Ok, after seeing and chatting with others members here I'm going with more rubber. My perelli p7 run flats that came with the car lasted exactly 1 year and there worn out. I have even plugged one to get me by until new tires arrive next week. The car has just a little over 10,000 miles now. I have never had tires wear out so fast. I will never be buying run flats again. But I will me investing in a Slime tire inflation kit to put under the driver seat. I am trying a tuner tire called forceum hexa. There tread wear is 320 vs the perelli 260. I hope they last longer. There are a lot of other thing I would like to be buying besides a set of tires every year. I'll post pics and review later.

 

10,000 miles? Holy crap. Burn outs? Driving on glass shards? Tracking? That's crazy short life for runflats. I know they don't last long, but that seems odd to me.

 

My wife drives the countryman most since its our newest car. I questioned her and she promised 0 burnouts. I was surprised also, so I did some Internet search on perelli run flats and found other mini owners with the same mileage. Yea, I had to pull out a tiny piece of a paper clip that had punctured the tire causing a slow leak. I was really surprised how easy it was to put the plug through the tire. I wonder if less steal belts are used since it will run on a flat tire because of the side walls?

 

Crazy. But I have heard some pretty wide ranging experiences with runflats, so I suppose I'll chalk yours up to the don't-go-there side of the conversation.

What are the tires you're moving to? Haven't heard of those before.

 

They are a new manufacture in Indonesia. They come on new Kia's. Great looking tire and a good price. 550 for 4 shipped to my door. I'll post review/pics once I get them

 

Will keep my eyes peeled for that review.

 

the pirelli p7 tires that come with the 18" wheels are "high performance" summer tires

as such, they don't last long, but they do "stick like glue" to the road

the tread wear rating of 260 is the clue to short life but sticky and has nothing to do with the tire being a run flat

the tires you are buying with a 320 rating won't last much longer, maybe 20k-30k miles

at 6k miles, my pirelli p7s are about 1/2 worn (6/32" tread left of the original 10/32") and will probably be worn out by about 10k miles, tires tend to wear faster as the tread wears down

if long tread life is your first priority, the continental PureContact with EcoPlus Technology has a treadwear of 700 and a set of 4 225/45-18 tires cost $664 + frt from tirerack.com and have a 70k mile treadwear warranty

if you upsize to 225/50-18 (like i will be doing)

michelin defender treadewear 820 $748/4 + frt 90k miles warranty
michelin hydroedge treadwear 800 $572/4 + frt 90k mile warranty (probably the best bang for the $$$) only $22 more than the tires you are looking at and treadwear goes from 320 to 800

all of the above tires are "all-season" tires not "summer" tires

i will be using michelin pilot super sports in size 225/50-18, treadwear 300 $696/4 30k mile warranty because tread life is not my first priority, i want high traction and will live with the shorter tread life

i also have a second set of wheels for winter snow tires

scott

 

finally got a day off work to get these installed monday. so far so good. first off they look better on the car because the 50 series fills the fender wells up more. as far as the comments on how much softer the non runflats are on bumps i cannot tell much. maybe a little, but not night and day. after turning the wheel all the way to feel for rubbing im pretty sure 55 series tires would rub. its real close. here are a couple before and after. i tried to have the car in the same spot, but the sun changed positions so its not the best.

 

Nice...looks good. How about a close up of one tire. Not very familiar with the tire you went with and would be great to see sidewall and tread pattern.

As far as the smoother ride, I could tell a night and day diff, especially when going over speed humps and speed tables near the airport. Even crawling over on the RFTs it was jarring. Now I can roll off the gas and roll over with no jarring at all.

Enjoy your new tires and keep us posted on how they break in.

 

thanks, here is a picture of the tread pattern compared to the runflats. they look like wet condition race tires to me. the edge around the rim sticks out more than the runflats and appears to possibly protect the rim more from accidental curb contacts. time will tell, i'll post better pics soon along with future real world reviews.

