[kad]

Afternoon all

Thought I might check in and give you all a quick wrap up our road trip to Adelaide for Xmas.

The trip to Adelaide was wonderful. The broad range of roads and scenery was amazing and the car lapped it up with glee. We caught the tail end of the locusts 30 mins west of Albury, which made a mess of the front end, but no damage was done.

The trip back however was a bit of a mission. 3 kms out of Geelong (on route to our Melbourne stopover) we caught a flat in the front passenger tyre. We called MINI assist and they directed us to the Geelong dealer. The dealer was friendly but said there was no runflats in Geelong and that I should be fine to drive to Melbourne as long as i stayed under 80km/h.

So we took the main highway at 80km/h while my girlfriend was on the phone to MINI organising a tyre. Since it was now 3:30pm on NYE, they could not find a tyre. At this point, the tyre failed and started flapping in the arch so I pulled over and MINI sent a tow truck. MINI organised to put us up for 3 nights at a old but clean and tidy hotel as they couldn't get a tire until Tuesday.

Tuesday rolls around and we get a call from the dealer in Sth Melb (which I wont attempt to spell or say) and said they could have a tyre on the car and back on the road for $505 (we run r16's btw). I told him that I'd been quoted $320 in adelaide for the exact same tire to which he scoffed and said he couldn't even get them that cheap at cost! I called my service rep at Bris BMW and he spoke to them and we get a call back saying they can do it for $420. We the tyre because by this stage we are late for work by days and missing our kitty dearly :P

The rest of the trip was fine and we got home 3 days late, but the MINI was smooth as clockwork!

Anyhow, I need to replace the other front tyre soon, and im thinking of giving the runflats the ****. They are expensive, heavy, noisy and didnt even do their job when faced with a decent sized nail. Anyone know if I can run normal tires on the front and keep runflats on the back? I know BMW dont recommend it, but yeah.

Anyhow, that was my awesome trip, we had a BLAST

[Todd!]

Great to hear that you had a safe trip - sorry to hear about your tyre...

Its a shame you couldnt have spent NYE in Geelong, it is a wonderful place to 'drive through' - even better to stay a few days...

Its a shame that Peck & Stokes couldnt help you out as Im sure Clint and Cam would have beenmuch more helpful than that place in Sth Melbourne with the funny name...

All the guys at Peck & Stokes love their minis!

[MickyD]

I wouldn't recommend mixing runflats and non-runflats, especially with the RF's on the rear, I know of at least one case where extreme snap oversteer, possibly caused by this, saw a car end up written off....

[poki]

Second that!

Just replace them all at once and rotate them regularly.

Good to hear that despite the problems you guys enjoyed yourselves

[Dutchy]

It's good to hear that you had such a great time driving all the way from Brissy.
Pity about the tyre - does spoil things quite a bit. $505 is a rip off. I thought Darwin was dear, but I bought my last set of 16" runflats for $255 each.

I have only just returned from Adelaide myself, but will tell all in my own thread.

Better luck with your next set of tyres.

Dutchy.

[kad]

On a side not, when the tyre 'failed' it put a 10cm scratch on the rim. Very uncool.

I wanted to replace all 4 tyres in Melbourne with non-runflats, but the loser at sth melb say the kit i needed to do that was $400 minimum. I have since found out that an $80 kit from repco will do the job.

All round, sth melb bmw were less than helpful and wanted to exploit out situation.

[malliemcg]

All these people in Adelaide and not a G2G in sight .

I would have loved to have played tour guide in the hills. There are many great attractions Gorge Road being one of them.

Glad to see that it all got sorted out for you though!

M

[Smurfn]

Quote: Originally Posted by kad

On a side not, when the tyre 'failed' it put a 10cm scratch on the rim. Very uncool.

I wanted to replace all 4 tyres in Melbourne with non-runflats, but the loser at sth melb say the kit i needed to do that was $400 minimum. I have since found out that an $80 kit from repco will do the job.

All round, sth melb bmw were less than helpful and wanted to exploit out situation.

Sounds like a good trip, pity about the tyres.

