It must've been a gimmick including these as options or original equipment for Minis. A way around them not having a spare on board probably.
Not all ideas are good ones, and here's an example- Perelli euroFlats.

Last Saturday night we struck a minor road obstruction and flatted both left side tires instantly. CATASTROPHIC failures- right through the meager sidewalls!
Just shouldn't have been that kind of damage in consideration of the speed we were traveling, and the small exposed lip of a sewer cover (about a 1/4" to 1/2" above the road surface).

Sure, the car will drive at about 50 mph for some distance before they completely fall apart (probably), but handling is for crap when they're flat.
You 'waddle' all over the road, even on the smoothest stretch. It's very dangerous- especially when in traffic.
There's tremendous heat built up in the tire as well when being run flat.

I yanked them off, found them to weigh a TON of course. Just way too much mass there for this little car to be lugging around.
Not impressed at all.
Even though flatting two tires is a bad thing, I'm making this a good thing by dumping them (anyone want to buy two perfectly good, leftover, fun flats with about 5k on them? CHEAP??)
Going to buy something better from TireRack (pardon the plug, but they've always been the go to place for good facts and great prices for me).

Heck, anything will be better than these Pirellis.
[I've got the MC on the original tires and wheels now- it's way more fun to drive and enjoy. Better acceleration and braking effect, smoother ride overall, and no 'tracking' issues either.]

I know this subject has been debated here quite a bit- but my recent experience has me aghast at what lousy tires the run flats are. Thought I'd share - pardon me for pounding a dead horse.

Oh yeah- and the capper is; to get any assistance from Perelli on the road obstruction warranty (if you have it), you have to contact the Perelli rep for your area, make an appointment to view the subject tires (still on the rim mind you), and a determination will be made then.
Next appointment for our rep? September!
Sure- I'm gonna sit on my flatrunflats for more than a month waiting for the inspection (lucky for me I had the spare set of wheels). to think- I almost sold them to somebody for $200.00!! sheese.

 

Pardon, but it seems these Runflats just saved your bacon! It is true the car is equipped with them because the MCS places a second exhaust silencer beneath the car leaving no space for a spare tire.

However, in your scenario what would the alternative outcome have been if you were in non-runflats? Two tires down at speed in a chewed up stretch of road under construction--hardly the place to be stranded, and with two tires cut, a single spare STILL wouldn't have gotten you off the road.

Flattened runflats are not to be driven on forever without being repaired/replaced, so the heat buildup and the wandering are the trade-off to get you off the side of the road and to the repair shop under your own power.

Even if you HAVE runflats, you still have the option of calling roadside assistance just as non-runflat people do.

Your alternative would be two completely gutted tires, potentially two gutted rims, potentially crashed into the guardrail/ditch/construction workers/etc. stranding in a dangerous work zone, and having to be towed, unless you plan on carrying more than 1 spare.

There are pro's and con's with every choice, but you are calling the 'pro' that saved your bacon one of the 'con's.

 

nice...

 

Good post Tarzan. Thanks for writing what the rest of us were thinking.

 

gotta wonder if non-runflats would have fared any better.

 

I am on my second set of Perelli run flats (27K on 1st set) and have had no problems whatsoever (other than the standard hard ride which goes with the beast). I've hit many a pothole and other road obstructions with (fortunately) no problems. I agree with Tarzan. Sounds like your tires did exactly what they were designed to do, they got you out of a potentially very bad situation. I hope if and when I need mine to do the same, they perform as well as it sounds like yours did. I gladly trade the security of what these tires are designed to do over a smoother ride.

 

Too many people think that runflats can simply just 'run flat' and behave like a normal inflated tire. "Runflat" is really a misleading term, "extended mobility" is the actual term given to these tires. They allow you to drive on them deflated for a short distance at a lower speed to get to a place where you can repair or replace the tires. The 'donut' spare that comes with most cars is not a slap-on-and-run-like-nothing-happened spare either. Both solutions are there to get you off of the road safely to have the tire fixed.

Had you been in a MC with a spare, you would only have had ONE spare to ride on. You had two tires on one side gone and still were able to drive the car for a short distance slowly without damaging the rims. Had these have been non-'runflats', in less than a mile the sidewalls would have shredded and the rims would have been riding on the pavement.

