Do I need to buy * rated tyres?
Discussion
richatnort said:
I’m totally lost on whether I should be looking for * rated bmw tyres or the non bmw ones?
I’ve got a x3 m40i with Pirelli’s on at the minute that are near the end of their life. At £360 a corner I wanted to look at other options and found some Michelins at Costco for considerably less but the same size guide, they’re just not * rated so unsure if I should get them or not.
Anyone able to help untangle this tyre mess for me!
Yes.I’ve got a x3 m40i with Pirelli’s on at the minute that are near the end of their life. At £360 a corner I wanted to look at other options and found some Michelins at Costco for considerably less but the same size guide, they’re just not * rated so unsure if I should get them or not.
Anyone able to help untangle this tyre mess for me!
The number of X3's I've seen/heard of with transfer case issues (it feels like a misfire) due to non star rated tyres.....my mate's 2009 model - four new non star rated Pirellis and it had all the symptoms. A new set of correct tyres and it's fine. He'll get some money back via ebay for the nearly new part worns, but an expensive mistake.
It's not worth the gamble to save a few quid.
richatnort said:
I’m totally lost on whether I should be looking for * rated bmw tyres or the non bmw ones?
I’ve got a x3 m40i with Pirelli’s on at the minute that are near the end of their life. At £360 a corner I wanted to look at other options and found some Michelins at Costco for considerably less but the same size guide, they’re just not * rated so unsure if I should get them or not.
Anyone able to help untangle this tyre mess for me!
Oh no not this again! :-) Here's what I've taken from my ownership (F25 X3 2014 30d) :-I’ve got a x3 m40i with Pirelli’s on at the minute that are near the end of their life. At £360 a corner I wanted to look at other options and found some Michelins at Costco for considerably less but the same size guide, they’re just not * rated so unsure if I should get them or not.
Anyone able to help untangle this tyre mess for me!
- The E83 X3 definitely had issues with transfer box and non-star rated tyres. All X3's are considered suspect as a result by the internet although the truth is probably different
- The F25 isn't as badly affected by non-star marked tyres. Have never tried them but that's what I remember reading.
- The F25 is affected by tyres that are very different tread depth. If my tyres are 3mm+ different front to back I can feel a 'shunt' when accelerating at more than a low rate. Immediately replacing the worn tyres makes the 'shunt' disappear. I would describe the 'shunt' feeling like the drive disengaging for a fraction of a second and a slight noise from under the car.
- My tyres are 245/50/18 all round. Not tried a different setup
- I always use star marked tyres RFTs, have found PZero's the best
Edited by mekondelta on Wednesday 20th March 14:06
Oilchange said:
I'm the eternal cynic, clearly, but when a car develops problems because a specific tyre hasn't been fitted then the engineering is, to my mind, poor.
I understand why, but consider this.What if you were to fit a cheap chinese water pump instead of an OE quality pump & the engine overheated and warped the head.
Is that BMW's poor engineering?
The car was designed to be fitted with a certain range of tyres & a deviation from that can cause issues, whereas the actual issue is people not doing due diligence on purchase to check all aspects of the running/maintaining of the car & then subsequently causing issues by "going cheap" when it comes to replacing parts.
As I said in my opening line, I understand why you & others see it like that, but I see it differently.
Edited by E-bmw on Thursday 21st March 08:07
So I've been doing some thinking on the subject.
Currently my F15 is being swapped from the winter set to a brand new summer set. 275/40 R20 front, 315/35 R20 rear. In December I needed to drive across Europe where winter tyres are mandatory in some countries, so I had no choice but to get a winter tyre set. The only winter run flat option in the entire damn country was Continental Winter Contact TS860 S SSR and I paid £1430 for the set on Black Circles. No BMW star on them. Just think about it - it's a premium tyre set from a German manufacturer and there's no BMW star. WTF?
I just dropped off the car for the winter tyres to be swapped to a brand new set of Michelin Latitude Sport 3 Zero Pressure and asked the fitting guy to check if there was a star on them. He said there was not. So either he was full of it or again, WTF? "Designed for BMW" my ?ss, Black Circles.
