As much as I hear people hating the runflats, I have always liked thier performance just fine - and today they became my best friend!

I have not had a flat in 10 years (knock on wood...oh darn that's plastic). Until today.

I have no idea what I hit, but it looks just like someone took a 1/8" drill bit to my tire and took out a round chunk. I can see all the steel braiding through the core. I put an airline on it, and I may have well have had it down my pants...no good.

This happened 150 miles from home on the highway late this afternoon (Sat.). I took it easy, around 70, all the way home and it wallowed around alot (right rear) but got us home without a problem, safe and sound. Monday I'll drop it off for a replacement (free - glad I got that tire/wheel service contract for $350, it just paid for itself).

Incidently, I felt the wallow before I knew what it was. It felt like I was following deep crowns in the road. My GF actually pointed to the dash and said what's that light mean? I thought she was pointing to the low fuel - I said we're out of gas. She said no, this one...I said oh...out of a tire!

The sheer inconvenience and hassle of a regular flat is frankly something I never want to bother with again. I hope to always have runflats for my daily drivers from here on out, just like HID lights. They are such a critical improvement to driving safety and comfort, I don't want to have to do without them ever again.

Thumbs up to runflats!

Track guys, save your comments...better tires for specialty driving are certainly warranted, but I don't do that with this car.

 

Interesting to get an alternative opinion. I was wondering about how soon to ditch the run flats, but you present a valid point. I have not experienced a flat tire in 11 years of owning my present car (with SUV type tires), but had 2 blowouts within 4 weeks prior to that with high performance tires. There is a lot of construction around my neighborhood and that seems a source of screws and nails. Perhaps I will keep my runflats for 10,000 miles and see. But 10,000 miles translates to 2 years. Oh well. Thanks for the post.

 

I have 18000 on pereli euforia's I managed 2nd place in local SCCA event last month. MINI beat me by 4 tenths of a second with sticky tires. The runflats are excellent

 

What a coincidence: I, too, had a flat on my brand-new MCS, and I was about 400 miles from home. Fortunately, there was a tire shop that could repair it! I, too, might just keep them around for awhile!

 

Thanks for sharing. I guess regardless of commonly expressed opinions about ride quality and expense to replace (all probably true, no doubt), when a runflat saves your bacon out in the middle of nowhere...well, kinda tips the scale WAY over to the plus side doesn't it? Besides....I love stories w/ happy endings.

 

Being a cost-conscious (aka "broke") consumer, I'll chip in here that I'm planning to faithfully rotate the stock 16" runflats on me MCS, to maximize their useful life.

When it's time to replace tires, they will likely be replaced with (lower cost) non-runflats. Blame the footwear needs of my Caravan - I think I can get new shoes for both vehicles for about the price of replacing runflats.

I might have a different view if I didn't live 5 miles from work, and have AAA and MINI Roadside Assistance, neither of which requires me to have runflat tires to qualify for help in an emergency.

That noise in the background is a gaggle of performance gurus telling me I don't know what I'm missing ,

Tatt

 

I think the runflats are fine as far as ride and handling but I won't get runflats when I replace my tires. A tire that gets me off the interstate but then almost always needs to be replaced for 250 bucks or so is something i can do without. Having an MC, I'll either use my spare or a $5.00 can of flat fix and be on my way.

 

I ran runflats for 2 years & never had a puncture. Replaced them w/ some Toyos & had a nail in under 2 weeks. GRRR...

 

 

It figures...

 

I also like my factory supplied 16" Dunlop SP5000 all season runflats. They are very nice tires and provide a reasonable balance of safety, ride comfort and sharp handling. Yes, perhaps they are heavier than their radial counterparts but I am planning on keeping these babies for as long as the remaining thread is within safe limits.


When I had my '04 MCS, equipped with the same tires from factory, I made the mistake of not rotating frequently and by the time the car had 15K miles, the fronts were pretty worn out and the rears still had like 75% thread left but they had become scalloped (Due to the different wear pattern in the rear) and therefore annoyingly noisy.

