# First tire puncture in years....



## Autoputzer (Mar 16, 2014)

My Michelin PSS's have 20k miles on them. Pulling the car out of my off-site storage, I saw the screw in the left front. It was outside the inner circumferential channel. So, it if went all the way through the tire, I'm... well... screwed.


I drove home to my 1.75-car garage, which was empty, put my floor jack in place, and proceeded with the extraction. Yep, it went all the way through.... "hisssssssssss."


Here's the cool part. I'd bought the set of PSS's one year, and 343 days ago. So, the tire's covered by Tire Rack's free, two-year road hazard warranty. 

The warranty is actually handled by a third party, Sonsio. They give away two-free years in return for Tire Rack selling their extended road hazard warranties. (My credit unions do the same thing with life insurance.) I have to buy another tire, have the installing shop confirm to Sonsio that the tire's not repairable, and then send in the paperwork/pdf's.

My PSS's are worn down to between 5 and 6.75 32nds inch of tread. As luck would have it, the punctured tire is the most worn, down to 5/32nds inch of tread. Although, the other tire on the front is about the same. I'd recently rotated the tires. So, the back tires have the most tread.

New tires (first ~5k miles) wear twice as fast as old tires. This phenomenon is probably more pronounced with high performance tires. 

Tire Rack offers tire shaving for $30 tire. To keep the car balanced, I'm getting the new tires shaved, but only down to 6/32nds. Because of the new tire wear thing, the two front tires will likely wear down to 4/32nds inch at about the same time.

Because I have a spare tire, the car's drivable. But, I have a spare car. I can take the puncture tire into the BMW dealer for removal and replacement in my spare car. Any time I can avoid a tech' touching my car, the better off the car is. My BMW dealership gladly installs mail order tires for about $25/tire, and they have a lever-less tire machine.


I washed the rim, inside and out, as a courtesy to the tire tech', and to remind everybody at the dealership that I'm a fanatic about my cars. My previous service writer got the "Autopuutzer" speech from the service manager (my previous service writer) before her first encounter with me. "He's a fanatic, and he has a ten year old Chevy Cobalt that he keeps in as good shape as his BMW"s."


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## Autoputzer (Mar 16, 2014)

I ordered the shaved tire last evening, about 6 p.m. The tire's already been shave and packed up for shipping, with a UPS tracking number assigned. But, because it's shaved it's coming from Indiana, instead from Georgia. Tire Rack's Georgia warehouse it almost close that ground shipping only takes two days. From Indiana, it might take three or four days.


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## crazy4trains (Mar 30, 2011)

I'm thinking I would have bought a second tire to go on the same axle as the warranty replacement and not shaved anything. Was that a consideration?


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## Autoputzer (Mar 16, 2014)

crazy4trains said:


> I'm thinking I would have bought a second tire to go on the same axle as the warranty replacement and not shaved anything. *Was that a consideration?*


The whole point of having the tire shaved was to avoid having to buy a second tire for my RWD, or second, third, and fourth tires for an AWD. These tires are about $300 each. $30 is cheaper than $300.

Tires wear faster in the first few thousand miles. These particular tires (PSS's) wore an average of about 1.6 32nds inch in the first 6400 miles, but only an average of about 0.9 32nds inch in the second 7500 miles. The Conti' DW's on my beater had similar accelerated wear when new. Because of the new tire accelerated wear, it's a good idea to add one 32nd inch to the desired shaved tread depth of the new tire. That way all the tires will end up at roughly the same depth in a few thousand miles.

My shaved PSS arrived at the UPS terminal in Memphis this morning. So, it should be here in Bubbaville, Floriduh by Friday.


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## Justin T (Oct 10, 2006)

Somewhat related story...

Bought a set of Firehawk Indy 500s for the 550 through Tire Rack and less than a month later got a nail just outside the "patchable" zone. Pissed at first and then happy because I was able to get most of the money I spent replacing the tire from Sonsio. Will continue to use TR for new tire purchases going forward...needed to provide a bunch of pics and fill out documentation but it was worth it to get close to reimbursed.


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## Autoputzer (Mar 16, 2014)

The shaved Michelin is here, shipped from Indianapolis on Tuesday and arriving here in Bubbaville, Floriduh in two days by UPS ground (currently free at TireRack on Michelin's). The BMW dealership's Corghi lever-less tire machine is up and running and they said bring it by tomorrow morning. So, I'll have my BMW for scooting around this long weekend!


The warranty company, Sonsio, wanted various pictures uploaded: damaged area, make, model, size, DOT info, and tread. But, that was easy. The new tire also gets a free two-year road hazard warranty. This is the first unrepairable puncture I've ever had. I had a gash in a sidewall once, and a plug-patch fail once. So, I"ve been pretty lucky for about 1M miles of driving.


The dealer's service department was confused, though.... that I didn't need the car flatbedded in. I had an aftermarket spare ready to go when I bought the car (left over from my previous F10). The 535i's sitting in the garage with the spare installed. Actually, I'm going to carry the flat tire/wheel and the new tire over in my Cobalt. It's about 100 miles over there, and I don't want do to that distance without a spare.


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## Autoputzer (Mar 16, 2014)

Everything went off without a hitch getting the old tire removed and the new one installed on the rim. My Cobalt (the anti-BMW) got 34.8 MPG in the first 75 miles of my trip and 32.0 MPG for the last 110 miles. There's a Circle K Shell station in Gulf Breeze that sells 93 AKI for only $0.50/gallon more than 87 AKI. Circle K's in Bubbaville charge $0.60/gallon more. Most other stations in Bubbaville charge $0.70/gallon more. 

While I was in there, a middle-aged woman came in for service, telling the service writer "My tires are low." I'm sure they goosed them back up to pressure with N2 for free and sent her on her way, and she'll get some good coffee and nut bread in the customer lounge while she's waiting. That's how they do things there. They'll make it up. The low pressure light doesn't come on until the tires are 20% below the baseline. So, that woman's tires spend their lives at an average pressure somewhere around 10% below the baseline. RFT's wear more on the edges more, even when properly inflated; I'm assuming Mrs. Saggy Tires wasn't driving an M-car or a non-M with a Track Handling Package with non-RFT's. Throw in the fact that BMW doesn't require tire rotation, and she'll be back soon and frequently for new tires. 

Actually, my friend the early-30-something millennial, MSEE, non-car person is just as bad as Mrs. Saggy Tires. He assumes his car will tell him when it needs air in the tires or they will get air added at the next oil change.

The dealer's BMW showroom and the public areas in the service and parts departments are is being renovated. So, BMW sales and service employees and customers are camping out in the MINI building. The last time I was in there, there was a procession of service writers coming into the customer lounge area telling the customers they need new tires, usually two of them.

My garage is so cramped that I have to pull the cars out into the driveway to check and adjust tire pressures. A lot of my neighbors are puzzled by this. "What's wrong with your car?" "Do you have a flat tire?"


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