535d Tyre Advice

[dabber]

Rear tyres need replacing, fronts ok still. Any experience? I'm on runflats at the moment, but not bothered about staying on r/fs as I have a mini spare. Prefer longevity rather than screwing the last ounce of grip.

[ultraviolet]

If it's the Sport, apparently BMW get shirty warranty-size if you don't fit RFTs.

Having said that, replacing them with non-runflats is supposed to make a massive improvement (especially as the 5 was not designed to work with them in the first place)

UV

[meldrewlives]

WTF - why should BMW get shirty regarding the warranty if you choose to fit normal as opposed to runflats of the same size?

[off_again]

There was a discussion on this previously and its possible that some dealers will get shirty about not fitting them, but legally they are on VERY dodgy ground. For example, Citroen do a deal with Total for oil and fuel for them - do they specify that you can only use Total oils or petrol in their cars? Of course not. Just as much as any warranty claim will not allow that to be entered into the equation. No other manufacturer stipulates that a certain type of tyre can be used - size yes, type NO. That is called restrictive practices and enforces something on a customer that they are not legally entitled to do so.

So cry all they like, fit what you want - but it goes without saying, make sure they are the same size, quality and speed rating. I cannot see them bouncing a warranty claim based on that - they run the risk of loosing a lot of business as a result - think of all the lease cars with run flats.....

[dannylt]

How many miles? Since they are the same size front & rear I was going to swap them round with the rears half worn.

[StuB]

Bridgestone RE050A's get the nod from me as a decent RFT.

I'll probably be changing to regular tyres next time if I need a pair replacing though.

E60's do tend to eat tyres a bit due to the standard geometry (-ve camber).

[dabber]

18,000 miles. Fronts are fine, should have swapped them a while back.

[blackspider]

BMW say that non runflats can be fitted to any of thier vehicles without implications-warranty or not.
The advantage with run flat is they could potentially save your life if you have a blow out-thats the only advantage that springs to mind!
I find runflats give a poor ride especially when they start to wear,also the outer edges wear quickly due to the side walls being hard.

[w8pmc]

If you're only changing the rears then you'll need to stay with the current rubber.

Really not a good idea to have different rubber front to back. I had the same issue on my M5, as it's shod with Conti but i wanted Mich PS2's, however as you'd expect the life of the rears is half that of the fronts, so rather than spend £600 for no reason replacing good fronts i put a fresh set of Conti's on the back & now the fronts are approaching their limits i'll replace all 4 with PS2's.

[ultraviolet]

blackspider said:

BMW say that non runflats can be fitted to any of thier vehicles without implications-warranty or not.

That's not what I was told directly from BMW head office. I don't reckon they even know what the policy is on this. Personally I'm going to wait until my warranty expires before fitting non-run flats.

UV