Driving home tonight, just toodling at 50 mph, 5 mins from home.  Concious that the car behind had come from nowhere, on coming car, I'll just move over a bit to give him a bit of room and then an almighty bang.

Oh feck 

Senses back together, round the next bend, car feels to be vibrating, can't tell from where, indicate to let the boy behind pass me, and bump flat tyre indicator comes on.

Oh feck 

Vibration bit worse.  Limp it home at 40 mph and park in the drive way.  Front nearside looks o.k., press side wall, firm. Oh feck it must be a rear tyre which were new only 9 months ago. Rear nearside looks o.k., press side wall, firm. Pressure gauge out, N/S/R tyre pressure spot on.  N/S/F tyre about 8 psi.

Couldn't see any damage, pumped tyre up, initialised the rft monitor for reset, took for drive up to 60 mph, fine, rft monitor now says set.

Hmmm

Car then vibrates again, no flat tyre indicator,  back home, check pressure on N/S/F tyre - 8 psi.

Oh feck

Phoned local council to report pothole and that I have damaged tyre and mibbie the rim.  "No problem sir I'll send a claim form out to you". Good stuff, restored my faith in the local cooooncil .  Could be a big claim, one tyre will be getting on for £200 and the rim would be atleast that.

Can't really drive the car as the tyre will just go flat again. And this is the real clincher, as it has run flat tyres, I have no chuffin' spare to put on!

I don't really want to drive it knowing that I have a wheel/tyre fault. 

What a wonderful invention Run Flat Tyres are! 

Mibbie I'll ask Santa for one of http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=NB32&mospid=47756&btnr=36_0916&hg=36&fg=95 - these , having possibly had to buy one of http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=NB32&mospid=47756&btnr=36_0671&hg=36&fg=15 - these first

There is one silver lining I suppose, is that the front tyres were getting thin with ~3mm tread depth left.  But should get a few more thousand out of them yet.

Learned that I can't tell from pressing the sidewall on a 40 profile RFT that it is flat! D'oh!

Andrew

The bang was my description of the noise that came from the car on impact with the pot hole.

Tyre has not blown or anything but leaking from somewhere.  Will remove it tonight and have a swatch at it.

Spoke to a neighbour this morning at the bus stop who remarked as to why I was slumming it on the bus.  Told her the story and she said that I would have a fight with the council as to wether or not their road surface was at fault or not that caused the tyre to go flat.

Off to phone local garage for a price for a tyre.

Taken tyre off car.

Oh feck

When I get round to posting the pics you will see why I have decided to get a new rim and tyre.

Tyre still has 5mm of tread on it too which is a big bummer!

Andrew Rolland wrote: When I get round to posting the pics you will see why I have decided to get a new rim and tyre.

Oh feck

Oh feck

So do you reckon I can buff that out with the Megs G220 and some aggressive polish then?

I reckon its deformed by 20 mm or so.  If the rim has deformed that much I hate to think of the forces that went thru the tyre sidewall.  Hence why I am not taking any chances and getting a new rim and tyre.

To be fair the runflat did its job and allowed me to get home and indeed let me drive it a short distance again without any dramas.  If I had an ordinary tyre I would be picking bits of it out of the pothole and it would most probably have come off the rim and I would have then destroyed the rim driving the 2 miles or so home.

Wahey

Car now has a shiny new rim and a new tyre.  Fitted it last night after spending 2 hours tyring to get home by chuffin' bus.  Glad I didn't go for the train from Central seeing has how they were all off!

Took the car out this morning in the snow for the first time in a week.  No issues what so ever.

If you want to make progress in the snow don't take public transport but take a rear wheel drive BMW!

Hadn't kept up with this thread so just saw the photo's of the damage now.  That is fairly well goosed!  A new wheel was the right solution.  Might be worth checking with a refurber though as to whether the wheel can be restored.  If its not cracked then maybe it can be.

A spare in your shed might be a useful thing at some point in the future, if only to save the downtime associated with the lead-time on wheel and tyre if you encounter such an occassion again.

Dergside wrote: That is fairly well goosed!

Aye that's the polite way of describing the damage.

Going to get the suspension checked at local garage next week. 

