[acerboo]

Originally Posted by Dan-

I would just like to bring to the attention for everyone using Bridgestone RE050 Run Flat tyres, Please check your tyres for crack along the inside edge, I had mine up the ramp Thursday and noticed a crack a damn big crack, having just had the tyres removed I wanted to keep them to inspect the damage myself, these are only 8 months old and have covered 5k miles 6.5mm remaining so perfectly legal and (SAFE) in eyes of the laws.

I have checked my dads tyres aswell and there exactly the same 18" rather than my 19"

I wanted to see how safe they were and poked a pair of blunt scissors into crack and long behold they went straight through without any force at all, so close to blowing out on the road so it seems glad I caught it in time!



Just with the weight of me on 60kg






You can see where it had been wearing away on the inside getting thinner



PLEASE CHECK YOURS!!!

bridgestone tyres are absolute crap. I had problems with all mine and when I approached bridgestone they said I had run them below recommended pressure. what an insult! I check my tyes every week without fail. no the answer is their tyres are rubbish, id rather run on the rims that fit bridgestones.

[Dan-]

i was having a chat with my local tyre shop the other day and we were saying there going to say either alignment is out or pressures so i said how many cars do you guys see a week that owners dont take care about there cars checking pressures/ tracking often (quite a few i bloody know that)

and how many tyres do you see become dangerous like as result of those 2 things, NEVER!! no tyre should crack/ split like that in 15+ years not 8 bloody months!!! absolute disgrace

[Taffy_g]

the tyre in the original pictures look crap.. without the split...

look at all the cracking/perishing inside the tread grooves!!

old tyres?

[Dan-]

Originally Posted by Taffy_g

the tyre in the original pictures look crap.. without the split...

look at all the cracking/perishing inside the tread grooves!!

old tyres?

Looks like a 50 year old tyre, its actually only 8 months old at the time of picture, and the date of manufacture stamped on the tyre was 2013 same year tyre fitted

[qa15ar]

last night had my tyres changed over, and i had the same crack on both front tyres all the way arounfd the tyre in the same place but the tyres were not bridgestone, they were Continentals non RF's.....
very worrying!!!!!!!

[Dan-]

Got a letter back from the w4nkers

[zltm089]

fucking spunk stains! not taking responsibility.

[Dan-]

I'm going to write back explaining this thread and how many other people are suffering from the same problems, I'm going to threaten to take them to a claims company

[HighlandPete]

Not surprised at Bridgestone's reply. Tyres certainly look as if they have been run at a low pressure, from the inside shoulder wear pattern, the 'concave' inner tread blocks give it away. Show signs inside the tyre of overheating, the cracking in the tread grooves is also another sign of fatigue.

Your tyres fit the model of typical RFT rear inner wear due to tracking/pressure issues. (Not just Bridgestone) What camber and toe are you running on the front?

Got to ask the obvious question, as you are checking pressures regularly. Have you checked your gauge, had it calibrated, or checked against a recently calibrated gauge? Could the pressure gauge be faulty?

Something else that accelerates the odd RFT wear is the type of use, many users never get to full working tyre pressure. What kind of trips do you make? 35 psi can be on the low side, IMO, worse if most of your mileage is in short trips with cold (and/or wet) tyres.

HighlandPete

[Dan-]

Originally Posted by HighlandPete

Not surprised at Bridgestone's reply. Tyres certainly look as if they have been run at a low pressure, from the inside shoulder wear pattern, the 'concave' inner tread blocks give it away. Show signs inside the tyre of overheating, the cracking in the tread grooves is also another sign of fatigue.

Your tyres fit the model of typical RFT rear inner wear due to tracking/pressure issues. (Not just Bridgestone) What camber and toe are you running on the front?

Got to ask the obvious question, as you are checking pressures regularly. Have you checked your gauge, had it calibrated, or checked against a recently calibrated gauge? Could the pressure gauge be faulty?

Something else that accelerates the odd RFT wear is the type of use, many users never get to full working tyre pressure. What kind of trips do you make? 35 psi can be on the low side, IMO, worse if most of your mileage is in short trips with cold (and/or wet) tyres.

HighlandPete

Fair reply, I work as a mobile crane engineer so have all my equipment tested an calibrated on a monthly basis,

Allingment is set to standard spec

Camber front 0.6 and toe 0.9

I've been told by bmw that 35 psi is plenty to run on the from with 19" run flats

I've got about 10 Allingment print off at home on going to send them that states the pressure of each tyre at time of check

What about everyone else that is having the same problems? They running there's low, Allingment out, short trips

I'm not fussed about the outcome anymore all I know is I never really liked Bridgestone now I will never buy another tyre or a new car with there tyres fitted!

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by Dan-

I'm going to write back explaining this thread and how many other people are suffering from the same problems, I'm going to threaten to take them to a claims company

Bridgestone are well aware of the odd inner wear issues. It is well known that many users try and get a softer ride by reducing pressure, many even fail to check the pressures.

If I've read it correct, you've even said yourself, you run a lower setting than the low end placard pressure, (2.6 bar/38 psi) to try and stop the car skipping about.

I find RFTs need to run higher than the low end recommended pressure to even out wear across the tyres. Even as early as 2004 - 6 we were learning that you can't run low RFT pressures and not get odd/accelerated wear.

