2012 X5 35d w/20's Staggered

So we have an 2012 X5d with the 20's and absolutely love it. We had a great sales transaction but have had issues with the service department from pick-up on, 13 months now.

My wife takes the car in in for the recall and I suggest that we get the alignment done because it is pulling to the right a bit and the tires are wearing on the outside more than they should, even for those tires. My wife babies the car and I don't get to drive it much so it isn't an abuse issue.

The SA agrees the alignment appears to be out and needs to be addressed. She then gets approached my "mister tire guy" and he tells here she needs new tires and that setup is only good for 10k miles max.

How happy am i right now. I should have taken it in for alignment earlier, my fault. I don't know why the alignment is out, but I will pay to fix it. I will buy new tires when I need to, 13k miles is a little soon, but I sure won't be buying them from the dealer.

The tires are the Dunlop RFTs.

Now to my question, what is the most and or least number of miles any of you have gotten from the same setup?

Thank you.

UPDATE:

SA says I need tires all around at 13k miles and he does not recommend an alignment with the way the tire (right front) has warn unless I buy two new fronts for a total of $1,347!!!

Oh, and they want $300 for the alignment, but will do it for $199 today if I really want it because I've had so many other issues with the service at this dealership before.

I bought the car from this delaership because they were competitively priced and they were the closest to my home and office. So much for keeping my business.

Which dealer??

I had a same problem with mine and the SA was telling me that it's "normal" for the tires to be warn out and that he'll "bet" me that my alignment wasn't off... So I raised hell at the dealership and well..let's say I walked out with a free alignment, $20 in my pocket and a low rating for a SA.

search this board there is tons of info on this set up and alignment and tires to get etc.
these come from the factory out of wack.My fronts where gone at 12k and that was 90% freeway.

Originally Posted by Willha418

Which dealer??

I had a same problem with mine and the SA was telling me that it's "normal" for the tires to be warn out and that he'll "bet" me that my alignment wasn't off... So I raised hell at the dealership and well..let's say I walked out with a free alignment, $20 in my pocket and a low rating for a SA.

I woudl rather not call out the dealer. I don't want this to be a bashing thread but rather one that raises awareness.

Originally Posted by tonka858

search this board there is tons of info on this set up and alignment and tires to get etc.
these come from the factory out of wack.My fronts where gone at 12k and that was 90% freeway.

Same situation. I should have had it checked much sooner. Which tires did you have and did you stick with the same?

I thought the short life of 20's RFT Dunlops - 12..15K - has been well known, no?

Originally Posted by smyles

I thought the short life of 20's RFT Dunlops - 12..15K - has been well known, no?

Yup. The one redeeming feature of the Dunlops is that they have a factory road hazard warranty, and they are magnets for screws and nails. I never had one make it to 15,000 miles - they were all replaced because of punctures before they got that far.

I am on the OEM Bridgestones now, and tread life seems much better. (With a proper alignment, of course).

we got around 12k out of our dunlop RFTs, 60% city driving.
the alignment was pretty off and i didnt realize it until 5k miles in. so maybe they would've lasted a couple thousand more miles if the alignment was "correct" from the beginning.

There wear has not been all that bad if not for the alignment issue. The backs are in great shape.

I have the same setup and only have 3,200 miles on mine. I did have mine aligned 1,000 miles after delivery to the recommended specs from the forum, thanks again ard! If you need some advice on alignment you should search the forum, the thread was about a month.

Mine still look brand new but reading other threads I would be surprised if I get 15k out of them. When it comes time to replace I may switch to the BFG's

My factory original Dunlop RFT (Option 214) lasted for 23,000 miles. Got very noisy at the end.

Currently on Bridgestone Dueller . . . . 26,000 miles and counting. Getting noisy but still have plenty of tread left.

Use Indy wheel alignment place and follow ard's advice on toe adjustments. $97 for all four wheels with AAA discount.

I has the 20" Dunlap RFT on my 2010. Got noisy and took them off around 8K and put them back on for lease turn in. When I put them back on I got reminded how LOUD they are. I had a spare and ran 20" Continental DWS and was very happy with them. The problem with the Dunlaps is that they are directional and you can't rotate side to side. I now have a 2013 with 20" Bridgestones. So far at 2K there are quiet and fine. They are not directional so at 4K I will rotate side to side. If they wear funny or get loud I will go back to the Conti's. BTW if you don't have a spare and want to go to Conti DWS pm me I have an extra X 5 spare tire (unused).

I took off the Run Flats and put on Michelin Latitude Tour HP's. The have over 23000 miles on them now, and plenty of tread left. Actually, the Rear's are wearing a little in the middle of the tire, the fronts are great.

Same issue here guy's. At about 2,400 miles on my 20" Dunlops I started hearing WAY to much noise and bad feathering on the outside edges of both front tires. I scheduled an alignment at my dealer who was awesome! My alignment was way way out from the factory. I now have about 5,700 miles and the vehicle is unbearable to drive. The alignment is right now but the wear damage to the fronts is done, what angers me is that I am nowhere close to the wear bars on the front and the backs look like new.

To BMW NA Spartanburg. If your reading this you NEED to re-calibrate your alignment machine right away.

The dealership, had some suspension work to do on my truck and did an alignment after with out asking me (fine but the settings sucked) they dialed in so much negative camber it was very visible. I took it to my Indy the next day and had it realigned with the rear camber closer to 0 I never even asked what it was before but it was visible just by looking at it.

So the SA calls me and said he wouldn't recommend or even do the alignment unless I bought two front tires from them at a cost of $1,347. I explained to him it pulled before the tire-wear issue.

We got nowhwere. I told them to fix the recall issue and give me the car back.

I got the Service Manager email yesterday asking how everything went. One and 1/2 pages later he knows exactly how I feel. This is not our first issue with that dealer.

The worst part is that the SA knew something was off but by the time he called me he had the entire dealer sales pitch down word for word. I dont' blame him, he was clearly following directions from his boss. He knew from the time my wife arrived, even if we were going to buy new tires, it would be from someone else for $350 less.

If the service department had been reasonable the would have had a customer for life. I will now go to the next closest dealership for the remainder of the warranty.

Originally Posted by Ace88

To BMW NA Spartanburg. If your reading this you NEED to re-calibrate your alignment machine right away.

I had the dealer align my '13 X5M after 400 miles knowing it would be out - and guess what, it was way off! All it cost me was a couple hours of doing e-mail and drinking coffee while they aligned it properly. My experience is Dingolfing & Regensburg DE doesn't do any better at aligning suspension than JimBob in Spartanburg.

Originally Posted by dkreidel

I had the dealer align my '13 X5M after 400 miles knowing it would be out - and guess what, it was way off! All it cost me was a couple hours of doing e-mail and drinking coffee while they aligned it properly. My experience is Dingolfing & Regensburg DE doesn't do any better at aligning suspension than JimBob in Spartanburg.

"Jimbob"

During my X3 factory tour a couple weeks ago in Greer, the X3s that are coming off the line are aligned at one station that aligns headlights, foglights, and wheels.
Nobody is seated in the car, i did not see any sandbags loading the car, and the steering wheel may or may not be pointed straight ahead when the alignment starts.
My only understanding is that the leveling brace that is placed across the steering wheel sends informtion of its position back to the computer, and there the compensation is done and it tells the tech under the car, how to turn the tie rods.
Is this process in the X5 factory or at the German factories, I dont know. But i am sure if executed properly, the alignment could come out perfectly everytime as long as the set-up of the steering wheel level device is proper, if this piece is not resting on the steering wheel properly and sending accurate info back to the computer, the compensation would be off and result in a bad alignment.