Runflat Tyres Gone Wrong
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Runflat Tyres Gone Wrong
Runflat Tyres Gone Wrong
Not many things surprise us, but when a BMW 1 Series pulled in the other day, we could not believe our eyes?
On a normal, busy Thursday morning, a customer pulled in to us with a problem (as they usually do). His BMW car was making a nasty sound. In fact, the guy thought his engine was about to blow up.
The first thing we did was check the car’s levels. Runflat Tyres Gone Wrong
Including the water and the engine oil. To our surprise, everything looked fine. We were treading cautiously. So, just in case the engine was about to fail,.
In fact, everything looked fine, so we decided to run the engine. Ryan listened and everything was in order. There are no warning lights or burning smells coming from the engine. In fact, the engine was in good condition.
The next step was a road test. Runflat Tyres Gone Wrong
Ryan took the car on our normal testing run, and indeed, he could hear a loud noise. As a result, he brought the BMW back to the garage and lifted it up on one of our ramps. He checked the obvious things that could make a noise. As for the suspension and exhaust parts, everything was in order.
However to his surprise he noticed a massive piece of the tyre missing on the near side tyre on the inside. Where the sidewall meets the tyre tread. Was this the culprit?
As you can see in the image, the damage was substantial. Runflat Tyres Gone Wrong
The car was fitted with the original runflat tyre system. With a runflat tyre fitted to each wheel. The job of the runflat is to get you safely home or to the nearest tyre dealer to get the problem fixed. Consequently, runflat tyres have extra layers of rubber-coated belts to give them extra strength. For this reason, the tyre is able to be driven on, albeit at 50 MPH.
This eliminates the need for a spare and saves on the overall weight of the car. Thus helping to reduce car emissions. The frightening part of this story is that the guy had been driving around Yorkshire for at least two days. So as the tyre slowly deteriorated, the noise became louder from the flapping tread, and the guy thought it was the engine.
When we told him, we all had a laugh about it. However, he was relieved because he only had to buy a new runflat tyre and not a new engine.
