BMW - run flat tyres - warranty issues?

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sorry if this has been raised before but i may have an issue and looking for advice

i`ve had a BMW for 14 days purchased from a large main dealership

the car is 8 months old and really is like brand new having done 9k miles when we bought it

Problem

a. it has the tyre pressure monitoring system on it (runflat tyres) and last wednesday it showed the rear nearside left wheel as having low pressure, so I pumped it up as you would, reset the cars computer and away you go

its happened again this afternoon so I bobbed it back into my local BMW dealership, not where it was purchased from BTW, and they told me that the tyre had a little nail in it, but they also told me that their was evidence that the tyre had previously been off the rim (evidence of the white soap stuff they use).

they went on to say that if a run flat has a puncture its not legal to repair them and the tyre should never have been re-fitted

is this correct?

as the supplying dealer (to me) said it had undergone a 75 point inspection where all wheels and tyres are inspected, this was obviously missed so do I have a case with them do you think?

Also I paid an extra £299 to have to car Diamond Bright treated, this is supposed to be all the outside bodywork and interior leather treatment

I can`t actually see what they`ve done (should I be able to), if anything, the outside looks ok I suppose but the leather doesn`t appear to have been touched on the inside, there was a plastic sandwich wrapping stuffed down the side of the seat and the front seats thigh extensions had never even been extended and hoovered out

so if it was you what would your next step be, we love the car to be honest, but at £23k we feel we have a case to answer

please let me know your thoughts as they are ringing me tomorrow and i`d like to be ready for them

cheers Allan
 
First of i'm a strong believe diamond bright is a waste of time and money. You can do a better job yourself with some SRP and decent wax.

The problem you have is you cant prove that the car was sold with a puncture, the BMW system can be quite sensitive and detect a couple psi change.

Its not illegal to repair a RFT, its just not recommended due to the damage that can be caused to the stiffened side walls if you were to run the tyre flat for a long period of time. Some places will repair them some wont.

How new are the tyres? are they bridgestone RE050A's by any chance. A 17" one of these will set you back £150.

For £23k I would of told the dealer ditch the RFT tyres, put normal tyres on the car and give me a space saver wheel or tyre weld kit before buying.
 
My 320 runflat warning system needs a fair drop in Psi before it triggers.
From memory, a minimum of 8psi.
Certainly not just a few psi, it would be going off every other week if it were that sensitive.
Whether you have a case or not is debatable, the supplying dealer could say the nail wasn't there during their check and you've reached an impasse.:(

As for the Diamond bright/Ultra bright, I agree with Un1eash that it's a waste of money, no better than a good care regime of your own.
It will certainly deteriorate with time, regardless of dealers claiming it will 'last a lifetime'.
But you need to know how you check they've even done it, and I've no idea.:confused:
 
As above - you'll struggle to "prove" that the nail in the tyre did not happen after you left the dealers.

No where around me will repair RFT as other have said, it's not illegal, just most garages won't do it due to the sidewall issues that might have happened.

Give the dealers a nudge and see what their response is, also speak to BMW customer services if the dealers answer is not what you want. 0870 5050 160
 
i`m waiting for them to come back to me and i`m thinking you guys are correct with regards the Diamond Bright treatment :(

with regards to the tyre which is a Pirelli Cinturato 225/45/18 P7 91Y, its not the fact that it has a nail in it, I know I could have got that anywhere, but its because there is evidence that the tyre has been off the rim previously and this has been missed on the inspection

that said if your saying its not illegal to repair a run flat tyre then I suppose I haven`t a leg to stand on have I, but the inner wall is damaged beyond repair I was told yesterday

lets see what they say and i`ll let you know

thanks for taking the time to reply btw :smashin:
 
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i`m waiting for them to come back to me and
with regards to the tyre which is a Pirelli Cinturato 225/45/18 P7 91Y, its not the fact that it has a nail in it, I know I could have got that anywhere, but its because there is evidence that the tyre has been off the rim previously and this has been missed on the inspection

Presumably though the dealer you took it to only found that out when they took the tyre off and found the nail.
Whereas, the dealer you bought it off wouldn't have done that as part of the inspection. As long as the tyre wasn't flat and was legal, what more would they have done? They would have had no way of knowing it had been repaired without looking inside.
 
