Saw something on the news last night that Toyota was having some serious issues with the Bridgestone runflats they were putting on the Sienna mini van. Basically the tires were wearing out in 10,000 miles. My car (somewhere on a boat at this time) came with run flats as part of a package. Has anyone had problems them on their Mini?

 

I, personally, am hunting down a receipt for the tires I purchased about a year (15K +/-) ago (Dunlops) as I believe they are still under warranty and are, at this time, with no track days or autoX, entirely bald.

That said, I think my tires are freaks, because I don't recall any mass hysteria around here regarding the shelf life of any particular ruflat.

I wouldn't worry about it.

 

nope no problems! 10,000 miles is pretty fast to wear out a tire but then again I drive like grampa .

Just rotate them every 5,000 or so, and when they DO wear out they will have more or less the same tread wear, and you can replace all 4 of them with (less expensive) non-runflats.

Better performance, less money, let's go for ice cream and you're buyin' with the $$ I just saved you,
Tatt

 

Just wore out my front runflats (Goodyear) in 23K miles. Haven't heard anyone complain that they are wearing faster then expected.

 

I have almost 30,000 on my 3 year old run-flat Goodyears. Wear bars tell me I might get one more year. I'm inlclined to try non-run flats for the lighter unsprung weight but I have had no issues with wear. Run flats did work as adverstised when I ran over something in a parking garage. Warning light came on and I buzzed over to discount Tire. They fixed it for free.

 

My Goodyear run-flats have 17,000 miles on them and look almost new. Hardly any tread wear.
I did have them rotated at 15,000.

 

i have pirelli euphoria runflats with a treadwear rating of 190 and 15,000 miles on them and 4 autox days on them. The backs are almost down to the wear bars(had them rotated at 11000), and the fronts are lookin ok. I estimate a couple thousand decent miles left on em.

 

Yeah, can't wait 'till mine wear out. The weight is crazy, concept sound but conventional radial tires don't produce instant flats like the old school bias plys.

I want a sport tire but with some sidewall flex. I sure notice winter tires to summer run flat change over. The bugger rides like a buck board with the R-Flats.

Our roads are evil, I wear two wallets in the hot months.

 

I pulled my runflats off after about 2300 miles and sold em. Replaced with Yokohama AVS ES 100's.

The Yoko's seem to ride smoother and they handle very well.

 

Nice to hear (even more) good things about the ES100's. I'll be heading to TireRack for my own set of 4, in the not-too-distant future .

Tatt

 

There is a myth being perpetrated on this forum that all the factory run flats are heavy. The 17” Goodyear all-season tires are heavy at 30lbs but the Dunlop DSST9000’s in 205/45/17 weigh 21lbs. Using The Tire Rack for reference I discovered that all of the max performance tires in this size that they sell weigh 20-21lbs. There are some good reasons to consider non run flat tires but unless you have the all-seasons, weight savings should not be one of them. I haven’t checked weights of the 16” tires maybe the factory run flats in this size are heavier.

 

I've run almost 32,000 on my Dunlop SP5000 Run-Flats and am waiting for my new Run-Flats to come via UPS. I've had a real good experience with mine and am willing to sacrafice a little perceived performance for the ability to get home after picking up a nail or other random road debris. I don't think you have anything to worry about.

Enjoy your new ride, it should keep you smiling for a long time...

 

Is the operation of the "flat detection" system tied to using run-flats? e.g., will the pressure sensors still work if I use regular tires?

I like the reassurance of knowing if a tire starts to lose air, I can A) drive it to somewhere to get it fixed without having to change it and B) a nice light comes on and tells me about it.

Also, there's a section of I-95 where the road surface is apparently warped on the left hand side so that when you drive over it, it feels EXACTLY like you've gotten a flat tire on the driver's side. I like my warning lights to assure me that I don't!

 

Strife- The flat tire warning system does not monitor tire pressure, It uses the ABS sensors to monitor individual wheel speed. If you have a tire with low pressure the wheel speed increases in relation to the other wheels because of the reduced rolling diameter. this is what trips the flat tire indicator. This system will work with all tires.

 

I have read that the pressure sensors are part of the ABS system and are based on tire rotational speeds relative to the other wheels or something along those line, nothing integrated into the wheel itself.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong please!

 

Finalstatic is right. The system you are referring to has nothing to do with the type of tire you are using. So if you decide to switch to non Run-Flats, it'll still work, but the reality is that you'll feel it before the system kicks in to tell you that something is wrong.

The system doesn't monitor the actual tire pressure, but a change in the rotation of the tire. The manual or I'm sure a thread on this board can explain it more elegantly, but that's a rough idea...it's independent of the type of tire you have.