Z4M Coupe tyre question

[Dover Nige]

Hi all,

Whilst out on a run out this evening, my tyre warning light came on with a chime, so I stopped immediately and had a look.

Upon checking the tyres out, the nearside front was down on pressure and after checking the tread over, I came across a nail embedded in my tyre. Fortunately, the nail is in the centre portion of the tyre. I whacked in a few pounds extra and drove home gingerly and carefully after resetting the warning system.

Now, I'm off to France for a week soon and I can do without having any tyre issues out there, so I'm unsure what my best option is.

1. Puncture repair. £
2. One new Conti M3 tyre on NSF only. ££
3. Two new Conti M3's on front. £££
3. Two new tyres of a different make on front. ££££

Can I just change one tyre on these cars? On my Impreza, if one was being changed, all four needed to go because of the AWD diffs, but as the Z is RWD, that's not a problem unless it's on the rear, surely?

I'm thinking that the best bet is to replace the tyre as opposed to a repair, as I don't tend to hang about generally. The current tyre tread depth looks pretty good all round, the car's done 10000 miles now (I bought it at 8.5k) and the current Conti M3's even still have the little rubber pimple things on them. Can I just change one tyre with no issues? How good are puncture repairs these days, especially on sustained high speed runs? I'm not sure the idea of a repair sits too well with me.

Your views and advice is appreciated gents.

[mmm-five]

If it's in a place that the local tyre company says is repairable then don't waste £200 on a new tyre.

I've done autobahns and track days with repaired tyres in the past and never had an issue - in either FWD coupés (Corrado VR6) and RWD über-barges (e34 M5).

[Nur Links]

+1

Had my rear punctured by a BIG nail on the motorway while doing 120+. Fortunately I stopped immediately before it fully deflated. Tyre was repaired professionally and have driven over 10.000kms on it afterwards without problems. Don't worry and don't waste your money.

BTW, don't use the foam supplied with the car, or the tyre can't be properly repaired.

[dan101smith]

Nur Links said:

Had my rear punctured by a BIG nail on the motorway while doing 120+.

Bet that made your eyes water.

Nige - as they've said, just get it repaired. Make sure you've got a can of foam in the boot just in case, but you shouldn't need to worry.

You also only need to replace the tyres in pairs if one is nearly bald and the other is new, ie big difference in tread depth.

[Dover Nige]

Thanks for the answers gents. I've inflated my tyres to the exact correct pressures when they were cold yesterday and have had no warnings come up today during use.

I'm wondering if it was a rogue puncture alarm showing on the dash due to the hoonage I was involved in?

I'll be checking the pressure at cold again on Thurssday to see what's what. I'm still getting that nail sorted though and I'll be taking your advice and getting it fixed, not replaced. Thanks again and good work chaps, you've saved me potentially £400ish (two new Michelin PS2's!).

It's an interesting new world for me this non-AWD stuff....