Dont expect to run an Autocross on deflated runflats any more than you'd expect to run a marathon with your shoes untied.

 

Gotta agree with Tarzan here. Who knows how the same event would have turned out on non-runflats. And remember, the sidewall is the most vulnerable part of any tire, runflat or not. I doubt if you could have even "waddled" on non-runflats.

Yes, the runflats are somewhat harsh-riding to some folks and they do weigh more than most tires of a matching size. Most folks feel their dry performance is not up to par with a performance tire (well....DUH!). All good reasons to change to regular tires...except in an emergency.

My experience with the (Dunlop 5000) runflat's performance is typical in the dry, but I was actually quite impressed with their performance in the snow and especially in the rain.

Theo

 

Two weeks after I had picked up my MINI, the ligth came on, but I could not find a drop in pressure right away. It was Saturday night, and I had to drive up into the mountains which was roughly a 100 mile drive. Sunday, I drove back to Denver, topping out at 90 mph many times, and started to notice a little squisheness coming from the rear of the car. After 200 miles, 90 mph and lots of quick cornering, the tire definitely looked flat. Doh!

As heavy as these things are, they can definitely withstand a lot of punishment, although I was pretty bummed to have a flat tire 2 weeks into the new car experience, when my last flat tire has been about 5 years ago.

- R

 

A 1/2" protrusion doesn't blow out tires, runflat or not. If you blew your tires running over *whatever* you really hit, non's would have blown as well, period.



You clearly have no clue whatsoever what they are meant for or how they are supposed to behave. They operated exactly as they should, and got you home without having to wait for hours at the side of a road because you hit something.

I can't wait for your next post about how non-runflats suck, cause they didn't take running into a curb.

 

"Runflats are so Heavy!"

I have read this statement over and over again on this fourm. My MINI came with the Dunlop sp9000's which Tire Rack lists at 21lbs. Most non-runflat max performance tires listed on the "Rack" in the 205/45/17 size run approx. 20-21lbs.

 

Sometimes when I hear people talk about how heavy theirs are, I wonder if they have the S-lites and don't realize how heavy the wheels are? I have 16" v-spokes and I don't think that they're very heavy with the run-flats and I change my tires rather frequently for autox so I do pick them up and move them rather frequently

 

True, but the runflats for 16" wheels are 23.5lb. Taking into account rotational inertia, that's a lot of weight to get going further away from the rotational axis.

 

Thanks, Tarzan, for the excellent rejoinder.

As RepPelFL had posted I too experienced bizarre handling--almost uncontrollable--on the highway at around 55 (I know that is faster than I should have driven, but I did not understand the problem)--and attributed it to uneven pavement vs. my Dunlop tread. It was scary though--even after I slowed to 40 at an offramp. The warning light was not lit so I did not know the tire had deflated. It was only after I got back into the car upon leaving the wheel shop (where, ironically, I had just ordered a new set of wheels and tires--not knowing I had driven there on a flat) that the warning light came on. Fortunately a Dunlop dealer was a block away and repaired it cheerfully. I asked if runflats were more difficult to patch than standard tires (I had been warned that it would be near impossible for a rural service station to patch my runflats) and the dealer said no, they were treated the same as regular tires.

I have strong misgivings about replacing my runflats, but in 11 years of driving my previous car I did not have one flat (admittedly in 3 months of driving my MINI I did get that one flat). To me it's a gamble in favor of experiencing high performance tires on my MINI and carrying a tire kit versus feeling secure but wondering what I am missing. As runflats become more popular and are made in more sizes I will probably get them to replace the ones I recently ordered.

 

Yep, that cracks me up. Also, the weight of now carrying a fifth tire/rim, even a donut, makes up the difference in lighter wheels, albiet not rotating mass.

 

Catch 22? That is ricockulous!

If run-flats were repairable I would be more convinced of their usefullness. None of the shops in my town would repair a simple nail hole because it was a run-flat (afraid of liability). So everytime I get a flat, it is going to cost me $250? I can have the car flatbedded to a shop and buy two good regular tires for that.

I realize some tire shops will repair them, but none will in my city.

 

Why has the title of this thread not changed??

It should read "how runflats saved the day for me !!"

 

The problem most shops have with repairing run-flats is that they have no idea how long you have driven on them flat. If they repair an internally damaged tire they could be liable if a catastophic failure should occur. Some shops will repair them only after signing a waiver of liability.

