So, my sister-in-law takes her 335i to Auto Alpina today to have tyres changed, service, wharawhara, picks up her car, drives over to our place in Alberton, low tyre pressure warning comes on, gets here, I check out the left rear wheel, there is a crack in the rim, centre of rim, behind one of the spokes.......so, phone BMW-On-Call, gets told that they will not help, rims are not their problem.....so, she lives out at Harties.....the rim is not safe IMO, if it cracks further the runflat will mean nothing.....the rim could fail completely.....where to from here?
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Read the WELCOME ALL BMWFANATICS post.
Punctured rim...
- Thread starter Kurt Adv
- Start date
Ralf*
///Member
Kurt Adv said:
From my experience:
The loads place on rims during tyre change, balancing etc are very low, and probably isn't the cause for the cracked rim
Malicious throwing the rim to the ground might do some damage, but it would have to be malicious
the loads on a rim under driving conditions are way more, than any tyre changer could inflict, especially when hitting potholes, rocks etc
I have seen a few rims, that are cracked on the inner face, caused 99% of the time due to pothole or other impact damage, under driving conditions, as the loads are very high in these circumstances
As far as BMW-On-Call not honoring their commitment, it would be interesting to know if the rims currently are the standard BMW issued and approved rims as delivered, or are they aftermarket. as BMW should look after its OWN PRODUCT in its entirety, the only time I have heard of them not honoring their commitment is if there are non BMW approved changes brought about.
The crack could stay "hairline" and slowly leak air for a very long time (indefinitely) or it could slowly continue to propagate until it gets so bad that the rim/tyre is almost incapable of holding pressure for any amount of time.
Very unlikely, (but not totally impossible) that the rim could totally collapse/crack/separate, but the hairline crack currently is now very susceptible to growing/propagating with every extra load or impact placed upon it (due impact damage from road conditions aka potholes/rocks etc)
The rims are genuine BMW rims, bought with the car, very fancy rims, but BMW. The rim was fine up until the tyre fitment, but you are right, that hairline crack could have been developed over time...she did not hit anything after the new tyre was fitted, straight out of the dealership, onto the highway, 10km later the tyre pressure system activated, she stopped at the closest garage, tyre totally flat, no pressure at all, (the joys of runflats), she pumped the tyre to 2.6 bar, 30km later at my place it was down to 2 bar....Yes, the fact that BMW - On - Call did not help is annoying, they just said rim damage is not their problem, told her to get a Flatbed, uplift the car and take it to a dealer....at her or her insurer's cost of course....oh the joys of not having a spare wheel.....so glad I have an E46 with a full spare....Now, while this rim gets sorted in whatever way, the car is immobile....Tyre issues are easy to sort, rims are another story....
Gizmo
Banned
Rims cracking is now common place for bmw since they went runflats and for me it's just one more nail in their coffin...oh and according to bmw wheels fall under trim which is not covered by motorplan. There are so many of these cases from e90 onwards and bmw refuse to acknowledge the existence of their problem. Particularly bad on 18 and 19" oem rims with runflats fitted.
Google it and see how common place it is these days.
Google it and see how common place it is these days.
Solo Man
Well-known member
I want to relate what happened to me when changing tyres at two tyre places. Wanted to swap the tyres around on the rims so went to the tyre guys and had them do it. On inflation the tyre would just not inflate. Rim had a crack in it caused by the guy removing the tyre. The machine that presses the bead of the tyre off the rim moves in a arc that caught the rim on the inside (the section that forms part of the air inside the tyre) and caused a crack in the rim. Car in question was my old X5 with the standard 17 inch wheels. In my opinion the rims are a bit stronger than car rims due to the nature of the X5, it being an "off road" vehicle. The owner of the fitment centre paid to have the rim repaired. About a year later had a puncture on my way back from Kruger Park and had to have the tyre fixed at a fitment centre in Bloemfontein. The same thing happened on removal of the tyre. This time the manager fixed it by gluing it with Q-Bond. It worked and I drove home where I had it welded properly. I am convinced this is what happened to your sister's car. Examine the rim with the tyre removed and you will most likely see the damage as it was very visible on my rims. Hope this helps! Btw, never had any problems with rims leaking after it was welded.
Ralf*
///Member
Solo Man said:
very very interesting
I can understand the possible damage nearest to the lip, where the tyre lever goes in to remove the tyre beading, but then it is set incorrectly, if it makes contact with the rim during the rotation process
I will go and watch my tyres guys again, to view the process to see if there is any way that this can happen.
Solo Man
Well-known member
The damage was not near the lip, more on the "flat" part of the wheel itself, deeper than where the valve is sited. The flat part of the machine that pushes the tyre away from the bead then carries on in an arc and catches the flat section of the rim and grazes it, cracking it in the process.
Ok, all sorted, luckily BMW Sandton had the identical rim in stock....fitted and sorted. Autoquip say she must have hit something while driving, and the damage went right through a properly inflated tyre and damaged the rim......um, cough....bull....An impact of that magnitude would have been felt, and remembered....but yes, seeing the response here it appears these 18" rims are soft......
444YYY
Honorary ///Member
Solo Man said:
100% correct, you have hit the nail on the head ( no pun intended )
I have seen this happen before. It's s combination of a stiffer sidewall of the runflat, which makes breaking the bead of the tyre away from the rim harder. Probably the machine needs a higher force.
Compounded with a unique rim profile to accommodate run flat tyres, there's a very high likelihood of the machines arm hitting the rim, with the higher force and unique profile of the rim....
