Can you replace only one run flat tire

First Lieutenant

Drives: BMW X5 2019

Join Date: Dec 2018

Location: Oregon

Run flat tire is flat and needs replaced, but all four?!!!?

yes my first flat tire! rear right was flat. I drove about 20 miles back home on it. Took to dealer and they said it needs to be replaced. That's not it. because X5 is all wheel drive, you have to replace all four tires. The tread on my car is about 4-5 mm in front and 3-4 mm in rears. BMW recommend replacing tires at 3 mm tread is what I was told. This is my first experience with all wheel drive and run flat tires. My X5 is only a year old but 29000 miles (we've traveled places

Private First Class

Drives: 19' X5 50 M-Sport

Join Date: Jan 2020

Location: CT/NY

Quote:

Originally Posted by wanderlustX5

yes my first flat tire! rear right was flat. I drove about 20 miles back home on it. Took to dealer and they said it needs to be replaced. That's not it. because X5 is all wheel drive, you have to replace all four tires. The tread on my car is about 4-5 mm in front and 3-4 mm in rears. BMW recommend replacing tires at 3 mm tread is what I was told. This is my first experience with all wheel drive and run flat tires. My X5 is only a year old but 29000 miles (we've traveled places

I've gotten flats before on my previous 2017 X5, always just replaced the one that had the flat. Never heard of having to replace all 4 if only 1 needs replacing. If they are recommending you get 4 new tires due to the tread being low, that is another story.

Lieutenant Colonel

Drives: 2020 X5 M50i

Join Date: Aug 2018

Location: Atlanta

depending on how much tread you have on the other tires you may have to replace in pairs, but not all 4 unless they need to be replaced because of other reasons.

They say you don't want to have a brand new tire riding on the same axel as a tire with a lot of miles on it. If they're close in miles (say a few thousand miles) you're OK, but if they're not, it's best to replace the pair. Not sure why it would matter front to back. I'm sure those tires wear at different rates anyway.

First Lieutenant

Drives: BMW X5 2019

Join Date: Dec 2018

Location: Oregon

the front tires have tread 4-5-4 and the rear tires have tread 4-3-3. The dealer told me BMW recommends replacing tires at tread level 3. at first, they wanted me to replace all four. The tire shop person at dealership told me I could getaway with just replacing rear two tires because replacing only one tire can result in axle differential

Lieutenant Colonel

Drives: 2020 X5 M50i

Join Date: Aug 2018

Location: Atlanta

3/32nds (which I assume is level 3) is pretty much at the tread bar. This is when you'd want to seriously consider replacing your tires. Their performance in the rain will be compromised. You're 4-5-4 tires probably have a few thousand miles left, so it's matter of convenience at that point. Replace all 4 now and save yourself a trip back to the dealer in a few months, or spread them out.

First Lieutenant

Drives: BMW X5 2019

Join Date: Dec 2018

Location: Oregon

Quote:

Originally Posted by VTENGR

3/32nds (which I assume is level 3) is pretty much at the tread bar. This is when you'd want to seriously consider replacing your tires. Their performance in the rain will be compromised. You're 4-5-4 tires probably have a few thousand miles left, so it's matter of convenience at that point. Replace all 4 now and save yourself a trip back to the dealer in a few months, or spread them out.

I am surprised that the OEM Continentals lost tread so fast. only 29K miles. For replacing all four, Costco or Discount Tires have much better deals but again, my tire is flat and I am stuck without a spare tire so had to take to the dealer.

Lieutenant Colonel

Drives: 2020 X5 M50i

Join Date: Aug 2018

Location: Atlanta

Quote:

Originally Posted by wanderlustX5

I am surprised that the OEM Continentals lost tread so fast. only 29K miles. For replacing all four, Costco or Discount Tires have much better deals but again, my tire is flat and I am stuck without a spare tire so had to take to the dealer.

Guess it depends on the type of Conti you have. On my Mercedes I had CrossContact LX Sport and got about 40k miles out of them. Those were all-season tires. If you have summer or performance tires, you're not going to get 30k miles out of them.

