$1427.00 Flat Tire

[Green///Hell]

Way to go BMW, just sucks its included in the cars price
You bought wether you like it or not, so might as well use it

[Technic]

Originally Posted by Rto

Off course he will be able to do it, but you know sales person, they always try to push everything and I was wondering if they have for example an extra service program that cover a flat tire as well or similar and so hear from you some experience what is worth or not.
That's all!

Ps. Not an off-topic question thought since I'm taking another fellow's experience (in this case his flat tire story) as an opportunity to inquire about it. And I'm aware that such great service he had is free of charge is included.

All BMW warranties and Roadside Assistance services are stated in their website. Your particular dealer could have extra services on top of what BMW will give you as part of the purchase of the car, but these extra services could be either free or at additional cost and will vary dealer to dealer and even sometimes sales person to sales person within the same dealer.

Nobody here will be able to tell you specifically which BMW dealer services will you be entitled or offered to you.

That's the reason of my post.

[Rto]

Originally Posted by Technic

All BMW warranties and Roadside Assistance services are stated in their website. Your particular dealer could have extra services on top of what BMW will give you as part of the purchase of the car, but these extra services could be either free or at additional cost and will vary dealer to dealer and even sometimes sales person to sales person within the same dealer.

Nobody here will be able to tell you specifically which BMW dealer services will you be entitled or offered to you.

That's the reason of my post.

Got that now! Thanks!

[JCtx]

Originally Posted by FlyFish

Wow, $1427 bucks later and I have a new right, rear tire.

Man, that's awesome to know BMW roadside assistance covers the entire cost to closest dealer, even when it's so far away. But I bet you'd think twice about making that trip out of warranty .

[Subw00er]

+1 BMW

[bavarian19]

wow. I have always wondered what happens if you get stuck in a place like that.


that is why I always carry a full size spare with me.

[zenderm3]

Glad to hear that you and the ///M are safe! Did you end up having much in common with the Tow Truck driver!?

[FrenchBoy]

Flyfish, can you describe why the M Mobility Kit failed exactly? I seem to understand that the product came out of the tire thru the puncture. Is that what happened? Is it because the puncture was too big?

[anthony @ eas]

Wow, glad to hear you were taken care of.

[FJc335]

wow, that rope tie that's holding the wheel looks pretty worn also. looks scarry...

[Buffalo]

I'm glad you had a good experience with BMW roadside assist. Someone slashed my rear tire at the sidewall and the roadside assist people were very unhelpful. At first, one lady named "Shanda" told me that I can tow the car anywhere I want as long as i'm in the mile limits. I wanted to tow it to a body shop I work with often that was 6 miles away. She then told me I was almost set to go when the "system" told her I didn't qualify for the tow. She transferred me to what she claimed was "customer service" but actually turned out to be the roadside assistance dispatch center again. A guy named "Joe" was extremely rude. He said I had to wait until BMW NA customer service opened. After questioning his reasoning, he asked me "do you even own a BMW?" I was done with him after that. He wouldn't even give me his last name or ID number, only what turned out to be a fake extension. His response to me asking him "what do you expect me to do with a flat tire at 2:00 in the morning?" was "wait until BMW NA customer service opens." I filed a complaint once BMW NA was open. BMW NA then proceeded to tell me that under the roadside assistance I can only tow the car to BMW dealers. Being that there is only one BMW dealership for the whole island of Oahu, and that they charge 3x what a tire costs online, I had a pretty shitty day.

[ihyln]

Honestly, without a spare I don't see myself driving more than 150miles in my M unless I know I won't be out in the wilderness. You sir are a brave man.

[!Xoible]

part of the reason why i am so sick of BMW and my m3 is because i had 7 flats in one year (thanks to the OC construction sites all over the place). i would never ever buy a car with no spare, fuck performance i've been stranded waaaay too many times. i am paranoid that every time i take it on a long trip a tire would blow up. i am so sick and tired of this bullshit!

your mistake is not stopping when you first got the low pressure. next time stop immediately and take care of it right there and then, definitely not blaming the incident on you, but it might have saved you some grief. good writing skills btw

[FlyFish]

Originally Posted by FrenchBoy

Flyfish, can you describe why the M Mobility Kit failed exactly? I seem to understand that the product came out of the tire thru the puncture. Is that what happened? Is it because the puncture was too big?

!Xoible was right; I should have taken care of it the first time the TPMS indicator showed me that I was losing pressure--but I was afraid if I filled the tire that I was attempting to have repaired by a tire shop with sealant, I would be stuck with buying a new tire. A tire that ultimatley didn't exist anywhere in Montana, come to find out... After briefly running the tire down to zero PSI and screwing up the sidewall, I figured the tire sealant was better than having the car sit on the side of the road in the middle of the dessert, plus the tire was now toast anyway. I followed the directions to the 'T', but evidently, whatever was causing the tire to leak popped out leaving a 1/4" hole directly in the tread as I was attempting to 'spread' the sealant within the tire. When i began to fill the tire, it got all the way up to 28psi before i heard the pop and consequential oozing of the sealant out the hole and all over the tire and rim. My guess was that the hole was just too big to seal. I have never had that much luck with tire sealant--looks like BMW's version is just as useless as the after-markets.