You can repair a punctured run flat but usually only once. A reputable place will repair but they will check the inner wall of the tyre to see if it has perished first.

Most run flats you can do 50 miles or so at sensible speeds on zero pressure. If your tyre was not completely down and you were driving sensibly I would have thought tyre should still be ok. Only way to tell is to inspect tyre when off.
 
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I see where you`re coming from but the tyre wasn`t legal was it

infact i`ve just returned from my local tyre depot and both rear tyres were in fact internally wall damaged and both were illegal according to the guys there

I did contact the supplying dealer before I went and they told me to send a tyre inspection report and if this was the case that the tyre was infact beyond repair and should never have been re-fitted back onto the rims, they would compensate me

i`m not moaning, although it might seem I am, but after just forking out £23k and being told I could well have been driving around in a vehicle with void insurance it doesn`t bode well (running around with damaged tyres)

lets see what the outcome is when they know both rear tyres were indeed damaged internally and should never have been put back on the car

i`ll keep you posted
 
I've always been sceptical of these 75 point surveys, this thread doesn't help.
I've always assumed them to be made up horlicks, with the dealer just keeping everything crossed nothing actually fails.
Probably works too, most of the time.

:(
 
At £200 a tyre the minimum they should be doing is replacing both rears and refunding you the cost of getting the tyres checked out.

Was it a BMW main dealer? There AUC car checks are normally really good.
 
At £200 a tyre the minimum they should be doing is replacing both rears and refunding you the cost of getting the tyres checked out.

Why?

If he had a puncture since buying the car, why should the dealer replace the tyre?
 
I see where you`re coming from but the tyre wasn`t legal was it

The problem is no one can say if it was or wasn't.

If you can prove the internal walls were perished when you bought the car then perhaps so.

If all the tyres are in the same condition then the weight of probability would say you are correct. If its just the one, they could just as easily say it was due to a puncture post purchase. They would then be perfectly within their rights to decline.

Speak to them to express your disapproval and let us know how you get on.
 
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I worked for Goodyear for a while, and there would be no end of complaints from people who had purchased new tyres and then got a puncture and expected us to replace them for free as if some how new tyres shouldn't get punctures. (whereas, they are more prone to punctures because the deeper tread pattern picks up more debris)
 
What we didn't know was the tyre that had not gone down was infact illegal to repair as it has internal sidewall damage so both tyres had side wall damage which rendered them illegal as far as I'm being told

Now we could say that the inspection cannot see any internal damage, I accept that, but the inspection should have picked up on the fact that both tyres had been off the rim and one of them had a plug in it

Being in the car trade for 15 years as a dealer (no longer though), then I know that the supplying dealer is at fault whether or not that dealer knew of any defects or not, he is in the trade so he is at fault, unless the law has changed since 2004

Anyway lets hope that all ends well and they come up trumps for me

I have replaced both tyres at a cost of £350 inc vat so no real biggy but its the principal of the matter

Fingers crossed :rolleyes:
 
What we didn't know was the tyre that had not gone down was infact illegal to repair as it has internal sidewall damage so both tyres had side wall damage which rendered them illegal as far as I'm being told

But how do you/they know that this isn't a consequence of

a. it has the tyre pressure monitoring system on it (runflat tyres) and last wednesday it showed the rear nearside left wheel as having low pressure, so I pumped it up as you would, reset the cars computer and away you go

If you tyre(s) had gone flat and you had been driving on them, then that could have caused the sidewall damage.

By your own admission the tyre has gone flat since you bought the car, so why isn't that the reason it is now damaged? :confused:

Just because it had a repair before doesn't mean that without doubt the sidewall damage was from that incident.

