Broken tyres!!

[GavinP]

Anyone come across this before?

Just had my '68 plate E400d estate through its first MOT - which it duly failed!! Mileage is 20,244.

Extract from Fail document :

Tyre has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Offside Front (inner edge) - Tyre has ply or cords exposed Offside Front. [5.2.3 (d) (ii)]
Tyre has a cut but not deep enough to reach ply or cords Nearside Front (various on inner edge) [5.2.3 (d) (ii)]

Tread is fine all over but ........ . MOT examiner reckoned he saw a lot of it on Merc / BMW on run flats.

Never had run flats before and love the ride & quietness of these acoustics even on 20" rims - but not sure I like the idea of £600+ every 3 years for 2 front tyres. (Michelin Pilot Sport 3 ZP Acoustics).

Just wondered if anyone had experienced this please ?

Regards

G

 

[GrahamT]

Did you ask the examiner to show you ? I was given an 'advisory' in similar circumstances last year on my DS 5. Inside edge like you. I was offered a prepared quote for new tyres, but I took the car to my regular tyre man, who could find no fault ! Recons it's not an uncommon 'scam'.

 

[GavinP]

Graham T,

Yes, he marked the offside tyre and I would say his description is spot on. Plus the near side is well on the way too.

There are multiple splits along the margin between the tread and side wall - in the worst place it must be a line circa around 200mm long and the splits are 12mm or more.

Got 2 x new tyres on order for Thurs / Fri so at least I won't have to pay for a retest as well!

G

 

[Teego]

I'd say it would be worthwhile having a 4 wheel alignment check on a decent rig.
Mine failed it's MOT couple of years ago because the cords were exposed on the rears after 10000m. Still 20000m tread left.
Rear end was way out of line and front needed tweaking. Only 60 quid to sort it.

 

[GavinP]

I'd say it would be worthwhile having a 4 wheel alignment check on a decent rig.
Mine failed it's MOT couple of years ago because the cords were exposed on the rears after 10000m. Still 20000m tread left.
Rear end was way out of line and front needed tweaking. Only 60 quid to sort it.

That is my plan, Teego.

 

[Stratman]

Do you drive somewhere there are a lot of speedbumps, and do you straddle them?

 

[GavinP]

Stratman,

I only know of a few that I have had to cross - and the journey they used to be on I will not be doing any more so that might help.
As a rule I do try to straddle them - they are usually narrower than the car's wheel track. Do you think straddling can cause the issue?

G

 

[W1ghty]

Stratman,

I only know of a few that I have had to cross - and the journey they used to be on I will not be doing any more so that might help.
As a rule I do try to straddle them - they are usually narrower than the car's wheel track. Do you think straddling can cause the issue?

G

Might be worth complaining to the tyre manufacturer to see if they will give you two new ones ? Maybe keep the old ones as evidence

 

[Stratman]

Straddling speed bumps whose shoulder width is the same as the distance between they tyres' inside sidewalls can put a lot of load on a part of the tyre not built to routinely take it. It doesn't sound like this applies in your case.

 

[MCFastybloke]

Bmw R/F experience of the same thing, we were trowing a lot of miles on the car and tyres were falling to bits well before the tread gave out. I ended up theorizing the stiff sidewalls were were carrying too much in relation to the tread area and upped pressures a bit, It did cure it and i got a front, just one to 67k miles.

 

[GavinP]

Bmw R/F experience of the same thing, we were trowing a lot of miles on the car and tyres were falling to bits well before the tread gave out. I ended up theorizing the stiff sidewalls were were carrying too much in relation to the tread area and upped pressures a bit, It did cure it and i got a front, just one to 67k miles.

Bmw R/F experience of the same thing, we were trowing a lot of miles on the car and tyres were falling to bits well before the tread gave out. I ended up theorizing the stiff sidewalls were were carrying too much in relation to the tread area and upped pressures a bit, It did cure it and i got a front, just one to 67k miles.

 

[GavinP]

MCFastybloke,
Sorry but my PC would not send a reply to your post so I had to start again.

Can you advise what increase in pressure you applied to your BMW tyres please? It is worth a try.

Mine on the Merc were running at 265-270 kpa (as per detail in fuel flap) which I think is 2.65 - 2.7 bar.

However, looking on the net for 245/35 20 tyres it suggests 35 / 2.4 bar.

Admittedly my estate weighs almost 150kg more than the std as it has 4Matic, twin glass sunroof, electric tow hitch etc etc

Regards

G

 

[Teego]

Straddling is not a good idea. Put one wheel over the hump and the other on the road. It's much kinder to everything.

 

[MrGreedy]

Straddling is not a good idea. Put one wheel over the hump and the other on the road. It's much kinder to everything.

But not at 35+ mph like 99% of people take speed bumps.

I'm one of those tw@&5 that properly slows down for speed bumps to be mechanically sympathetic to my car and therefore annoy the 99% who are looking at the speed limit as a minimum required speed:
absolutely.
Regardless.
of ROAD CONDITION.
POWER!!!!!!!!

Mrs Greedy on the other hand is in the 35+mph camp, and I need to hold on to the grab handles tightly so I don't smash my head on the door pillars or windows (learned from painful experience).

 

[Wolfie1]

Im like you mr greedy, its my car and i want to look after it

 

[MCFastybloke]

MCFastybloke,
Sorry but my PC would not send a reply to your post so I had to start again.

Can you advise what increase in pressure you applied to your BMW tyres please? It is worth a try.

Mine on the Merc were running at 265-270 kpa (as per detail in fuel flap) which I think is 2.65 - 2.7 bar.

However, looking on the net for 245/35 20 tyres it suggests 35 / 2.4 bar.

Admittedly my estate weighs almost 150kg more than the std as it has 4Matic, twin glass sunroof, electric tow hitch etc etc

Regards

G

4/6 psi, 5 series estate, my theory was to take some load off the side and onto the tread pattern, it was a 4 years ago that car went but high thirties stick in my mind. Runflats were Bridgestone and of course the tyre tech my have improved/changed in the interim.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

When conditions allow I try to alternate between running over the humps with my left wheel, then my right wheel, and continue to alternate.

Sometimes it’s difficult to do anything other than straddle in a wide car on busy narrow roads, but I do try to mix it up wherever and whenever possible.

It’s kinder to tyres, but also the suspension, ball joints, etc.

 

[FiveAlive]

I am also a practitioner of going slowly over speed bumps and alternating which side goes over the bump. It can take other people by surprise - I've seen one or two near-emergency-stops in the rear-view mirror from following drivers who were expecting to go at speed and weren't paying attention, and I've even been overtaken whilst going over a speed bump.

 

[GavinP]

MOT now Passed but my wallet is £618 lighter (double ouch) - just have to hope these two last more than 20,144 miles!

G

PS Contacted Michelin who, I have to say, were quick off the mark to respond apologising for the inconvenience.
They said these tyres should be good for 30,000 to 50000 miles.
So, old tyres being collected Monday for investigation - watch this space.

G

 

[geoffus]

I had a similar problem with the wife’s B200, one of the tyre fitters said to increase the tyre pressure on the run flats to allow the middle tread to have more contact.
That didn’t work so I changed the run flats to normal tyres and had a Hunter alignment check and adjustment, that worked a treat so far and the front tyres show no abnormal wear after more than 2,000 miles.
I don’t think speed humps make any difference to tyre wear, you would need to drive over hundreds of miles of humps to effect any wear. You will get more wear going round a roundabout.