Now the question remains, is there a full size spare available? What do you do about the different offsets front to rear? Different size tires front to rear? Or does this even matter???

[mapezzul]

Glad to hear things worked out! BMW Roadside Assistance on the ///M3 is good forever basically as long as it is tire related, it does not expire with the 4 years 50K. (Part of marketing since the car does not have runflats or a spare!).

[UltimateBMW]

Originally Posted by bavarian19

wow. I have always wondered what happens if you get stuck in a place like that.


that is why I always carry a full size spare with me.

Some of the responses i've read in this thread are pretty funny. I've seen a few similar to the one I quoted above. It should be mentioned that you don't need a spare with you at all times. The tire recovery kit is more than sufficient most of the time, however when you go on long trips through rural areas in the middle of BFE is when you would be wise to bring a spare. Since the tire recovery kit only has a limited distance of salvation when used.

You don't need to bring a spare everywhere you go, but you do need one when you go on long cross country trips.

Glad the OP is safe, but I would of requested they just bring him a spare of some sort, rather than endure such a long distance tow.

[caradd]

So if BMW put a full size spare in the car and got rid of the RFT, you would have been on your way in 10-20 minutes, instead of what you had to deal with.

I fail to see the excitement here???

[vase330]

Originally Posted by FlyFish

Wow, $1427 bucks later and I have a new right, rear tire. BMW Assist came through with shining colors for sure!

.......

Like you, I had a flat expirience far from home. Unlike you, I have RFT, which actually held up pretty well, but eventually went completely flat. I actually had road hazzard insurance too and that paid for itself right there! rebar tore a huge gash in the tire, so it was unrepairable. Anyway, ruined my whole day, and I had to abort my trip too. Learned my lesson. I have an E46 donut spare in the trunk with 2 spacers so it clears the brakes. You absolutely need a spare for those long way out trip! Invest in one, its more than worth it! I also have continental mobility kit like one in your M3. But truth is mobility kit, RFT etc, do not make a spare wheel completely unnecessary.

[Poppin Fresh]

It's called the Multi-Shield Package. It supposedly covers you for windshield cracks, dings and dents on the body and tire/wheel damage/insurance.

[MVEED3]

Glad you got taken care of under your circumstances. I purchased the wheel and tire protection plan as well. It saved me one evening and fortunately I was only five miles from home. The rear tire picked up a nice-sized cotter pin. I knew I had to seal the tire once I pulled it out.

The tire sealant is a bit tricky for larger punctures. I saw the goop oozing out of the hole after driving for a couple hundred feet with low 20s for tire pressure. I grabbed a wad of tissue and rolled directly over it where the tire was oozing. Waited a couple of minutes and topped off the air to keep it above 20 psi. I didn't hear any more air leaking out so I proceded to drive another few 100 ft. It did the trick. I filled the tire up to 30psi and continued home. The tire held up for the 15mi drive to the dealer the next morning and BMW swapped out the tire for a new one; no questions asked.


Allen

[FrenchBoy]

You made it to BMWBLOG ;-)

http://www.bmwblog.com/2009/09/29/bm...-bmw-m3-owner/

[GregW / Oregon]

Originally Posted by FlyFish

!Xoible was right; I should have taken care of it the first time the TPMS indicator showed me that I was losing pressure--but I was afraid if I filled the tire that I was attempting to have repaired by a tire shop with sealant, I would be stuck with buying a new tire. A tire that ultimatley didn't exist anywhere in Montana, come to find out... After briefly running the tire down to zero PSI and screwing up the sidewall, I figured the tire sealant was better than having the car sit on the side of the road in the middle of the dessert, plus the tire was now toast anyway. I followed the directions to the 'T', but evidently, whatever was causing the tire to leak popped out leaving a 1/4" hole directly in the tread as I was attempting to 'spread' the sealant within the tire. When i began to fill the tire, it got all the way up to 28psi before i heard the pop and consequential oozing of the sealant out the hole and all over the tire and rim. My guess was that the hole was just too big to seal. I have never had that much luck with tire sealant--looks like BMW's version is just as useless as the after-markets.

I carry a plug kit to seal holes as the first line of defense. Great buy for $30: http://www.griotsgarage.com/product/...rrivals&page=1. You can use the MM kit w/o the sealant as a compressor alone, or with the sealant if the hole is large. BTW, tires can still be repaired even if you've used the liquid sealant (if you haven't driven on it flat). The shop just needs to clean the gunk out.

Now the question remains, is there a full size spare available? What do you do about the different offsets front to rear? Different size tires front to rear? Or does this even matter???

I helped research and put together a compact spare tire solution. It will work for front and rear. Info here: http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthr...ght=spare+tire. I don't go on trips without it.