I'm going to order an emergency spare from BMW in the new year so as you say to keep the car on the road if that happens again. It's a special order from Germany so best to wait till after the holidays.

It wasn't the runflats that let me down but the actual rim failing, hence why I was off the road.

I enquired about a spacesaver for a colleague swapping from RFT's on his e70.  For it, they seem to come as either a rim only, no tyre, or as part of a retro-fit kit that includes whel, tyre, jack, etc. 

I rang a dealer in NI too as I found a big price difference recently on a mfsw retro-fit kit for the e46.  Even up there the spacesaver kit was somewhere around the £250-300 mark, with vat, etc. iirc.  Rim only wasn't a great deal less.

Local (nice) BMW dealer quoted me £155 + VAT for the retro fit kit which comes with the jack etc.

Its a £75 option on a new E60!

Update

Car went in to local garage (non BMW who also supplied the tyre and rim) for a full four wheel alignement and a suspension check.

Garage gave it a clean bill of health and only had to do minor adjustments to the tracking at the front.

When driving it on Tue it did have a pull to the left and a vibration which wasn't there prior to the incident plus the runflat tyre warning came on while doing 70 (ish) mph on the M8.

She now tracks straight and true and I have had my faith restored in driving it as I was slightly un nerved driving it until I had it checked.

The suspension must be strong indeed, she's a tuff beast.

Andrew

I had written to the council telling them what happend, including photos of the damage to the wheel, pictures of the rapidly filled in pothole, copies of quotes for the tyre and rim and a copy of my £515 bill.

Two days ago I received a letter from a firm of Solicitors acting on the councils behalf, explaining that the council have passed them my claim and that they would contact me shortly.

I was a bit suprised to hear that, if it was a flat rejection surely the council would have told me to go and jump?

Any news on the claim yet Andrew?

Mike

Chaps just as a side note, there is a great video on the "Fifth Gear" website reference the pothole problems around the UK roads. It has a good deal of info on what we should do if we are in the same situation as Andy. It will tell you what we should do in respect of photos and information needed from us to pass onto the relevant council. 

As previously mentioned we pay some much road tax and fuel duty you have to ask where the money goes? ( MP expeditures, bank bailouts, paying for the American lead war etc) it makes you sick. Not to mention the cost of RFT.

Anyhow its worth a watch when you get a spare 5 mins. Keep us posted Andy on the claim outcome.

cheers Imran.  

I use this website to report potholes

http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/hazards/report - http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/hazards/report

and I know that it works as I have received feedback from the council

The council have written to me to tell me that my claim has been passed to a solicitior...after the solicitor had written to me to tell me that the council has passed on my claim.  That all costs money...

Interestingly enough the council are actually digging up the road into my estate, they have marked out with spray paint areas to re-patch, yet they have blatantly ignored two deep potholes which I know for a fact have been reported to them!  God, it gets me so annoyed.  They are going to patch small holes 100 mm x 100 mm x <20mm deep but are ignoring two 400 mm x 400 mm x 100 mm deep potholes.

Rant over...

breathe...

..and relax

I'd say on the B roads on my route home, I currently pass in excess of 50-60 potholes (in the space of 8 miles!). There is one road I use which you can tell has been patched in many areas many times and because of the snow and ice of December/January it is now getting to the point where the potholes are joining up and there are loose stones everywhere. The really stupid thing is, it's a residential road and a main through road which helps avoid the motorway and even on a good day it's fairly busy. In the next month or so, if it doesn't get patched up it's going to be practically inpassable.

I was followed by the police down another road last night on the way home and I was weaving all over the road to avaid the cracks and holes in the road. I got a bit paranoid they may think I was drunk or something but when I checked them in my rear view mirror, they were weaving in the same pattern as I was!

I can understand that sudden road breakage on such a massive scale like this cannot be instantly fixed but surely they can send survey vehicles out to the main routes, mark the bad spots then report back and send out the 'fixers' If each patch takes them say 10 minutes, they could easily have a few of the roads round my way done in the space of a week.

Surely the claims will far outweigh the money they could spend avoiding them?

