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Changed my tires to non Run Flat

13K views 45 replies 22 participants last post by  serge1 
#1 ·
Yes, I finally didt it..Not because I felt it was necessary, but mostly because of my curiosity how much better car would become with non Run flats..My car has AD, so its allready very comfortable even with the Run Flats..

I changed from Continental Run Flat to Nokian Z SUV in dimensjon 255.50.19 in front and 285.45.19 in rear..The difference was huge, much more than I excpectet.

I would say it was at least a 50 - 60% increase in comfort. Handling is the same, but maybe a little bit sharper with the Nokian. One other big advantage is the noice from the tires, which is barely noticeable now.

Return to RFT, no thanks:thumbup:
 
#2 ·
You can buy a spare wheel and tire for the X5 to keep in case of emergencies. I bought my X5 with the spare tire and do not use RFT's on it. I am planning on doing the same with my F01.
 
#4 ·
Did the same with my X5M, so happy with the change from RFTs to a real tire (Nitto NT05). I also had the wheels done in black while we had the tires off:

what size front tires r u running w the nittos
how do u rate them so far, mini review when u can!
cheers
Rob
 
#5 ·
I think we have a racer here, the tire review should be very interesting from someone who knows his tire stuff ;)
 
#6 ·
Good to know, I can't wait until I switch out the tire and perhaps the RIM on the next upgrade cycles. I just hope I can wear the tire out quicker than my patience. Perhaps, I won't do that alignment advice just I can give myself an excuse to change it out.
 
#7 ·
I went from Continental Contact 4X4 SSR Run Flats to Vredestein Wintrac 4 Xtremes (non run flat snow tires) about 2 months after I bought our X5 - the difference was significant - much softer and quieter ride without compromising the handling either.

I have never heard of the Nokian Z SUV tires that you bought - I Googled a couple of reviews - there aren't many out there - but what reviews are there seem real good!

Are you going with a spare tire or the Mobility kit?
 
#8 ·
I went from Continental Contact 4X4 SSR Run Flats to Vredestein Wintrac 4 Xtremes (non run flat snow tires) about 2 months after I bought our X5 - the difference was significant - much softer and quieter ride without compromising the handling either.

I have never heard of the Nokian Z SUV tires that you bought - I Googled a couple of reviews - there aren't many out there - but what reviews are there seem real good!

Are you going with a spare tire or the Mobility kit?
I bought the tires because of the good reviews, and a 50% discount in a German online tire store;-)..

I must admit that I chose the easy way out, and have bought 3 cans of "puncture spray", a tire mending set and a 12V air compressor in case of a flat tire..But I consider getting a "space save" tire..
 
#43 · (Edited)
Yes, they pulled my Dunlops and put on Conti DWS's for the same price. Good for me as I wanted/needed a all season tire. The Conti's ride SO much quieter and handle SO much better and aren't nearly as harsh as the Dunlop rock-flats were :rofl:

PS - I responded in another thread that "none of us are 'tracking' our X5d's and then I came into this thread and see that someone actually was tracking a X5M so even though I was talkign Diesel and he is running a performance engine, I take back that comment... Some ARE tracking their X5's...mea culpa
 
#12 ·
no RFT's for me

you guys are right RFT's are heavy and cost twice as much, i have 2012 X5 35i w/sports pkg and when it's time too replace, going non rft's. replaced them on my vette and made BIG differance, just got couple cans fix-a-flat and repair kit as a spare, after all thats why i have AAA.
 
#16 ·
Scott: how many miles do u think ull get on these compared to the stock rfts assuming u didn't take them to the track
Just everyday driving ?
Cheers rob
 
#17 ·
I once again feel it is my duty to point out that "stock RFTs" can be one of MANY differnet tire brands, and not all of them are the same.... My impression (we really have no data) is that Michelin Latitude ZHPs have a much lower 'suck rate'...
 
#18 ·
Tires for X5d



Hello,
I bought a slightly used 2012 X5 diesel a few months ago with 11k miles on it.

LOVE THE TRUCK! Love the diesel engine. Love so many things about it.
But I do not love the run flat Michelin Latitude 255/55R18 ZHPs.

