same size, brand, and style as the one you are replacing. If all 4 tires are not exactly the same, it changes the ratio which the wheels spin and you take a chance of burning up your transfer case. Like I said, I am not 100% sure on about your vehilce but ask questions. If you burn up the transfer case, you'll have much bigger problems than a flat... Also, Mini is famous for finding ways to void warrantys. If you put a different tire on and cook the transfer case, I can just visualize the "motoring advisor" saying- "not covered. Just saying...

 

+1on tire rack,

 

Call Tire Rack and rent a car for a day and still sightsee..

 

Update -
We made it home from vacation in South Dakota with only the one flat tire. In my opinion, runflat tires ae fine around town, but I am really glad that our CMSALL4 picked up the 5-inch nail (piercing the inner sidewall in two places - the entry point and the exit point) only a couple miles from our hotel in Rapid City, SD and not out on the road someplace.
Roadside assistance wanted to tow the MINI to the nearest dealership which is in Loveland, Colorado to replace the tire. How much does a 350 mile tow bill cost? Having decided to replace the tire locally I wonder if we will be able to be reimbursed for the additional hotel stay?
The only available tire to replace the 205-55-R17 runflat Continental was a Michelin snow tire in the exact same size (non runflat). We did have a 24 hour wait while the tire was shipped in from 350 miles away. The tire turned out to be a near perfect match and we did not notice any difference in the ride over the remaining 1200 miles of our journey.

 

Why I switched away from RF's. They are expensive and really buy you nothing. I went to reg. tires and carry a compressor, slime and plug kit. If can't repair that I could repair a RF either. Finding the size is the issue. They only time I really do long road trips in the MINI if to the track- Thunder Hill in CA. If I am going there I have 4 sticky's in the back and I have options. Nitto NT01's are just very loud.

 

This happened to my mother and I on our way back from MTTS this about 2 weeks ago. She hit a moon crater in the road and it blew out the side wall. We were about 20 minutes east of Flagstaff, AZ on our way to the Petrified Forest. We had to be towed back to Scottsdale, AZ to have it replaced. If there was a dealership in the direction you wanted to go you can have them override that and take you to that dealership. Also that size is not uncommon but, run flats are uncommon. So you could have bought a cheap used tire in that size or close and continued your trip to a place that would have been better suited to replace it with the correct tire.

 

I got rid of my runflats a few days ago. Well, they're sitting in my garage right now. I'm running normal tires now. I have a 2004 MCS so there's no space anywhere for a spare. I have a pump in the boot. Its one of those footpump bicycle ones. Its just there flopping about in the boot,making me feel like it will come in handy one day..

 

I haven't had a flat in 40 years. I've considered switching to non run-flats without a spare. I also want to investigate using a more common readily-available size than the 225/45 18s. I would think though that any size could be located and delivered within 24 hours.

Anybody happen to know whether 225/50 18s will fit a countryman without interference?

 

yes the 225/45R18 fits, if search was working i would say to search and you would find photos of cm's with the 50s, but since search is not working, you will have to take my word for it

i am going to jump to the 50s when my oem tires need replacing

scott

 

Get a small cig operated inflator at walmart or the parts store. Smaller, lighter and faster than a footpump. I use the rear triangle nets to hold it and the tire slim and patch kit. Works perfect and they are not rattling around. pump works great too. Use it at the track all the time.