Got the call at work yesterday, "What does this light mean?" Low pressure indicator. This AM I went to pump up the guilty tire and found a nice neat radial cut in the sidewall. Is it possibly a defective tire after 14k miles? More importantly, can it be repaired and safely used after? Factory 17" run-flats. Appreciate any info.

 

Probably not defective. If it is on the sidewall, it can't be repaired.

Steve

 

If there's a cut in the outside of the sidewall, there's no way it can be repaired safely. On the positive side, lots o' folks are selling stock runflats...

 

Just lost a Dunlop myself to a pothole... IS your runflat a Dunlop, Goodyear or Pirelli

 

Its a Pirelli, in fact the slice is in the first "R". Guess I'll try and inquire in a round-about way about the pothole threory tho it sure looks like a neat cut.

 

I just found a Dunlop from a NAM member for $80. In my search of the marketplace I remember seeing some Pirellis but I was concentrating on Dunlop. Good luck. It really sucks to have this happen.

 

Unless the "pothole" had a knife in it, I would think you had a vandal visit you. It really burns me to hear about some scumbucket that has nothing better to do with their time than to go around slashing the tires on cars. Perhaps they should volunteer (or better yet, be volunteered) to go to Iraq for service disarming IEDs.

 

Disarming IEDs requires smart people with lots of training, knowledge, and skill.

I wish we could just send @$$hats instead.

 

Returning to the topic of Tires on a MINI.

 

Well, the driver at the time doesn't recall any potholes or other road obstructions and says she had only made stops at the dermatologist and the mall. Nevertheless, rodan is on his way to the dealer on the back of the tow vehicle. A sad sight indeed. :( Of course, it wasn't the tire with the most wear. Go figure.