Tires in Raleigh

[BlimeyCabrio]

It appears the runflats on my 2003 MC now have the added bonus of a nail in them. It's between the tread and sidewall, so my guess is that the tire's shot.

I'm not real keen on the idea of paying $300 for a single tire, so I'm considering replacing the rear pair (the damaged one and its twin) with standard tires. Any thoughts on that? Any recommendations on good tire places in Raleigh for the MINI were I to do that?

The car has a spare included, so I won't be up the creek were one of the non-runflats to have a problem.

Me personally, I'd put a plug in that bad boy and drive it, as long as it wasn't driven very far at zero pressure. I just don't think it matters unless you're racing on the tires.

I had to replace one of my runflats due to a catastrophic sidewall puncture with only 3K miles on them... I had it done at JustTires in Cary (Chatham Street) who is one of the few listed to do runflats - and they gouged up the inside surface of my rim pretty badly... I won't use them again... unfortunately I don't know who I WOULD use...

[minimark]

I think you can patch them from the inside, if done right and the tire was not driven at 0 pressure...

[MINI Rog]

Me personally, I'd put a plug in that bad boy and drive it, as long as it wasn't driven very far at zero pressure. I just don't think it matters unless you're racing on the tires.

I had to replace one of my runflats due to a catastrophic sidewall puncture with only 3K miles on them... I had it done at JustTires in Cary (Chatham Street) who is one of the few listed to do runflats - and they gouged up the inside surface of my rim pretty badly... I won't use them again... unfortunately I don't know who I WOULD use...

I've had to use JustTires in Cary for my sons car and I wouldn't recommend them either.

[oznogonzo]

There is a place in North Raleigh called First Class Automotive that is one of the shops that is on the recommended local installers list for TireRack. I personally haven't taken my MINI to them, but they do work on Exotics... Lambos, Porsche, Lotus etc... of course BMW as well. Since they are on TireRack's list they will most likely handle the work with care, and not screw up your rims etc. TireRack has some great prices, and can drop ship your order to the installer I believe... might want to check them out http://www.tirerack.com/index.jsp
The 215/45ZR-17 Kumho ECSTA ASX I just bought 2 months ago from them were $81 each. I switched to non runflats because I too had a flat. hehe

I don't know if running half runflats/half non-runflats is workable... I have seen a few posts on other forums indicating this may be a problem, most likely it will change the handling of the car.

As far as pluging goes... it can be done, but if you have run more than 90 miles on the flat, you might want to just get rid of the tire.

[simplygriff]

If you could make the trip up to GSO I have a wonderful tire shop here called Taylor Tire. Heck, maybe you can give them a call and they can recommend someone for ya.
http://www.google.com/maps?hl=en&saf...local&ct=image
-G

[CooperSKart]

I recently had my runflats replaced with some BF Goodrich G-Force Sports at Sears Automotive in Crabtree Valley Mall. The tires are great but they managed to scuff up the alloys a bit, so I can't really recommend them either (maybe you'll be able to figure out where to go by process of elimination!).

[MidnightDave]

I have a set of four Dunlop run flats off my '06 with 10K miles on them in the garage. I switched to S03s for a track day, love 'em and I'm not going back.

If you want all four of mine for, say, $100, they're yours. I'm not trying to make money on them so they're not going on eBay or any such; I just kept them to help out a fellow club member in a situation such as this.

Just shoot me a PM. I go to Raleigh for work and charity events regularly. ;-)

Also, I bought these S03s from Alex at Tire Rack, shipped and on the car + a Conti kit for flats @ $500--there's no need to pay $300/tire for new tires...

[Minime]

I had slow leak in my original runflats from a nail puncture. Flow in Winston plugged it for me and I hadn't any problems with it.
I'm going to replace my front run flats with Kumo SPT's. According to Flow service advisor, Joe Yoder, if the tires are replaced in pairs, its OK to Mix run flats and non run flats. He said you probably won't be able to tell the difference.