Will replacing runflats increase ride comfort?
Discussion
Depends how big the wheels are in my experience.
I've done it one two cars.....a 54 reg 535d Sport which had 18" wheels made a massive difference and on a 57 reg X5 SD on 20 wheels which it didn't make much difference on. With the X5 I have had the car from new and changed the tyres at 8000 miles as I was fed up of the ride....it's made such a small difference that I will be putting the RFT's back on as they still have quite a lot of wear left in them.
I've done it one two cars.....a 54 reg 535d Sport which had 18" wheels made a massive difference and on a 57 reg X5 SD on 20 wheels which it didn't make much difference on. With the X5 I have had the car from new and changed the tyres at 8000 miles as I was fed up of the ride....it's made such a small difference that I will be putting the RFT's back on as they still have quite a lot of wear left in them.
Replaced the Continental SportContact 3s on my 330D two weeks after buying it.
It was like night and day, a bit more compliance in the sidewalls makes it much nicer cornering, and driving on less than perfect (read: UK) roads.
Got a can of gunk and an air compressor in the boot and suitable recovery cover. Won't have run flats on a car ever again, total false economy.
My tyre guy will go out of business if he is found out plugging a run flat - regardless of whether he can or not. Whereas a conventional tyre - £10 and a repair good for the rest of the tyre's life.
It was like night and day, a bit more compliance in the sidewalls makes it much nicer cornering, and driving on less than perfect (read: UK) roads.
Got a can of gunk and an air compressor in the boot and suitable recovery cover. Won't have run flats on a car ever again, total false economy.
My tyre guy will go out of business if he is found out plugging a run flat - regardless of whether he can or not. Whereas a conventional tyre - £10 and a repair good for the rest of the tyre's life.
Potatoes said:
I ditched my RFTs this weekend on my E61 M-Sport and it has made a big difference to the ride quality
As I said, a great difference to te ride quality. However today what happen? That's right, after 4 days of non-runflats I get a flat tyre!!
Edit - well, it seems two things happen, I also managed to completely forget English
Edited by Potatoes on Monday 23 April 20:12
jamie w said:
Changed on my 330i. M Sport but doesn't the SE have sport suspension?
Improve handling? No. It will corner with slightly more roll.
Improve ride? A bit. Not as much as some would have you believe.
On smooth roads run flats are very good. However on bumpy roads (most of the UK!) they make the ride very skittish. Corners that would have the TC light flashing in my old Z4 (with run flats) I can take at the same speed with ease in my B3. Improve handling? No. It will corner with slightly more roll.
Improve ride? A bit. Not as much as some would have you believe.
He's now decided to go for RFT replacements.
I came to the same conclusion to be honest. It seems like recent RFT technology has come quite a long way in terms of ride comfort so the experiences of people swapping first generation tyres is probably less relevant now than it was.
That coupled with the need for a spare or tyre gunk has pretty much sealed it I think.
Thanks for the responses.
I came to the same conclusion to be honest. It seems like recent RFT technology has come quite a long way in terms of ride comfort so the experiences of people swapping first generation tyres is probably less relevant now than it was.
That coupled with the need for a spare or tyre gunk has pretty much sealed it I think.
Thanks for the responses.
Never saw more than 20k out of a set. They also cracked rims on mates 335i and old mans 535d. Cannot see the point of them (cost/ride/repair) in last 10 yrs of car driving so somewhere between 400-500k miles, I've only had one puncture that required a tyre change at the roadside - in wifes Golf, outside lane M25 hit some debris destroyed tyre & rim, would have done same to runflat. At least I had a spare wheel to put on!
jamie w said:
Changed on my 330i. M Sport but doesn't the SE have sport suspension?
Improve handling? No. It will corner with slightly more roll.
Improve ride? A bit. Not as much as some would have you believe.
More roll? I don't understand why. You're not changing the spring rates or anti roll bar diameter - just the compliance of a tyre sidewall. If, as you say, it doesn't affect the ride quality by much (so therefore sidewall compliance isn't much different) where does the roll come from?Improve handling? No. It will corner with slightly more roll.
Improve ride? A bit. Not as much as some would have you believe.
For what it's worth, I have changed the 18" RFTs on my 3 series for normal tyres, and although I wouldn't call the ride comfort 'plush', it's noticeably better and certainly deals a lot better with the crappy broken road surfaces we have to deal with. In fact, as the skipping over bumps, drain covers and white lines is reduced - cornering ability is actually superior...
All in my humble opinion of course.
Muppet32 said:
More roll? I don't understand why. You're not changing the spring rates or anti roll bar diameter - just the compliance of a tyre sidewall. If, as you say, it doesn't affect the ride quality by much (so therefore sidewall compliance isn't much different) where does the roll come from?
For what it's worth, I have changed the 18" RFTs on my 3 series for normal tyres, and although I wouldn't call the ride comfort 'plush', it's noticeably better and certainly deals a lot better with the crappy broken road surfaces we have to deal with. In fact, as the skipping over bumps, drain covers and white lines is reduced - cornering ability is actually superior...
All in my humble opinion of course.
"Roll" is probably not the right word - I'm no expert in car handling, was just trying to describe what I felt! What I noticed was it was not quite so keen to stick to a tight lowish speed arc, such as a small but acute roundabout. Almost felt like a little bit of understeer compared to the RFTs. For me, this means the handling is not so sharp.For what it's worth, I have changed the 18" RFTs on my 3 series for normal tyres, and although I wouldn't call the ride comfort 'plush', it's noticeably better and certainly deals a lot better with the crappy broken road surfaces we have to deal with. In fact, as the skipping over bumps, drain covers and white lines is reduced - cornering ability is actually superior...
All in my humble opinion of course.
Agree that there was an improvement on broken surfaces and that the skipping over bumps in corners was reduced. But for me I didn't consider this an improvement in handling, more lessening of of something that was a pita...
All opinions though!
bigdom said:
Never saw more than 20k out of a set. They also cracked rims on mates 335i and old mans 535d. Cannot see the point of them (cost/ride/repair) in last 10 yrs of car driving so somewhere between 400-500k miles, I've only had one puncture that required a tyre change at the roadside - in wifes Golf, outside lane M25 hit some debris destroyed tyre & rim, would have done same to runflat. At least I had a spare wheel to put on!
Depends where you're coming from I guess. I came out of an A3 3.2 S-line and the ride on that was truly horrific. The set-up on the beemer with RFTs is monumentally more comfortable and I'm more than happy with it. I've had two punctures in the last twelve months )last time I had a puncture was about 20 years ago!) and both times I've got them repaired for a tenner a time. Granted, the cost of replacing them is a pain in the arse but I really don't have a problem with them at all. And my rims are still intact!Gassing Station | BMW General | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff