[Phill993]

Recently purchased an 07 plate, E61 525i Sport Touring, with 40k on the clock. Tyres initially looked fine. However, the car had a faint whirring noise reminscent of a wheel bearing going at speeds of 60mph and above. Wasnt too bothered as the car still has over a year BMW warranty to run.

This noise gradually got worse and worse over the course of 300 miles or so, until it was there at all speeds, loudest at around 25mph especially when coasting without throttle.

Took the car to BMW dealer who agreed that one of the front wheel bearings appeared to be faulty, was unable to pin point exactly which one though. They also noticed a tiny bulge in the front nearside tyre. (Goodyear NCT5 245/40 18's runflats all round). Booked the car in to have both the bearings looked at and decided to change the front tyres due to the bulge.

Best deal was with etyres.co.uk, lowest price I could find and they come to your home to fit.

The tyre fitter commented that, apart from the bulge, both the front tyres were close to being illegal due excessive wear on the innner edges. The remainder of the tread was fine at over 5mm. So, new Goodyear NCT5's were fitted.

Low and behold, on taking the car out for it's first run on the virgin tyres the bearing noise was completely gone! MAGIC ??? .... Not quite ....

Since then have added another 100miles or so and the whirring bearing type noise is definitely starting to return, though not yet as loud as before the tyres were changed.

My questions from all this are ....

Is it normal for these expensive runflat tyres to wear so badly on the inner edges?

Is it likely that in raising the car using a trolley jack, something was moved in the front suspension that stopped the bearing noise for a short while, at least until the suspension settled down again?

Is it possible the faulty bulging tyre was the cause of the noise?

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Car is booked to go into the dealer next friday, with a bit of luck the new tyres will last until then! Will have a 4 wheel alignment done whilst it is in to hopefully stave of the wear bug!

Would welcome any and all inputs from you more experience BMW owners to understand this issue better. I am not sure how old the original tyres were, but judging by the overall wear not very.

 

[steve23002]

First thing i would do is get the wheel alignment checked. :thumbsup
Let us know how you get on at the dealers after that

 

[Phill993]

Tyre wear update

Quick Update. Car has now been dealersized for 2 days! Apparently the wheel bearings show no signs of wear. The car has been 4 wheel aligned and was found to be 'significantly' out of spec on the two nearside wheels. This has now been adjusted and the car now runs fine!!! Still have a degree of road noise and the ride is very hard, which I understand is 'normal' for runflat tyres.

Now thinking seriously of ditching the runflats when they have worn down and replacing with P Zero's or similar for a more comfortable ride and reduction in tyre noise. Will ahve to get a spare and jack no doubt an switch off the tyre pressure warning system.

Does anyone have experience with this conversion?

Whilst in with the dealer they undertook a recall to replce and reprogramme the injectors, which appears to have ironed out a couple of flat spots when accelerating hard.

Having gotten over the tyre problem (at least for now) I am planning to fit a tow bar to haul a small trailer.

Can anyone recommend a good detachable bar that doent cost the earth or make the back of the car look like a tractor?

 

[[email protected]]

A bulge can be a sign of damage, although some runflats do suffer from de-lamination due to the stiffness of the tyre-wall. May be worth asking if there is any suspension damage which has caused the alignment to be out too?

I had a bulging RFT replaced by Bridgestone, read some posts from the US via google, real issue over there.

I had a friend who bought a set of 19" replica M5 staggered wheels for his e60, the ride was significantly better than the 18" RFT's. He then put the RFT's back on when he sold the car and sold the 19" wheels via ebay, proved to be a very cost effective way of ditching the RFT's and improving the cars looks too.

 

[RABUL]

E60 Front Tyre Wear

I had a similar problem with my 2005, E60 535 M sports diesel. The front tyres were worn to the canvas (as I call it) on the inner edges after 20k miles although the centre tread was still good. Checked the alignment etc (£200 not covered by warranty) no problems and the dealer put it down to running tyres under-inflated. The warning system does not catch this if both front tyres are running soft. I ended up replacing both front tyres and, whilst keeping a close eye on the pressures, have now done 28k miles on the new tyres with no problems on the inner edges and the tyres are now half worn evenly over the tread. Clearly run flats are very sensitive to under-inflation, which seems logical with such stiff walls and the shear loads this can put on the tread edge.

 

[[email protected]]

I had a similar problem with my 2005, E60 535 M sports diesel. The front tyres were worn to the canvas (as I call it) on the inner edges after 20k miles although the centre tread was still good. Checked the alignment etc (£200 not covered by warranty) no problems and the dealer put it down to running tyres under-inflated. The warning system does not catch this if both front tyres are running soft. I ended up replacing both front tyres and, whilst keeping a close eye on the pressures, have now done 28k miles on the new tyres with no problems on the inner edges and the tyres are now half worn evenly over the tread. Clearly run flats are very sensitive to under-inflation, which seems logical with such stiff walls and the shear loads this can put on the tread edge.

Could not agree more. I run mine slightly over-inflated now and it has eradicated the inner wear I was seeing on fronts and backs.

 

[ronali]

This is all very interesting and informative; thanks everyone!

I have just bought a 2006, 520d, E60 (Touring). Nice car! The frustration is the road noise and I also have the intermittent whirring sound (whu,whu,whu). I suspected maybe wheel balancing and so had the fronts done; the guy said it wouldn't be necessary for the rears, but, as the fronts were done and needed doing too, and didn't make much difference to the whirring sound, I am going to get the rears done too. If this doesn't help then I will ask for an alignment check. If that doesn't work then it must be down to RFT's I suppose unless it's something more sinister perhaps?

I have to say that I have reservations about RFT's although I understand the safety implications. I did expect a quieter and smoother ride however and will consider changing all 4 tyres to normals when the time comes, even if it means finding a spare as well.

If there is any further advice please send it!

Thanks again and regards to all
ronali

 

[[email protected]]

A compressor and can of sealant suffices rather than the full jack/spare option. :thumbsup