335d eating tyres!

[scrob]

My dad is going off his nut here after my mum is onto her third set of Bridgestone Potenzas on her 2007 BMW335d. It is running 19" wheels with a 35 profile tyre.

The first set she got 17k miles out of, the second she has got only 13k miles. Both times the tyres were worn really badly to the inside, in fact the current set is through to the wire on the inside whilst the outside looks fairly good.

The car has never been hit, we've owned it from new. BMW have told us both times it's because the alignment is out from hitting potholes. My dad doesn't fully understand what they mean, but stated that they need to put it on a "KVS machine or something" which takes 2 hours to realign the car at a cost of £95/hour. Can I assume that this just means 4 wheel alignment, which could be done at an independent tyre depot?

So £200 for that, plus £1k + VAT for tyres, twice in a year, has him pretty mad!

The question is, does anyone know why this could be happning? We all drive cars with low profile tyres, yet I have never had a problem with any of my cars eating them on the inside.

[Jake.]

Hitting potholes hard can knock the tracking out. And tyre wear on the inside edges of the front tyres is a typical symptom of the tracking being out, but if I read you right you're saying that all four tyres are wearing prematurely on the inside edges, right?

He's going to have to replace the tyres again now whether he likes it or not. If he doesn't get the alignment at least checked then the next set of tyres aren't going to last any longer than the previous ones. So really, your only decision is where to get the alignment done.


Edit to ask...
How many times has your BMW dealer actually done the alignment now? If the answer is none, then your dad has no reason to moan.

Edited by Jake. on Wednesday 30th September 18:47

[Neil.D]

The 3 series are notorious for eating the inside of the rear tyres - its because of the camber set up.
For peice of mind you could take it to somewhere like ProTyre who will do the same 4WA for less than £100.

It may also be that your mum is actually a secret traffic light racer.

[clk55pete]

17K miles doesn't appear too bad from my point of view or am I missing something? (Save for the uneven wear)

Edited by clk55pete on Wednesday 30th September 19:11

[ipwn]

Eating insides is pretty normal in the 3ers.

17k thats fking amazing imo.....

Brother gets around 10-12k out of his goodyears...

I am gonna get around 12k out of my ultracs.

17k is fking brilliant !

My vreds cost around 450 I think...255/18 225/18

In costso Potenzsas are 800 quid :O So tbh look for cheaper tyres too.

[sjj84]

17k sounds bloody good milage to me, I get 10k out of mine. If you want to get the alignment done, try and find a local garage that has a Hunter machine, probably cost about £100

[eliot]

Do the proper bmw KDS alignment, not the kwick fit alignment check which is garbage in comparison. They actually put sandbags in the car to weigh it down properly.
Oh and 17k on the tyres is pretty good in my book.

Edited by eliot on Wednesday 30th September 19:36

[scrob]

BMW did KDS last year when he replaced them at 17k and all 4 tyres were through the wire on the inside and like new on the outside.

Same again now, 13k later, through the wire on the inside and outsides are like new.

He isn't complaining about the price of the tyres or getting 17k out of them, he's complaining about the severe uneven wear.

[ipwn]

3ers wear on the inners, thats a well known fact.

I suspect the inner tyres are wearing to the limit at around 10k and he's only checking the outer indicaters rather than the inners. Thus meaning he is just adding extra mileage onto the innners wearing them complety out.

[a_bloke]

I got 10K out of the rears of my 535d on 19's.

I worked it out that as i was doing 20K miles per year i'd go through two sets of rears and one set of fronts, which came to £1500 a year on tyres!

The only thing i'd suggest is a cheaper brand than the bridgestones.

[Neil.D]

I wonder if switching from the standard run flats would allow more compliance from the sidewall and thus less wear?

[AB]

17k miles of setting off from traffic lights and causing the world to rotate wildly on its axis. Bargain if you ask me.

Having said that, my Z4 is no better, and there does seem to be a massive case of inside tyre wear.

[BMWBen]

scrob said:

My dad is going off his nut here after my mum is onto her third set of Bridgestone Potenzas on her 2007 BMW335d. It is running 19" wheels with a 35 profile tyre.

The first set she got 17k miles out of, the second she has got only 13k miles. Both times the tyres were worn really badly to the inside, in fact the current set is through to the wire on the inside whilst the outside looks fairly good.

The car has never been hit, we've owned it from new. BMW have told us both times it's because the alignment is out from hitting potholes. My dad doesn't fully understand what they mean, but stated that they need to put it on a "KVS machine or something" which takes 2 hours to realign the car at a cost of £95/hour. Can I assume that this just means 4 wheel alignment, which could be done at an independent tyre depot?

So £200 for that, plus £1k + VAT for tyres, twice in a year, has him pretty mad!

The question is, does anyone know why this could be happning? We all drive cars with low profile tyres, yet I have never had a problem with any of my cars eating them on the inside.

Please don't tell me he's buying his tyres from BMW - if he is he'll save a wedge by going online. And get the alignment done elsewhere, that price is a RIP OFF!

[VAG1]

Yes tell him to come see me

[Huff]

Surely a small rice to pay fro driving teh fastest car on the planet..?

(Sorry, couldn't resist)
More seriously I agree with posters above who are suggesting that basically the car isn't being driven the way it is set-up from new to be driven - ie fairly hard. But doing so will *not* extend the life of tyres - rather, the geometry will be set-up to provide moderately even tyre wear for the anticipated use. Bottom line - you are unliky to get further extension of tyre life at all.

[martin vr6]

My current 335d tourer is due for rear tyres very soon, and it has currently managed 15k out of it's original michelins

17k is great but I would seriously consider getting the suspension geometry checked if they are continuosly wearing heavily on the inside.

[Huff]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Basically , yes. I don't claim (or think!) that it's necessarily appropriate, but what we are talking about is a car with large/oversize wheels, very low-profile tyres with stiff sidewalls and aggresive geometry. Presumably it's a chassis set-up by engineers, then given larger wheels by Marketing...

It's by no means a theme limited to BMW, unfortunately.

[blank]

My mate has similar issues with his E92. It's a 325i M Sport on 19s, done about 18k miles from new. There's loads of tread on most parts of the tyres, apart from 1 area near the inside that's worn a lot more. Although I guess 18k is pretty good mileage, it's annoying that they seem to wear unevenly and "waste" the rest of the tyre.

He's in a battle with BMW over it at the moment.

[ipwn]

blank said:

He's in a battle with BMW over it at the moment.

What's he exactly battling exactly?

It's bmws fault tyres are wearing out ?

Edited by ipwn on Thursday 1st October 00:47

[blank]

ipwn said:

blank said:

He's in a battle with BMW over it at the moment.

What's he exactly battling exactly?

It's bmws fault tyres are wearing out ?

Edited by ipwn on Thursday 1st October 00:47

It could be argued that it's BMW's fault the tyres are worn in such a strange way. But I think the main reason is he doesn't want to pay £1200 for 4 new tyres!