There's another thing I have observed that is likely related to the star and xDrive. The car normally drives smooth, but there's a stretch of A406 in London when I drive the car is yanking and vibrating like crazy, so now that I think about it, it seems as if the front and rear is out of sync somehow and pulling/pushing one another and that could be induced by that specific road surface that resonates through the tyres and causes xDrive to go haywire. I don't know what else it could be.
Anyway, this whole thing is highly annoying. I will try the Michelins on the same stretch of A406 and see if the problem is still there.
EDIT: Just got the car back and checked again, so it turns out the Michies have the star, so at least there's that.
Currently my F15 is being swapped from the winter set to a brand new summer set. 275/40 R20 front, 315/35 R20 rear. In December I needed to drive across Europe where winter tyres are mandatory in some countries, so I had no choice but to get a winter tyre set. The only winter run flat option in the entire damn country was Continental Winter Contact TS860 S SSR and I paid £1430 for the set on Black Circles. No BMW star on them. Just think about it - it's a premium tyre set from a German manufacturer and there's no BMW star. WTF?
I just dropped off the car for the winter tyres to be swapped to a brand new set of Michelin Latitude Sport 3 Zero Pressure and asked the fitting guy to check if there was a star on them. He said there was not. So either he was full of it or again, WTF? "Designed for BMW" my ?ss, Black Circles.
There's another thing I have observed that is likely related to the star and xDrive. The car normally drives smooth, but there's a stretch of A406 in London when I drive the car is yanking and vibrating like crazy, so now that I think about it, it seems as if the front and rear is out of sync somehow and pulling/pushing one another and that could be induced by that specific road surface that resonates through the tyres and causes xDrive to go haywire. I don't know what else it could be.
Anyway, this whole thing is highly annoying. I will try the Michelins on the same stretch of A406 and see if the problem is still there.
EDIT: Just got the car back and checked again, so it turns out the Michies have the star, so at least there's that.
Edited by RockDriver on Thursday 21st March 12:03
E-bmw said:
I understand why, but consider this.
What if you were to fit a cheap chinese water pump instead of an OE quality pump & the engine overheated and warped the head.
Is that BMW's poor engineering?
The car was designed to be fitted with a certain range of tyres & a deviation from that can cause issues, whereas the actual issue is people not doing due diligence on purchase to check all aspects of the running/maintaining of the car & then subsequently causing issues by "going cheap" when it comes to replacing parts.
As I said in my opening line, I understand why you & others see it like that, but I see it differently.
Indeed.What if you were to fit a cheap chinese water pump instead of an OE quality pump & the engine overheated and warped the head.
Is that BMW's poor engineering?
The car was designed to be fitted with a certain range of tyres & a deviation from that can cause issues, whereas the actual issue is people not doing due diligence on purchase to check all aspects of the running/maintaining of the car & then subsequently causing issues by "going cheap" when it comes to replacing parts.
As I said in my opening line, I understand why you & others see it like that, but I see it differently.
Edited by E-bmw on Thursday 21st March 08:07
The vibration/grabbing in the X Drive system is the clutch plates in the transfer casing trying to slip - it does them no good at all. It's better to pull the plug off the actuator so it reverts to RWD only rather than destroying the transfer box. Or just pony up for the tyres BMW insist on.
The FWD based X Drive stuff (Mini based stuff with the transverse engine) is much less prone.
Oilchange said:
Sounds to me like the x-drive is the weak link here, not the tyres.
Still, what's not clear to me is why is it fine 90% of the time, but only when I get on some specific roads it starts to freak out.I've just checked my winter tyre Continental WinterContact TS 860 S SSR (run flat) on Black Circles again and what do you know - 90% of reviews are from BMW owners. So even though these don't have the damn star, looks like they are still a default choice for BMWs?
I know that Merc doesn't do run flats, since my last car was W166 (ML) and it had normal tyres and a spare. So it looks like the whole run flat starred / not starred tyre market is mostly aimed at BMWs.
E-bmw said:
The thing with Contis as per above is, just because the ones you bought weren't BMW* rated, that could easily because that is what they could get hold of quickly, but does that mean Conti don't make them?