 

Run Flats can be fixed, you need to find a shop that has the proper equipment to dismount the tire from the wheel. As long as the puncture is in the tread, the tires can be fixed using the same materials as a non run-flat tire. If your side walls were damaged, a non run flat would not have fared any better.

I had a puncture in my left rear tire shortly after taking delivery of the car. I did not notice any appreciable handling issues while driving home from work (approx. 25 miles). I kept the speed below 50 MPH, (not hard to do during Chicago Rush Hour!) The local Goodyear store fixed the tire and I have put about 17,000 miles on it since. The tire even survived a Phil Wicks Driving Academy weekend while mounted on the left front.

 

Then what about regular tires? The shop does not know how long the tire had been driven on flat, or low, and yet they will still repair a simple nail hole (provided tire is in good shape).

I understand the implications of it, it just seems wastefull, and silly, which goes into a completely different debate about lawyers and personal responsibility....

For the costs of the run-flats I believe I am better off with regular tires, even if I damadged a rim! Most places do not stock the run-flat tires, and they have frequently been backordered. The convenience of them ends after the flat and that extra few miles home, then the inconvenience of getting a new tire starts.

Despite the 'safety' factor they provide, somehow we have all gotten along with regular tires for a really long time on all our other cars in the past. Of course we do not have spare

For out of town trips, bring a spare is what I learned about my run-flats.

 

In this case it sounds like the run flats saved you from being stuck. There has to be some upside to them. When I picked up a nail I had to call/ drive to about 5-6 tire shops before I could get someone who could actually remove the runflat from the rim and patch it up. I can imagine if you're stuck in the middle of nowhere you might have to test out the maximum allowable travel distance on the runflats to find a place that can fix it. Conversely every tire shop can patch (if patchable) a normal tire. I think the engineers/ designers at MINI dropped the ball on this one... it seems they got caught up on the futuristic idea of having runflats (not having to fit the spare into the design, no changing tires alongside the road) but not the reality of having runflats (harsh ride, expensive replacement costs, fewer tire choices).

Erik

 

I think runflats are great. Also I opted for the standard 16" Dunlop SP5000 runflats that come from factory in the MCS and couldn't be happier. The 195/55/R16 size/profile is perfect for everyday driving. The problems some of you guys have experienced are also exarcebated by the lower profile 205/50/R17 Pirellis that come with the Sport Package. The lower the profile of the tire, the greater the chances from road damage and damage to the rim.

 

It is real easy to tell if a regular tire has been driven flat for any length of time. The sidewall is severally damaged and no shop will touch them for a repair. With a runflat there is no visible damage to tell the tire guy if the tire is in good working order. You are much safer with the runflats. What would you have to do if you had a flat while on the highway in the fast lane. Think about how you would be able to get to the side of the road and find a safe place to pull over so you could change the tire w/o the risk of getting hit. Me, I would rather be able to drive a bit before having to make a potential life or death decision.

 

You're absolutley right. I ran over pot hole on the highway a few months back. I had more than 1/2" protrusion, bent wheel, etc...I drove around like that for about a week before I had time to do anything about it...the runflats didnt even lose 1psi! Even so, I opted for non-runflats next time around mainly due to price and vowed to be more mindful of pot holes!

 

Back in March 04 the following happened to us:

After many days of motoring through the Martian Lander test site (aka the streets of Niagara Falls, NY) Laurie and I got to see if the Goodyear runflats actually do work as advertised.

During a late night trip (2:30 am) to the hospital Laurie hit a piece of reinforcing wire sticking out of a hole on one of the expressways. The wire punctured both of the left side tires. After about 30 seconds or so the dash light came on letting us know there was no air in one of the tires.

She continued to motor into work (a patient was waiting). When we got out of Smileee there was the sound of air rushing to freedom. After Laurie was done with her patient we decided that there wasn’t much that could be done so she drove home with 2 flat tires.

The next morning I drove Smileee to the local Goodyear they repaired the tires.

As far as a driving impression goes that car drove like most cars do when a tire is low. It pulled to the side with the flat but at no time did it feel dangerous. We drove it for around 30 miles and there was no damage or excess wear on the tires.

The repair was done well enough that we used the runflats on a fall trip to and on the Dragon.


Jack