First Lieutenant

Drives: BMW X5 2019

Join Date: Dec 2018

Location: Oregon

Quote:

Originally Posted by VTENGR

Quote:

Originally Posted by wanderlustX5

I am surprised that the OEM Continentals lost tread so fast. only 29K miles. For replacing all four, Costco or Discount Tires have much better deals but again, my tire is flat and I am stuck without a spare tire so had to take to the dealer.

Guess it depends on the type of Conti you have. On my Mercedes I had CrossContact LX Sport and got about 40k miles out of them. Those were all-season tires. If you have summer or performance tires, you're not going to get 30k miles out of them.

I have the same all season conti as yours. 29,000 miles on.

Private First Class

Drives: 19' X5 50 M-Sport

Join Date: Jan 2020

Location: CT/NY

Quote:

Originally Posted by VTENGR

Guess it depends on the type of Conti you have. On my Mercedes I had CrossContact LX Sport and got about 40k miles out of them. Those were all-season tires. If you have summer or performance tires, you're not going to get 30k miles out of them.

My summer tires only get around 10k miles

Lieutenant Colonel

Drives: 2020 X5 M50i

Join Date: Aug 2018

Location: Atlanta

I don't know if those Conti's come with a tread warranty like the DWS 06s do, but you may want to look into that. 30K miles is pretty low for those tires. I believe they have a UWQT rating of 480, so that's pretty decent tread life.

Private First Class

Drives: 2021 M5C & 2019 X3 M40i

Join Date: Jan 2009

Location: New Hampshire

Maybe you guys have better luck, but all of my stock BMW tires (Conti included) have been pretty dead by 30k miles, just about the time I return my leases. I had to replace a set of Goodyears around 20k miles (they were awful near the end too).

So yeah, while you CAN replace 1 out of 4 tires, I have no doubt that they would recommend to replace in pairs (at least) when the rest have 29k miles... Pretty much guarantee the X5 is not going to drive right with 1 new tire and 3 old ones. Might even notice it driving funny with 2 new and 2 old...

2019 X5 40i

Drives: 2019 X5 40i

Join Date: Feb 2019

Location: NJ

My past experience with F10 528 xi, the run flats did not last well and dealer recommended changing them at around 33K miles. Dealers generally err on the side of caution to make money

Eventually i got 4 new run flats from costco at 40K miles

Talking to some of my other friends, they all had to replace their run flats by 45K miles

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2019 X5 40i (Mar-2019 Build)
iDrive ver -- 03/2022.30

First Lieutenant

Drives: BMW X5 2019

Join Date: Dec 2018

Location: Oregon

if I want to replace all four, definitely not getting continental. trying to decide between Pirelli Scorpio Zero A/S vs Michelin Premier LTX A/S

Lieutenant

Drives: ‘20 X5/M50i (ordered); &

Join Date: Dec 2019

Location: Richmond, VA

Quote:

Originally Posted by wanderlustX5

if I want to replace all four, definitely not getting continental. trying to decide between Pirelli Scorpio Zero A/S vs Michelin Premier LTX A/S

At 29,000 miles per year you obviously do a lot of driving and possibly a lot at high speed. You know you won't get two years of service out of anything you select. If I was in your situation I would start shopping tires when trend on one is at 4 and change all at same time even if a few are still at 4. Your going to have to replace in a few months anyway.

First Lieutenant

Drives: BMW X5 2019

Join Date: Dec 2018

Location: Oregon

Quote:

Originally Posted by RVAGuy

At 29,000 miles per year you obviously do a lot of driving and possibly a lot at high speed. You know you won't get two years of service out of anything you select. If I was in your situation I would start shopping tires when trend on one is at 4 and change all at same time even if a few are still at 4. Your going to have to replace in a few months anyway.

I agree. lesson learned. first time Bmw owner, so was enjoying high speed and did a lot of traveling too.

Anyone with suggestion between: Pirelli vs Michelin or just get Conti again?

