While I'm sure this has been addressed before, I'd like to get some fresh opinions/rants regarding the runflat/ no spare tire thing. Here's my issue - I'm finally at a point in my life where I can think about buying a new BMW, ( I currently have '88 & "97 M3's) and whereas the e46 didn't really excite me, the e90 looks pretty impressive. Except for this one thing I just can't seem to accept, I will not drive w/o a spare tire. I'd like to know how/if current owners have dealt with this.
A place called Leatherz sells a spare kit. Its a little pricey though. The M's don't use runflats so you are beholden to the M Mobility kit if you don't carry a spare. I've elected to make it BMW Assist's problem if I get a flat. Complete hassle but there is no provision for a spare so you get to waste a ton of trunk space if you carry one. I will say that the couple of times we've had to use BMW Assist for a flat battery in our X5 they have been super responsive and very quick to respond. I save the room for golf clubs, cases of wine etc!
This is one of those "Good News, Bad news" answers. I recently had a flat with my E92, on an interstate, in 90 degree weather, and on the way to a business appointment. The good news is that I was able to continue driving (albeit slowly) to the next exit, then eventually another 40 miles to a town large enough to know what a run-flat tire is. So the good news is that you don't have to immediately change the tire and you can get somewhere to have it repaired without messing yourself up. So it's great for someone like my wife who understands what wheels are (two out of three times) but doesn't want to deal with them, and in my case I made my appointment without having to change clothes. On the other hand, even when I got to a relatively large town, noone in town had a replacement tire (it was cut). Luckily, one shop had a used tire of the right size to get me the 100 miles back home. If they had not had a tire to fit I would have had to drive home at 50 mph. Even when I got home to Columbia, SC (pop. 100K+), I had to order the tire. Two days later it showed up and I was back in business. I am currently trying to locate a spare wheel so I can carry a spare. That way I'll have a choice as to whether to drive on or mount the spare. So it's good news that you can drive on, but bad news in that it may be difficult to get repaired (some shops will not repair a run-flat at all) and especially replaced. Hope this helps.
Well, if you drive a runflat with essentially zero pressure in it, shops are correct for not wanting to repair it. The sidewall integrity is degraded by driving on the tire with no air pressure in it. You'll get where you're going, but the integrity of the tire is now highly suspect (and the only way to tell if any given tire is still viable is to do something engineering analysis/testing on it). Hence because of this, many shops and I think all dealers flat out refuse to do a simple repair/patch on any runflat tire no matter what. If you know you didn't run it too low on air (i.e. below 20psi or so), or stopped as soon as you get the pressure warning, the tire most likely can be patched just like a regular tire (assuming all patch requirements are met). I carry a plug kit in my M5 (has M-mobility kit which makes a mess inside the tire/wheel) and E90. I've had to plug a flat on the E90's 255/35-18 rear tire once, and it worked great. Tire never ran below 25psi, and the plug lasted the remaining life of the tire (5k miles) with zero issues. I carefully inspected the tire once it was pulled off, and the plug integrity was fine as it had bonded to the tire rubber completely.
