E91 Straight Six Bearding

[ferrisbueller]

Which style of wheel are you having issues with?

[Swervin_Mervin]

stevesuk said:

Swervin_Mervin said:

I've had a problem with one of my fronts for years, which only got better once it was refurbed. Not sure if it was being made round again or being painted that fixed it.

Anyway, at the moment I find they're all losing a bit as it stands still so much - even the rears and one of those wheels is only 3-4yrs old.

What's weird is that up until this summer, the TPM warning had never appeared in over 10 years of ownership (even though I've always been lazy about checking pressures). Oh well, now I know they're all where they should be again pressure-wise, I'll check them in a weeks time and see what we've got.

I don't think my TPM has ever alerted me tbh! I find that handling is so sensitive to pressures that it will drive me mad enough to sort if even if it's only 1-2PSI down

[stevesuk]

ferrisbueller said:

Which style of wheel are you having issues with?

17" SE wheels - not sure the exact designation. These ones - excuse my son's hand in the way

[stevesuk]

The tyre place who cracked one of mine, reckon that the alloys in use when BMW first started fitting run flats weren't up to the job (I think he said it takes a lot more pressure/effort to remove a run flat from the rim?). Apparently they changed the design after a few years to make them stronger.

[JakeT]

They're style 158 wheels. I have a set of them on my car as winter wheels. Lots of people don't like them, but I think they're alright. A bit like the style 44 wheels on the E46.


If they're in poor visual condition, a refurb should help. As in a full tyres off stripped down and painted refurb. Bead sealer on the rim might help too, helps glue the tyre onto the rim. Mine are getting tatty now but don't leak air. I've not had even 20 year old wheels leak either, so it could be an old valve or the like?

[ferrisbueller]

http://www.bmwstylewheels.com/3/E90

I think that's a 158.

My understanding was that larger diameter wheels plus runflats was a bad combination. 19" in particular were know for cracking, though the 18s on things like Z4 have a tendency to, also. 17s should be the least prone in terms of that failure mode but I've heard of plenty of wheels getting damaged when tyres are being swapped as the runflats are a bh.

Assume you checked the valves and everything is OK there?

[stevesuk]

ferrisbueller said:

Assume you checked the valves and everything is OK there?

The thing is, it took 6 weeks to lose some of the pressure - so I'm not sure you could check easily to see where that's coming from visually?

They definitely could do with a refurb - but I'm not sure I'm going to pay out for that at the moment

edit: hmmm, there are several nice looking sets of 158 wheels on eBay for not too much money (which are far cleaner than ours)

Edited by stevesuk on Thursday 3rd December 11:12

[JakeT]

If you can, get yourself a spray bottle of water and washing up liquid and spray it around the bead of the tyre/rim and the valve stem, see if you have any bubbles forming there. Best bet is to take the wheels off and fully submerge them, but that might not be very practical.

[bodhi]

stevesuk said:

We're having a bit of bad luck with tyres recently. Had a puncture in one of the rears a couple of months ago, so got the pair replaced. During the process, the tyre place managed to crack one of the alloys (which to be fair, they paid to have welded up).

6 weeks or so later, and the TPM system warning pops up again.

The same corner (with the repaired alloy) needed inflating from 2.2 to 2.7 bar. However, one of the fronts also needed a similar level of inflation.

I checked the tyres, and can't see any visible damage.

I read somewhere that alloy wheels can get porous with age, and don't hold air so well. I'm wondering if having to put a bit of air in every couple of months is now just going to be the norm, unless we buy new wheels. Anyone else found this problem as our E90/91s get older?

I've got a similar issue with my E82. It's got the usual M-Sport Style 261's on it, and my front left tyre has never been particularly great at keeping air in it. At one point it needed a top up every week, asked my mechanic to look at it - he cleaned the rim and it is a bit better, but still needs topping up every month or so. It had runflats on it for the first 70k of it's life, so wouldn't be surprised if they've caused some issues,

[Swervin_Mervin]

Mine typically needed air once a month, but I'd notice the loss handling wise every couple of weeks. Tyre place even used the water bath to see if they could find a leak but no signs of any bubbles.