But, at the same time, I would put my innocent face on and expect the dealer to replace them too. So good luck. :smashin:

On another point though, why are tyres so blooming expensive!
 
Why?

If he had a puncture since buying the car, why should the dealer replace the tyre?

Its difficult to say whether or not the tyre picked up the nail and punctured whilst in my ownership

But what we can say is that this particular tyre had no other signs of nails, screws or whatever, it had not been repaired before, but it had been off the rim and then put back on again

WHY?? is the question

also something to add to the fire is that all the tyres were very over inflated, the fronts had

FNS 46psi

FOS 47psi

RNS well I couldn't check that one

ROS 54psi :eek:

So why had they all been over inflated, maybe to get me home and run around for a few days before the dash warning indicated, who knows but once again what exactly do they do in the 75 point check

They certainly don't remove the sandwich wrapper that was stuffed down the side of the drivers seat :mad:
 
By your own admission the tyre has gone flat since you bought the car, so why isn't that the reason it is now damaged? :confused:

Just because it had a repair before doesn't mean that without doubt the sidewall damage was from that incident.

But, at the same time, I would put my innocent face on and expect the dealer to replace them too. So good luck. :smashin:

On another point though, why are tyres so blooming expensive!

The tyre pressure warning actually came on whilst my wife was in the car I'd say no more than 40-50 mtrs from home, I checked the pressure then and it was high 20's so never run flat whilst we have owned the car, difficult to prove I know

The actual pressure should be 32-34 FR

Why are they so expensive, because they know they can charge it :(

I am being very patient with the dealer so hopefully all will turn out well
 
Most tyre fitters simply would not put on an illegal tyre. It really isnt worth their while, aside from being illegal and a threat to your safety it is also more beneficial for them to sell you a new one. Most can and do stop if the tyre they remove is illegal.

It would be all the more surprising if a BMW franchise was doing that.

On top of that if the tyres were relatively new/good thread and over inflated they would be quite prone to a puncture.

I suspect they will politely decline at first. A bit of diplomacy on your part however may help.
 
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my z4 has run flat tyres on it and a few months back the tps kept flashing up whenever the rear offside tyre pressure hit 29psi. i topped it up a couple of times but it turned out to have a nail in it. i was able to get it repaired for £15. as far as im concerned there is nothing wrong with this tyre as it only fell a few psi short than what it should of been and was never run flat. i've done over 3k miles on it since and had no issues whatsoever. as far as im concerned a lot of people let their tyres drop to a lower psi (less than 20psi) than this before realising they need topping up and that is far worse
 
Why are they so expensive, because they know they can charge it :(

For my tyre size (horrible little 16 inchers), runflats are no dearer than normal tyres.
In fact, my winter runflats (Pirelli) were cheaper in runflat version than normal.
Only £111 each.
Which compared with BMW's 'winter wheel and tyre package' was an absolute bargain.
 
bit of an update

the dealer has agree to re-imburse me full for the cost of the 2 rear tyres

this was after I sent them photo`s of the internal wall damage, so, so far things are looking a little better but i`ve not had a cheque yet so fingers crossed

now its this Diamong Brite issue and the fact that as far as I can tell nothing has been touched internally and JewelUltra (diamondbrite guys) actually confirmed they don`t even have a leather product :(

so i`ve asked for half of the fee (£100) back for that as well

but its starting to look promising :smashin:
 
Good News :smashin:
 
Someones telling porkies...

[ame=http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/330628702541?var=lv&var=sbar&_lwgsi=y&cbt=y&device=c&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=66&ff19=0]Diamondbrite Leather Feed & Cleaner 125ml on eBay![/ame]
 
I don't blame you mate. They've obviously got the products just someone couldn't be bothered to apply them to your car!!

If I was you Al I'd go for a full refund and buy some bits yourself to keep it looking good. I've got some Zaino Z9 and Z10 if you want to borrow it mate to clean and protect your interior? Really good stuff, highly recommended.
 

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