Lieutenant

Drives: ‘20 X5/M50i (ordered); &

Join Date: Dec 2019

Location: Richmond, VA

Quote:

Originally Posted by wanderlustX5

Quote:

Originally Posted by RVAGuy

At 29,000 miles per year you obviously do a lot of driving and possibly a lot at high speed. You know you won't get two years of service out of anything you select. If I was in your situation I would start shopping tires when trend on one is at 4 and change all at same time even if a few are still at 4. Your going to have to replace in a few months anyway.

I agree. lesson learned. first time Bmw owner, so was enjoying high speed and did a lot of traveling too.

Anyone with suggestion between: Pirelli vs Michelin or just get Conti again?

As far as mileage goes, I was impressed you got 29K on them. I know it varies with tire type (performance vs summer vs all season) but I once had to replace all four on a MB with 22K. Glad to hear your enjoying your new car.

Colonel

Drives: E46M3, G05X5

Join Date: Apr 2019

Location: Waterloo, Canada

Quote:

Originally Posted by wanderlustX5

yes my first flat tire! rear right was flat. I drove about 20 miles back home on it. Took to dealer and they said it needs to be replaced. That's not it. because X5 is all wheel drive, you have to replace all four tires. The tread on my car is about 4-5 mm in front and 3-4 mm in rears. BMW recommend replacing tires at 3 mm tread is what I was told. This is my first experience with all wheel drive and run flat tires. My X5 is only a year old but 29000 miles (we've traveled places

The unmatched wear issue is not an RF issue but an AWD issue. The basic problem is if tires have unmatched inflation or unmatched wear, the AWD differentials will be active continuously (100% duty cycle) which wears them much faster than design spec of some small duty cycle. Next level of precision in understanding and evaluating this requires full and detailed understanding of the specific AWD system on the car, I haven't gone through that exercise on the G05 xDrive, so can't talk about it intelligently yet.

Considering the cost, it may be more effective to replace the one tire and to shave it down to the wear of the other 3. While it sounds weird and wasteful, it's a complex predictive cost calculation to decide whether to replace all 4 or shave the one, but it is done. Tire Rack will do it for free, I believe, for example.

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G05 X5 x40i (04/2019 mfg, Canada) on S18A-19-11-540

Private First Class

Drives: 2021 M5C & 2019 X3 M40i

Join Date: Jan 2009

Location: New Hampshire

Not on a modern X5, but when I replaced the tires on my wife's 2007 X5 (which we owned, not leased) I put Michelin's on and was very happy with them.

On her X3, which required replacement of the OEM Goodyears at 20k, I put on Pirellis, but honestly, I got what was cheapest and met the lease requirements because I knew we'd be turning the car in.

I've never had a bad set of Michelin's though...

First Lieutenant

Drives: BMW X5 2019

Join Date: Dec 2018

Location: Oregon

the dealer's tire expert recommended Bridgestone Alenza A/S RFT instead of Pirelli Scorpio Zero A/S or Conti A/S for the weather we get in Oregon. Wet, snow in mountain passes from Nov-April. They were also 400$ cheaper than Pirelli and Conti.

Getting older, but I still love awesome fast cars!

Drives: M550i on order

Join Date: Nov 2017

Location: Knoxville, TN

I agree with other posters, not surprised by tires worn out at 29k miles. Replace all 4 because of wear not just because you had a flat. The flat caused a deeper inspection. Of you only replace the rears, which is the minimum to keep matched set, then you will likely do the fronts in one more month. I would look at the replacement as a chance to upgrade.

Major General

Drives: '22 M4Cx

Join Date: Dec 2009

Location: Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika

As others have alluded, it's all about rolling radius. I've always gone with 4/32nd as a rule of thumb. So if the most tread you have on one tire is 5/32, and figuring a new a/s tire is 11-10/32, you would be out of that 4/32nd recommendation. See the article below as other manufacturers have even stricter recommendations. Regardless, 29k is a lot of miles on any BMW.

https://blog.tirerack.com/blog/make-...on-an-awd-car-

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