I woke up this morning to a large bolt in one of my run flat tires. My wife had to take it to a tire store and was told that these tires could not be repaired and needed to be replaced. Being a Sunday made this difficult.

I remember being offered a tire insurance policy on these which I turned down. Very expensive. BIG mistake.

 

You may want to check this website out. He buys and sells used tires and rims. I know he has tires for the mini cooper as I spoke to him about it last week. He is located close to you in Huntington Beach.


www.oemfactorywheels.com

Just a suggestion if you are trying to save a couple of bucks. You probably can find something that matches your set and in good condition.

Good luck

 

The official line is that they can't be repaired, but you'll find many on this board who have had repairs done, including me. Depends on the nature of the damage. Might want to try a different shop.

 

Yes, they can be repaired. Apparently the problem is that the tires are hard to unmount and mount on to the wheels. Takes special equipment and skill. The job took about 20 minutes including balancing. A plug/patch design was used for the project.

While doing the repair, the tech noticed that I had uneven tire wear on all four. We did an alignment and found the rear wheels were not right along with the front. The car is basically new with only 8500 careful miles on it. So, these are either: A) coming improperly aligned from the factory, or B) very suseptible to just about any road abnormality encountered. The run-flats are very unforgiving when coming upon even the slightest bump.

On another related note, the dealer quoted me $199 for a full four-wheel electronic alignment. I got it done at the Goodyear store in Orange, CA for $99 using the same equipment. The alignment took a little less than an hour. Cost of the tire repair was $50. I was obsessing about having to buy a $325 tire fromt the dealer and then pay for mounting every time I got a flat. Not to worry.

 

I don't think the factory does an alignment; they probably just bolt everything up according to the build specs. The resulting build "alignment" might be a little off of the alignment specs. A real alignment just off the assembly line probably wouldn't last long anyway, as the car's suspension needs driving time to settle. So it's probably a good idea to take a new car in for an alignment check (and possible adjustment) after a few hundred miles.

I've read that the maximum puncture diameter for safe plugging/patching is .25", and a plugged and patched tire no longer meets it's original speed rating.

 

I remember reading an article in Road & Track a LONG time ago advising that the delivery alignment of most cars they reviewed was WAY OFF. They typically got cars off the line early and they had a practice of always getting them aligned b4 they did any tests.

Since then I've NEVER assumed the delivery alignment was worth squat - nor the balance either after having a tire scallop BAD with the delivered weights . . .

Call me silly but since then, in the first week of ownership, I take the car in and have the alignment and balance checked ... which is only as good as the place you take it so see my comments about finding a GOOD tire/alignments shop

 

Good points.

Even the newest Hunter alignment machines need to be properly calibrated. My dealer's machine was off so much I could tell the alignment wasn't right by eyeball, although the screen and print-out read both sides at -1.0 degrees (I was sitting in the driver's seat and could read the screen). I later checked it with a Smart camber gauge and found the LF to be -.5 degrees while the RF was -1.0. I then took it in to my usual independent shop (also with a Hunter machine) and they found the same discrepancy; plus toe-in was off at both ends from the dealer's print-out values.

I informed the dealer about the poor alignment. Sure enough, they found the Hunter machine to be out of calibration, although they recently supposedly had it re-calibrated by a Hunter technician, who caught hell, or so I was told.

 

I'm going to do a scan of the before and after report of my car showing how far off he was before the alignment. I'm on my way to work and will attempt to do so tonight. I think you folks will find it informative.

 

Here's a copy of the report on the alignment showing before and after stats. I was really surprised to see how out of wack the rear end was. I ticked a curb with the right front which skewed the reading. But the rear surprised me. The guy told me this needs to be a yearly routine.