Monday 11 August 2008

A Tiresome Experience

We were motoring along in the old two-seater this afternoon, as one does, when there was a bleep and the run-flat tyre light illuminated. Most unusual; could there be a puncture? I got out and looked at the tyres. Nothing peculiar there.

We got home and I began taking the metal dust-caps off the tyres when I sighted the culprit: a nail in the front tyre and the pressure was 23.5 - down from 30.

Without undue delay - no procrastination - I headed for my pals at Gilnahirk Tyres in Belfast. There was a queue so I waited patiently. They charged £7.50 for the service. I noticed that the young chap had fitted a plastic dust-cap on the tyre instead of my metal one, so I pointed this out. They appear to have lost the original one; however I got a brand-new identical one which was even better.

4 comments :

Stephen Barnes said...

HTF have you managed to keep the metal dustcaps? I've had 3 Beemers and Tara has a Mini - in all cases, all four sets of metal dustcaps were nicked within a week.

Will be taking delivery of the new motor shortly (if I can persuade them to release it). Lets see how long they last this time!

Timothy Belmont said...

They were nicked from a 318i I had in the nineties.

I endeavour to keep a beady eye on the present ones! :-)

Tim

Neil said...

Ah, Maldives blue - a great colour for the Z4 ... don't know why they dropped it, when they have several shades of boring silver ... I chose Phoenix Yellow for my Z4 coupe, but if Maldives Blue had still been available, I'd probably gone for that instead.

BTW, £7.50 for a repair to a run-flat is very good - I was unlucky and got a nail in the side wall of one of mine ... £250ish for a new tyre :-( I'm seriously thinking of replacing the RFTs with traditional tyres when the tread has gone - pop a can of tyre sealant & a compressor in the boot, and that should do until I can get a new tyre. At half the price of RFTs, plus a smoother ride, there are a lot of people ditching their RFTs. A service guy at Bavarian even admitted as much, although he was quick to point out that they wouldn't swap them for me ...

Timothy Belmont said...

Neil, many thanks for that; food for thought. I imagine you could get tyre sealant on Ebay or anywhere else?

Would that make the run-flat indicator redundant?

Tim