Like them or not, I will not have them for long, which is actually my main complaint so far. Since I just got the truck I've not gotten to test it in snow or rain. And I've not driven it with any other tires so I can't compare the handling or other performance characteristics.

But I noted when I bought the X5 that the tires were surprisingly worn for 11K miles. Now I have 16K miles on it and the tires are nearly at the wear bar! And I don't drive hard. On my prior car, a 2001 Acura MDX, I got 70K+ miles per set of Michelin crossterrains and 80-100K per set of brakes. I'm even noticing chunks of torn tread on these Latitudes and I never saw that on the crossterrains. Weird.

These Michelin runflats will not make it past 20K miles even for summer driving and they are probably unsafe already for rain and snow. I know Michelin makes some great tires so I attribute this short life to the runflat design combined with the heavy weight of the X5d. I'll be replacing with normal tires.

Looking for recommendations for a great non-runflat, mainstream branded tire for my X5. I drive on highway a lot, but also high speeds on curvy mountain roads so performance in those conditions counts. In the winter I often drive in the mountains on snow and ice but not quite enough to warrant a second winter tire so I've got to find one set that I can make work year around.

Considering Bridgestone Dueler H/L Alenza in the W or V speed grade. Also Bridgestone Dueler H/L 422 Ecopia in V grade.

It looks like the Bridgestones have better ratings and reviews than the Michelin Latitude Tour HP with V rating, even though the Michelins are quite expensive.

I'm also a bit tempted to go with something more biased toward off road such as the Bridgestone Dueler A/T Revo 2 but that might be too optimized around the winter mountain performance vs. the dry highways I spend the majority of the time navigating. Maybe I just like the look of the tread and the idea of using an off-road tire. :)

Comments? Suggestions?

Thanks!

p.s. - I don't plan to sacrifice the great, large rear storage compartment to carry a mini-spare. I've only had one tire failure in my life and my insurance covers roadside service. I guess I look at tires like all other other parts in my car - I don't carry a spare engine, transmission, etc. Failure is rare, and a mini-spare is a nightmare anyway. When I blew a tire once previously it was a terrible experience driving 300 miles home on the highway at 45 in the slow lane with my emergency lights on, while cars zoomed by at 70 honking and flipping me off. Jeash. I think I'll add a pump and some kind of repair kit to temporarily deal with a simple puncture and just call roadside for a serious blowout.
 
#21 ·
I'll reiterate: just asking BMW to 'check' can result in a poor alignment that is still "in BMW specs"


There is a 2000 mile warranty on alignment.

The dealer will likely come up with another excuse....oh, its the weight.. or its the soft rubber bmws use for handlng, or its the roads aournd here, or its how you drive. And they may actuall feverently believe it, even if wrong.

Here's the short verssion: bmw allows toe from 0.00 to 0.08 per wheel. Any number in there and they will say 'its fine'. A car alinged at 0.08 per wheel will get 8000 miles before the tire is corded. A car aligned at 0.01 will get 40k. Same car, same weight, same tire, same driver, same roads....

My best advice is if the dealer will do it for FREE, fine. They wont. DO NOT pay a dealer to do this. Find a good tire store, stand around with the guy when he is doing it, disucss it. Give him $10 if he is a nice guy.

My 2 cents

A
 
#22 ·
I'll reiterate: just asking BMW to 'check' can result in a poor alignment that is still "in BMW specs"

There is a 2000 mile warranty on alignment.

The dealer will likely come up with another excuse....oh, its the weight.. or its the soft rubber bmws use for handlng, or its the roads aournd here, or its how you drive. And they may actuall feverently believe it, even if wrong.

Here's the short verssion: bmw allows toe from 0.00 to 0.08 per wheel. Any number in there and they will say 'its fine'. A car alinged at 0.08 per wheel will get 8000 miles before the tire is corded. A car aligned at 0.01 will get 40k. Same car, same weight, same tire, same driver, same roads....

My best advice is if the dealer will do it for FREE, fine. They wont. DO NOT pay a dealer to do this. Find a good tire store, stand around with the guy when he is doing it, disucss it. Give him $10 if he is a nice guy.

My 2 cents

A
Very helpful, thanks.
I'll get the alignment checked and adjusted somewhere reputable other than BMW ASAP and definitely before mounting the new tires. I'll ask for the pre-adjustment values and post them. It would be interesting if they are seriously toed in and that is the explanation for the rapid tire wear.
 