Now with the '05 MCS I am not going to repeat that mistake and will rotate every 3K-4K miles to hopefully get at least 30K miles out of the original factory set.

I am not sure if I would switch to regular radial rubber. I like the safety margin of the runflats and the fact that I don't have to carry a spare stuffed into the boot. Yea I know that a can of -fix-a-flat, a portable air compressor and a cell phone shoul be enough, but still....

 

The 16" factory Dunlop SP5000 runflats are $140 a piece at Tirerack.com. Not cheap but not overly expensive either. I am not sure how much more are the 17" Pirellis offered in the MCS sport package.

 

15k miles on a $250 tire???

 

If you drive conservatively and never rotate, you can expect your runflats to last 15K-20K miles at the most. If you drive harder much less than that.

Tire rotation is the key here to extend the thread life of any tire, including runflats.

Again, the 16" 195/55/R16 Dunlop SP5000 runflats are $140 a piece from Tirerack.com.

 

I too am a fan of runflats and of regulars rotation. An ounce of prevention is worth the $.

 

I love my runflats! I'm on my second set and feel much more secure having them on Wanda for the cross-country roadtrips I take every year. I have the 16-inch Dunlop Performance tires and C4, I think rotating every 5K is fine. That is what I have been doing and they are wearing beautifully!

Kaelaria, I think in our MINI Owner's Manual it suggests not going over 50 mph in a flat runflat. 70 is WILD!


Clover

 

Runflats are great until....you get a flat and have to deal with the aftermath.

1. Usually no one will repair it, even if it is normally repairable.
2. No-one stocks them localy, and even on-line companies has/had delays in getting them.
3. The expense, ouch.

My run-flat flat was 2-3 week aggravating ordeal afterward without use of my car.

 

Hmmm, here in Texas, there are lots of places where a cell phone will do you no good. I frequently drive from San Antonio to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and if I don't take I35 there (and take the more fun to drive which takes the same amount of time) backroads, there are several places with no people, places or cell service. I know the ride on the run-flats is harsh, but I like 'em anyway for the safety.

 

Glad yer runflats helped you when you needed it

As for me, well I'll be switching them out for something grippier (and probably lighter), it just improves the handling and fun factor - there are reasons you don't find runflats on the M cars/most sports cars and the hard sidewalls and grip are among them. I just can't live life around what bad things might happen all the time; perhaps if I do any long trips where there is bad cell phone reception I'll get a mobility kit for Chipper, or a little spare.

 

imo those SP9000DSST's aren't that bad for just driving around. The only thing I don't like bout them is that they are very easily flat spotted and retains memory of the flat spot...I get this thump thump thump all the time on those DSST's. (maybe mine are all defects?) I used 35psi all around.

won't be using them until im ready to sell the car though. :smile:

 

I have mine at 40 each. After driving for several hundred miles yesterday, I noted that they were up to 45 with the heat build up. If I'm not mistaken, they are rated up to 50 psi. I think I'll try this for awhile . . .

 

40psi is a bit too high for normal driving... I think even on runflats.

 

I was at the presentation for the new E90 and the presenter told everyone that there will be more room in the trunk compared to the E46 because they will now runflats.

I was atwater yesterday and I carried my spare in the boot along with a plug kit and air compressor. I was pretty confident that any flat would have been taken care of. If I was travelling through an area where I knew cellphones wouldn't work I probably have carried a cb radio as well.

No punishing runflats for me.:smile:

 

Funny, we were signed up for the E90 event but then had other things we had to do. I'm not a fan of the new design so I didn't mind

 

I ditched the runflats and will never go back unless they find some way to smooth out the ride. Someday I'm going to get a spare for long trips, but right now whenever I think about not having a spare I remember traveling over much of this country on my motorcycles and of course never carried a spare. No compressor, tire-patch kit, cell phone either. Knock on wood, but I haven't been stranded yet!