Well that's the thing. This is not the first time I bought a set of these exact Contis. At the end of 2022 I had an E70 for a month, it was diagnosed with engine gasket failure and went back to the dealer, but of course not before I dropped 1.5K for a set of new winter Contis. Back then it was the only winter run flat option for the 20 inch staggered set, just as it was 3 months ago when I put them on my F15. At least in UK it seems that's all there is.Pica-Pica said:
This came up some time ago on Jon’s Tyre Reviews. Which may explain the differences with star * BMW tyres.
Indeed and before that video as well on Bimmerpost tyre suppliers posted showing the differences between generic and star rated tyres, extending to the width/compounds/tread pattern and shape, but you still get people happily posting ignorant views and advice. Wills2 said:
Pica-Pica said:
Indeed and before that video as well on Bimmerpost tyre suppliers posted showing the differences between generic and star rated tyres, extending to the width/compounds/tread pattern and shape, but you still get people happily posting ignorant views and advice. You do pay a bit more for the star marked tyre versus the generic version, but I'm more happy to pay it now though.
cerb4.5lee said:
You do pay a bit more for the star marked tyre versus the generic version, but I'm more happy to pay it now though.
That's IF you can even find the damn star. As I've said above - 20 inch staggered set winter run flats - literally 1 option in the entire country, £1500 for a set and you get a middle finger instead of a star.RockDriver said:
That's IF you can even find the damn star. As I've said above - 20 inch staggered set winter run flats - literally 1 option in the entire country, £1500 for a set and you get a middle finger instead of a star.
Yes and the availability of them is annoying/frustrating for sure. RockDriver said:
I know that Merc doesn't do run flats, since my last car was W166 (ML) and it had normal tyres and a spare. So it looks like the whole run flat starred / not starred tyre market is mostly aimed at BMWs.
Yes they do, marked 'MOE', (MERCEDES-BENZ ORIGINAL EXTENDED), there is also AR Alfa Romeo runflats for the Gullia and Lexus LC500 runflat tyres by Michelin.E30M3SE said:
Yes they do, marked 'MOE', (MERCEDES-BENZ ORIGINAL EXTENDED), there is also AR Alfa Romeo runflats for the Gullia and Lexus LC500 runflat tyres by Michelin.
Technically, those are not run flats: https://www.tirerack.com/upgrade-garage/what-are-m..."However, since they don't meet all of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) run-flat tire operating limits under all permitted vehicle loads, they cannot be branded as run-flat tires."
RockDriver said:
That's IF you can even find the damn star. As I've said above - 20 inch staggered set winter run flats - literally 1 option in the entire country, £1500 for a set and you get a middle finger instead of a star.
Just grab a set of square setup rims for the all season/winter tyres, then the world is your oyster for tyre choice. I've been enjoying the Goodyear Vector 4Season Gen3 on the X5 over the winter period and trips up to NE Scotland. The 21" rims are in the garage with the PZero RFTs, which work well in the spring/Summer/Autumn.
E-bmw said:
I understand why, but consider this.
What if you were to fit a cheap chinese water pump instead of an OE quality pump & the engine overheated and warped the head.
Is that BMW's poor engineering?
The car was designed to be fitted with a certain range of tyres & a deviation from that can cause issues, whereas the actual issue is people not doing due diligence on purchase to check all aspects of the running/maintaining of the car & then subsequently causing issues by "going cheap" when it comes to replacing parts.
As I said in my opening line, I understand why you & others see it like that, but I see it differently.
I agree with cheap parts, but for me that all falls apart when we are comparing a Michelin tyre with a * against a regular Michelin PS4. What if you were to fit a cheap chinese water pump instead of an OE quality pump & the engine overheated and warped the head.
Is that BMW's poor engineering?
The car was designed to be fitted with a certain range of tyres & a deviation from that can cause issues, whereas the actual issue is people not doing due diligence on purchase to check all aspects of the running/maintaining of the car & then subsequently causing issues by "going cheap" when it comes to replacing parts.
As I said in my opening line, I understand why you & others see it like that, but I see it differently.
Edited by E-bmw on Thursday 21st March 08:07
Anecdotally, my F31 xdrive has been completely fine on normal non * tyres.
E-bmw said:
Oilchange said:
Sounds to me like the x-drive is the weak link here, not the tyres.
I am not saying the tyres are the weak link, just that fitting the wrong ones exacerbates other issues.Questionable BMW engineering, maybe deliberately so.
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