Mike

Andrew Rolland wrote: Interestingly enough the council are actually digging up the road into my estate, they have marked out with spray paint areas to re-patch, yet they have blatantly ignored two deep potholes which I know for a fact have been reported to them!  God, it gets me so annoyed.  They are going to patch small holes 100 mm x 100 mm x <20mm deep but are ignoring two 400 mm x 400 mm x 100 mm deep potholes.

Got home last night to find the above potholes that had been previously ignored, have had the surfacing local to the hole removed and are now ready for re-surfacing.  I take it back.

I would have said that if the police did pull you over Mike it wouldn't take much explaining in that you were avoiding potholes.  Plod won't like them either.

siwilson

If the hole was already identified as to be re-paired, you will stand a much better chance of getting a payout.  Did you take photos of it?

An update on my claim.

Received a letter from the solicitor acting on behalf of the council.

#1 Please provide a receipt for the tyre that was damaged, not a receipt for the replacement tyre.

#2 Please inform what attempts were made to have the alloy wheel repaired by a specialist.

#3 Please provide documented evidence from an alloy wheel specialist that the wheel was damaged beyond repair (or very similar words to the same effect)

#1 The tyre was on the car when I bought it on 30.03.08, so I do not have a receipt for the tyre as an individual part

#2 There was no way I am prepared to put a repaired alloy wheel back on my car if that was the extent of the damage.  Yes I am no expert in repairing wheels but I have what is called a responsibility for my own safety, my passengers safety and other road users when my car is on the road.

#3  Guess I'll need to go looking to see what a specialist can do for me.

Can anyone offer any help?

I can see their point especially regarding a receipt for the tyre, but I know that there is no way I would have felt happy with that rim being back on the car.

Andrew

Thanks for that guys.

Got a lead from the local garage on an alloy wheel repair outfit.

Will keep you posted.

Andrew 

A wee update....

I heard back from the lawyers representing the cooncil. 

I told them there was no way that I was going to get the rim repaired as local gargae condemned it as to did the wheel and tyre specialist at my local BMW dealer. 

I reminded them that I was out of pocket to the tune of over £500.

I also pointed out (in a photograph showing my tyre tread depth gauge) at the reasonable amount of tread (4mm) left on the tyre.

They have told me that they take wear and tear into account and would I be willing to accept £482.18 as settlement.

Er yes! I am pleaseantly suprised that they agreed to that amount.

Just goes to show if you have some evidence, big damage and a good argument you can get your cash back.

Andrew

Nice one Andrew! Best outcome given it shouldn't have happened in the first place but ok in the end I guess.

Mike

Yeah its only about £35 less than I forked out but I can live with that as part of wear and tear for the tyre.

Pot hole that I hit has yet to be repaired!  So it will happen again...to some other poor sod.

Great result andrew!!!

Shame it had to happen in the first place and be such a pain to go through

Great outcome.  It should be a no-brainer that these things are settled properly but unfortunately it can't be presumed these days.  Good to see things put right in this case. 

It highlights that good preparation for such a claim is important.

Largeish cheque paid into the bank yesterday. 
Unfortunatley the Mrs has made plans for the cash

I might be able to persuade her to let me get a spare tyre kit from BMW though.

Result indeed.

Just going back reading an earlier post in this thread, an alloy wheel specialist told me it was repairable.  He would put it on a jig, heat it then hit the living daylights out of it to re shape it.  He wanted £55 + vat for this.  I declined his kind offer.

siwilson wrote: RESULT!I did do my best though to keep the costs down by doing the ruinning around myself and having a local Hunter alignment insted of BMW KDS. Maybe this helped?

Feck no, you should be able to argue that you want a BMW dealer to fix your... oh that's right... BMW.  You could argue that it is a specialist method and given what's happened that's where you want it done.  Granted a BMW full KDS wheel alignment must be about £180, my local body shop did it for £65, they use lasers, BMW use cameras I believe.  As long as a proper full four wheel alignment was done you should be fine.  A front end wheel alignment only is not appropriate for an E39 nor an E60.

I never thought of going to BMW for the wheel alignment.  My local body shop does all of the Ovlov main dealers in the Glasgow area wheel alignments.