[ferrisbueller]

stevesuk said:

ferrisbueller said:

Assume you checked the valves and everything is OK there?

The thing is, it took 6 weeks to lose some of the pressure - so I'm not sure you could check easily to see where that's coming from visually?

They definitely could do with a refurb - but I'm not sure I'm going to pay out for that at the moment

edit: hmmm, there are several nice looking sets of 158 wheels on eBay for not too much money (which are far cleaner than ours)

Edited by stevesuk on Thursday 3rd December 11:12

Just be careful with second hand wheels as you may just be buying the same problems. I bought a freshly refurbed set a while ago. Looked great but once on the car they were anything but and I had to return them.

I've used a place in Birmingham for refurbs and it was something like £30 a wheel. https://www.citywheelrefurbishment.co.uk/

Plenty good enough for my winter wheels.

[g3org3y]

My right rear on the 630 is losing air. Probably needs topping up every 2-3 weeks. RFT, will activate the TPMS if I forget to pump it up in good time.

Front tyres are quite worn and needing replacement. Bit wary to commit to 4x non RFT tyres and have the same issue continue on the right rear as it may ruin the tyre if it catches me out.

[stevesuk]

Thanks to everyone who posted their own experience with tyres/wheels. Seems that gradual pressure loss over a few weeks can be fairly common. I think for now I'll just keep an eye on the pressures and see what happens.

[Swervin_Mervin]

g3org3y said:

My right rear on the 630 is losing air. Probably needs topping up every 2-3 weeks. RFT, will activate the TPMS if I forget to pump it up in good time.

Front tyres are quite worn and needing replacement. Bit wary to commit to 4x non RFT tyres and have the same issue continue on the right rear as it may ruin the tyre if it catches me out.

I doubt it will catch you out - the TPMS will still pick it up, even if you don't notice it first. And chances are you will be more likely to notice it if you switch to non-RFT as the thick sidewalls of the RFT probably hide some of the handling effects of the reduced pressure.

[stevemcs]

They usually crack on the inside face, its pretty common on BMW's to be honest, welded up wheels don't tend to last that long either. We have a 19" wheel fail the MOT this week, 30 profile runflats don't help.

[JakeT]

Dave's old car up for good money there, sure someone will snap it up.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202012036...

[cerb4.5lee]

JakeT said:

Dave's old car up for good money there, sure someone will snap it up.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202012036...

This is such a lovely example for sure.

[Mr Tidy]

stevesuk said:

Thanks to everyone who posted their own experience with tyres/wheels. Seems that gradual pressure loss over a few weeks can be fairly common. I think for now I'll just keep an eye on the pressures and see what happens.

I've been swapping between summers and winters on my 3 Series for 5 or 6 years and had have an issue with one of my winters losing pressure a couple of years ago. I took it to my regular tyre place and they diagnosed the issue as a bad seal between the tyre and the rim. They took the tyre off, cleaned the rim up and refitted the tyre for £10 - result!

My current E90 330i came with the less than flattering 158 alloys and another set of wheels with winter tyres - also fitted to 158s.


So earlier this year I bought a set of E89 Z4 290 wheels that just look so much better IMHO!

Edited by Mr Tidy on Friday 4th December 00:15

[stevesuk]

We're having a right week of it. My wife just brought the car back with the check engine light on. Sounds lumpy, like its running on 5 cylinders. Coil pack?

[ferrisbueller]

stevesuk said:

We're having a right week of it. My wife just brought the car back with the check engine light on. Sounds lumpy, like its running on 5 cylinders. Coil pack?

That's where I'd start. Do you have a diagnostic tool? Just have to swap them about if not.