HighlandPete

[Dan-]

They even declined that when I said I had a set of rears ruined in no Time at all due to inner wear,

I did run them slightly lower yeah but if was advised by bmw they recommend it to preserve the 225M alloy wheels but it could be bmw vs Bridgestone, fighting to protect there own faulty designed products.

Btw I wasn't aiming to sound a twat, just not good at wording things when I'm watching stuff like Metallica on BBC 2 haha

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by Dan-

What about everyone else that is having the same problems? They running there's low, Allingment out, short trips,

Problem is there is a lot of truth in the issues above. Some out of ignorance or general lack of tyre care. Rear alignment settings are very aggressive on the M-sport models and make it worse. Tony Bones at Wheels in Motion had quite a lot to say on the subject in the early days of RFTs.

I had the Potenza RE050 on my 2006 E91 330d and started to have wear at low mileage. Discussed it with BMW Technical and they agreed the placard pressure was possibly too low. (They modified the placard on later models). I'd been running the low end 2.1 bar for normal use on the front and increased it to 2.3 - 2.4 bar and that was on 17" wheels.

HighlandPete

[zltm089]

Originally Posted by HighlandPete

Not surprised at Bridgestone's reply. Tyres certainly look as if they have been run at a low pressure, from the inside shoulder wear pattern, the 'concave' inner tread blocks give it away. Show signs inside the tyre of overheating, the cracking in the tread grooves is also another sign of fatigue.

Your tyres fit the model of typical RFT rear inner wear due to tracking/pressure issues. (Not just Bridgestone) What camber and toe are you running on the front?

Got to ask the obvious question, as you are checking pressures regularly. Have you checked your gauge, had it calibrated, or checked against a recently calibrated gauge? Could the pressure gauge be faulty?

Something else that accelerates the odd RFT wear is the type of use, many users never get to full working tyre pressure. What kind of trips do you make? 35 psi can be on the low side, IMO, worse if most of your mileage is in short trips with cold (and/or wet) tyres.

HighlandPete

Good post Pete!

I used to run about 42psi when i had rft. Just to compensate and reduce the inner wear. However we shouldn't be doing this, if they manufactured their tyres properly!

[Frobius]

That's a fair point. I don't really compensate for the fact that much of my driving is short (2 mile) journeys. I wonder what I should set my non-RFT 18s to..

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by zltm089

I used to run about 42psi when i had rft. Just to compensate and reduce the inner wear. However we shouldn't be doing this, if they manufactured their tyres properly!

Personally I believe everyone went through a fast learning curve (some are still learning the hard way) on the fact RFTs don't work the same as conventional tyres, the working envelope is much tighter and the pressure range much more sensitive in use. When I say 'we', I mean BMW, the tyre manufacturers and the users. The tyre shops didn't understand the differences either, so often a scratching of heads on the reasons for the types of wear.

It is not just Bridgestone which have the inner wear issue, although Bridgestone appear to have got the worst reputation. Possibly due to being so well used on 3-series cars. I also conclude Bridgestone went for maximum 'run-on-flat' capability, certainly in the beginning. (Boasted a range of up to 150 miles on test). That came at a cost of a more rigid tyre and a very tight working pressure envelope.

HighlandPete

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by Frobius

That's a fair point. I don't really compensate for the fact that much of my driving is short (2 mile) journeys. I wonder what I should set my non-RFT 18s to..

Understanding warm up times, our driving mileage and how we adjust for ambient temperatures is very critical for evening out wear.

I experimented and collected data when my 330d first showed strange steering and tyre behaviour, due to temperature and running short trips and wet conditions.

An example would be on a cold day, say 3C, pressure set at 2.3 bar, after 12 miles (50 - 60 mph) in 'just damp' conditions, the RFT would only increase 0.05 bar.

The same trip, same conditions, same car on a Goodyear F1 (conventional tyre) the pressure would increase a minimum of 0.2 bar, (3 psi).

I collected a lot more data and driving experience on the two wheel sets.

The conclusion, RFTs take much more mileage to warm anyway, but in unfavourable conditions and lower ambient temperatures they may not warm much at all, if anything. They are also much more sensitive to changes in ambient temperatures and need more adjustment to keep in an optimum range. Easy, with what we feel is a good setting pressure, to be 3 - 4 psi down on working pressure, compared to the conventional tyre.

I find the typical RFT can't cope with that 'low pressure issue'.

HighlandPete

[Dan-]

With my current Michelin pilot super sports I just asked the M3 competition and 1M owners on track days what there plaque says as there the standard tyres for them cars! Both 19 although mine are slightly smaller so I just knock 2 psi off and run fronts at 34 and back at 36

Handles like a dream, sticks like shits off a shovel and wear is perfectly even, covered 3k miles

[Dan-]

When I say smaller I mean there's 265/35 and 245/35 compared to my 235/35 and 255/30 tyres

[acerboo]

Originally Posted by Dan-

Got a letter back from the w4nkers

carbon copy of the shit they gave me!! Surprising that! great customer relations.

[acerboo]

I don't care what excuse bridgestone give, those tyres are crap. ive run Pirelli and goodyears and not had that trouble with them.

[Dan-]

Originally Posted by acerboo

carbon copy of the shit they gave me!! Surprising that! great customer relations.

Very surprised at that "not" not everyone would agree but I think it's Pathetic