What is this kit you are talking about? I replaced the runflats with non-runflats with no problems at Bob Jane, they never mentioned anything like this

[Sooper Cooper s]

Quote: Originally Posted by smurfn

What is this kit you are talking about? I replaced the runflats with non-runflats with no problems at Bob Jane, they never mentioned anything like this

I'm assuming the Goo + Compressor Kit........can you confirm that Kad?

Waiting in anticipation for your reply.

[Smurfn]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sooper Cooper s

I'm assuming the Goo + Compressor Kit........can you confirm that Kad?

Waiting in anticipation for your reply.

For $400
the goo costs ~ $10 and compressor shouldn't be too much

[Todd!]

It is disappoiting to hear this report of the Sth Melbourne dealership (Melbourne Mini Garage) this is actually BMW Australia's retail front from what I understand - correct me if i am wrong.

Todd

[kad]

Yep, its pretty much a repair kit, good and compressor. See, frun flats CAN NOT be repaired in any situation. I will be getting non run flat end of next month.

The punk at BMW in sth melb was Crawford.

[Smurfn]

Quote: Originally Posted by kad

See, run flats CAN NOT be repaired in any situation.

That's not what others have said. Some others have had runflats repaired, as long as the puncture is not in the sidewall or you haven't had to drive too far etc. Saying that, I don't think I would want to drive on repaired tyres anyway, runflats or not.

[Dutchy]

Quote: Originally Posted by malliemcg

All these people in Adelaide and not a G2G in sight .

I would have loved to have played tour guide in the hills. There are many great attractions Gorge Road being one of them.

Glad to see that it all got sorted out for you though!

M

There was a thread going around just before xmas about doing a run in Adelaide, but no body wanted to commit, or do the organising.

I did the only thing I could and had my own run through the hills. Mt Lofty, I think it's called range rd? (heading north anyway), corkscrew road, gorge road, Birdwood and then back to Mt Barker. There were also the many trips down to Victor Harbor via Strathalbyn and Goolwa.

Back on Topic though: I have heard that run flats can be repaired, just as smurfn has already said. Depending on how bad the puncture is, I don't think that you would have to replace the tyre. Just because it had a leak it doesn't necessarily mean that it will happen again. As long as the job is done right it should be fine.

[minigolf]

Bugger about your tyre.

I have not regretted in any way changing my tyres to non runflats. Here is a link showing the "kit" I have in case of emergency.
http://www.mini2.com/forum/australia/80402-australian-mini2ers-not-using-runflat-tyres-compressor-goo-pack-sale-repco.html



Cheers Liam

[Dutchy]

Non-runflats are an option when living in a built up area, but I wouldn't recommend going too far away from the nearest tyre service center. Up here in the NT, non-runflats are not an option due to 300kms between some towns.

[Smurfn]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dutchy

Non-runflats are an option when living in a built up area, but I wouldn't recommend going too far away from the nearest tyre service center. Up here in the NT, non-runflats are not an option due to 300kms between some towns.

Very sensible

[Neeshil]

I had a puncture in my runflats and got it fixed for $22 at Bob Jane T-Marts, Kessels Road.

They did call the supplier / maker of the tyre before doing it to ensure they could do it. It was in the main flat of the tyre and not near the side wall. (if it was in the side wall then would have to buy new tyre)

[swamos]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dutchy

Non-runflats are an option when living in a built up area, but I wouldn't recommend going too far away from the nearest tyre service center. Up here in the NT, non-runflats are not an option due to 300kms between some towns.

In reality, would you be able to get a 205/45/17 in one of these little towns?? You can only drive for a hundred k's or so on a flat runflat...

[Dutchy]

Quote: Originally Posted by swamos

In reality, would you be able to get a 205/45/17 in one of these little towns?? You can only drive for a hundred k's or so on a flat runflat...

That's a good point, but at least on run-flats I would actually be able to make it to one of the small towns and then get food and water and wonder what the hell to do next. Don't forget that there is no mobile coverage at all along these roads (I don't have a satellite phone), so a phone at a township is better than nothing.