 

i ordered my cms all4 with the 18" wheels

the tires fitted are 225/45-18s, 25.9" OD

using my aviation GPS, i found the speedo is reading 1.9 MPH faster than the GPS reported speed

my winter tires are 205/70-16 on mini OEM alloy wheels i bought from ECS Tuning

the tires are 27.3" OD

again using the GPS, i found my speedo is now reading .6 MPH slower than the GPS reported speed

given this info, i am guessing that 225/50-18 tires with an OD of 26.9" or 27" OD (depends on brand) will put the speedo spot on the actual speed

same for 205/65-16 tires (27" OD)

scott

 

Just a follow up about the 225-50-18 hexa tires. Well there really is a noticable difference. At first there was some tire road noise and I didn't really notice a HUGE difference in less harshness with potholes, but bumpsteer has been totally gone from day 1. Now after a few months, the road noise is gone and overall ride quality is amazing compared to the run flats. I will follow up on tread wear after first 10,000 miles. I will definately be sticking with non-run flats and my green slim/compressor kit in the trunk

 

I took the 18 inch Bridgestone runflat summer tires off our car immediately because we needed winter tires. We bought Michelin X ice Xi3's in 225 – 50 – 18 size, Which are not runflat. As expected, the difference in ride quality is substantial given that they are not run flats. I cannot say how much of the comfortable ride is due to the tires being 50 series versus 45 series, because the 45 series tires were run flats. What really surprised me is that I cannot say that there is any significant deterioration in handling at all (Initial turn in is a bit more vague), despite that these tires are 50 series versus 45's, that they are not marketed as performance oriented tires, And the tread pattern is designed to maximize winter traction, not handling. It's only been a few hundred miles, but so far I am very pleased, although we have not had any significant winter weather so that I can test the real reason we bought these tires.

 

Bmwr606 - Do you have pics of the wheels installed? I really like the 16" for the snow in the Countryman as well as the 16" steelies for the R56 & R53.

 

hi ecstuning

i bought the mini oem 16" alloys from you, i love them with the winter tires

here you go, photos of 16" mini oem alloys on cms all4

R123 Alloy 5 Hole Circular Spoke Wheel 16" (5x120) Silver
Dunlop Grandtrek SJ6 205/70R16 studless snow and ice winter tires

225/45R18 on left vs 205/70R16 on right










scott

 

i have the same tires, 225/45R18 pirelli cinterato p7 summer rfs

i am projecting no more than 12,000 til mine hit the wearbar

i am going to replace them with michelin pilot super sport 225/50R18 summer non-rfs, these have a 30,000 mile treadwear warranty and are one class "stickyier" per the tirerack rating system

my dad's cms all4 has 205/55R17 pirelli cinterato p7 all-season rfs and at 10,000 miles, his look brand new

his don't stick near as well as mine

scott

 

Ok, i have about 7000 miles on these forceum hexa tires so its time for my review. DO NOT BUY THEM!!! Dont get me wrong they do roll and have good traction, but they are LOUD!! I mean jeep with mud tires LOUD!! My wife pointed this out and she is 100% correct. These tires seem to be getting louder with time. I will definately not be buying these again!

 

Ok so from everything I have read here, is it safe to say I could run 225/60/R18 with a 2inch lift?

Bueller?

 

Based on our experience (see my post above) I would say there should be no issue at all.

 

Sorry, I read your post too quickly. I thought you wanted to use the same size tires as we have, the 50 series. 60 series tires are significantly taller, and I am not confident that they would not rub.

 

bmwr606 - looks like your pics disappeared with the wheels below ?

R123 Alloy 5 Hole Circular Spoke Wheel 16" (5x120) Silver Part # 36109803725


http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/36109803725/



Thanks

 

Newbie here but wanted to say that after reading this thread decided to switch from the Goodyear efficient rft to normal tires

What an Xxxn difference!

I installed 225/50/18 Michelin ice xi3s on stock rims for the winter. The ride is plusher and the tires absorb bumps better than before. Far less road noise. Our roads in NJ are crap so prior to this was having serious regrets getting a countryman. They should come stock with better tires.

Car looks cool too with the tires filling up the wheel well more.

Just my $0.02

 

how about posting a pic? Curious as too how the taller tire looks overall..

 

Here you go

 

Hi guys, you may want to also put the 245 45 18 on your radar. The front shock tower clearance is close but they don't rub at all anywhere after driving them 3000 miles.