#26 ·
Depends on the load index and load range of the tires you're replacing them with. The tire shop should be able to figure it out for you, just expect when you take it in for service, the dealer will adjust them to whatever is on the sticker unless you tell them otherwise.
 
#29 ·
We swapped out our winter non-RFT's to our 20" OEM's last week. The Winter wheels are 18x8.5's or 9" so there is quite a difference between them and the OEM's at 10 & 11" wide.

My question is related to the road manners with the OEM's. We test drove this car with the OEM's once, but legally we had to put winter tires on before we drove the car off the lot. So we have only 40+ miles on the OEM's. Once I got in the car to drive home from the tire shop I realized these tires like to climb out of the ruts in the road. Is this related to how wide they are or that they are RFT's or both? My wife thought there was something seriously wrong with the car when she first drove it yesterday. I told her it was the nature of the beast and she asked to put the winter tires back on. But when the RFTs need replacing, can we look forward to better road manners with them or is it the width that is the major factor here?

Thanks!
 
#32 ·
Christ...what is your alignment?????

Lower profile and stickier rubber will amplify issues. Start with a good alignment
 
#38 ·
Only thing I can say is that 0 toe in will make the car very sharp to turn. Great for low speed, but at high speed you loose some of the 'on rail' feeling, for a most go kart feeling.

I love the zero toe in on my cars but I am sure my wife would hate it.

Alignment car really make a car behave very differently. Try the min and max value and you will see for yourself... sucks that alignment car be so expensive sometime, so it is hard to try multiple values.
I had the chance to find a cheap shop near me a few years back and took advantage to do a bunch of different alignment on my Porsche, it was an eye opener.
 
#41 ·
ard;7573606 I am quite surprised you are making 23k miles.... makes me suspicious of the readings... [/QUOTE said:
:dunno: I got the numbers from the print out the Hunter machine spits out with the before and after readings. I did this when the car had a touch over 100 miles showing on the odometer and the so called "factory" setting was . . according to this printout: 0.29 total toe front and 0.21 total toe rear. Whatever the readings are the results are truly stellar . . for me anyway. :thumbup:
 
#46 ·
Had 18" Bridgestone Dueler RFTs, switched to Continental Extreme Contact DWS of same dimensions last week.
Quite happy!

First things noticed right after driving off:
1. Steering felt quite a bit lighter
2. Impact from road imperfections moved to the wheels. With RFT's, driving over small potholes and other imperfections gave the sensation of everything happening at the dashboard level. Now, everything sort of moved way down to the wheels. The tires are dealing with that now - no transfer to the whole body anymore.
3. Quiet. Granted, my RFT's were worn (especially rear), so any new tire will be quieter. Yet, I was pleasantly surprised.

The job was done at local Discount Tire shop. They did an excellent job.
I had some reservations against Conti DWS due to many reports of vibrations, but I guess I got lucky - no issues.
I did noitice my front wheels each have 5 weights on one side. Kind of surpised they had to stick that many to balance it out.

Pros:
1. Quiet
2. Swallows impact from road imperfections really well.
3. No tramlining
4. Handles water really well. When I just bought my X5 2 years ago, I remember being unpleasantly surprised at how much hydroplanning there was for such vehicle. Hitting a puddle or getting into the lane with water running along groves would slow down the vehicle because of poor water disbursement.

Cons:
1. Some of the sharpness was lost. Due to having softer sidewall, there's a bit more wheel play in the corners.

So, for DWS:
Dry: Took a 600-mile trip after putting on the tires. A 100 of that was winding country roads. Tires handled well.
Wet: Really, really good. On the way back, got into big thunderstorms west of Snoqualmie pass. It was pouring, huge puddles on the freeway, buckets of water thrown from under tires of big trucks.
I couldn't believe how well the Contis handled. Not a single hydroplanning event or slowdown. I would see the puddle, go through it at 75mph, no drama.
I think this is the best feature I like about this tire, because Seattle has lots of rainy days in a year.

Snow: pending. Bridgestone RFTs weren't that great in snow. Had to be pushed out once at the summit. Will see how these handle the snow.
 
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