Spare tire situation

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RachelinSLC

Member
Joined
May 19, 2019
Messages
6
I'm picking up my 2017 Rex this afternoon. Last night I dreamt that I got a flat tire. I woke up and realized I never saw a spare. This morning I read about the sealant and inflator. How reliable is this? I have roadside assistance with my car insurance.
 
Works on most nail or screw in the tread portion of the tire. Actually, your tire pressure warning system will most often alert you to low pressure in a tire well before it goes flat from a screw or nail slow leak. Almost all of my flat tires in my previous car, showed up first thing in the morning, when I went out to drive to work - with either a 'low tire pressure' warning, or a flat tire. In all the cases, if I checked tire pressure and if within 10 lbs of normal, I just drove to Discount Tire for a free tire patch, or if flat, I just added air, then drove to the tire shop. Just carry a good tire air pressure gauge in the glove-box. If you don't need to use the sealant, you can just use the air compressor to add air to a low tire - as I have heard the sealant ruins the TPMS sensor in the tire, which then has to be replaced. No flat tires yet in my i3. Also had a MINI Cooper for five years. No spare tire, no tire inflation kit, Came with run-flats, which were terrible, and I switched them out for reg. tires. Never in 5 years had to change a tire. Picking up a nail would just get a slow leak, take it in to a tire shop, and get it fixed.
 
I'm trading my mini cooper which I've owned for 7.5 years. I've never had a flat. I had one screw, which was a slow leak. I have an air compressor in my garage. So I get enough air to get to the tire shop.

I think I'm just making up worries.

Rachel
 
My vehicle insurance company charges about a buck per month for emergency roadside assistance, which covers towing and even dead batteries (which could be fun to see if they will cover on a BEV). :twisted: As much as I hate to admit defeat and use the service, my health is bad enough where I can't realistically change a tire on the side of the road any more. Since I'm sure that nobody (outside of the BMW dealers) keeps the i3's unique tires in stock locally, I would just have it towed to my friendly local tire shop and get a ride home to grab another tire. (*)

* When installing new tires on any vehicle, I always stash the best of the old ones in the garage in case of a puncture. I haven't done a tire swap on the i3 yet, so I guess I'll just have to drive one of the ICE vehicles in my driveway for a few days should I have to wait for tires to be shipped in an emergency.....
 
I guess I'll just have to drive one of the ICE vehicles in my driveway for a few days should I have to wait for tires to be shipped in an emergency..

For those of us with only one vehicle - most BMW dealers have the tires in stock, and Tirerack carries them, and ships to most areas next-day for free. When I switched mine from the low side-wall sports tires, on 20 inchwheels which were all bent from wonderful Dallas potholes, to the higher sidewall 19 inch all-season tires, I ordered from Tirerack at 4:00 pm on a Wednesday, and they arrived Fedex Thursday morning. Tirerack even recommended a mobile tire installer in my area, they came out with a 'tire-shop-in-a-truck', and mounted/balanced and installed all four tires/wheels right in my driveway (for less than Discount Tire quoted).

Thinking back, the last time I actually had a real flat, and had to jack-up a car to change a tire on the road, was over 20 years ago, before the TPMS existed, and who knows how long I was driving on a low tire, before it actually gave out and went flat.
 
Back in my racing days, I think that I single-handedly put a few of my Tire Rack sales rep's kids through college. :lol: (I just wished that they carried Nokian tires, because there will be a round of Hakkapeliitta R3's calling my name in October.)

Speaking of the BMW dealer, ours was running a $70 rebate special if you bought four tires when I was there a few weeks ago. Their pricing on the Ecopia EP600's (all season) winds up being $30 less than Tire Rack after the rebate. Of course, they make up for it with an insane (IMHO) installation fee that's almost $50/tire. I wonder if the parts department will sell tires over the counter without installation? Anyway, the tire price difference itself is reasonable enough to buy at the dealership in a pinch.

https://www.bmwtirecenters.com

I seem to recall reading that some BMW dealers offer off-season tire storage service if you buy your tires through them. For those without garage space, this may be a reason to consider the dealership for purchasing tires.....
 
Thank you for the replies. My i3 is in the drive way. :D I purchased my i3 from an import dealer. They had to get the tires from BMW. BMW had to order the tires. Ordered Wednesday. On car on Friday.

In my life, I've had one true road-side flat. My dad rescued me. Now I have roadside assistance from my car insurance. My mini lets me know about ANY fluctuation in air pressure. I always knew when a big storm came in or when it got very cold overnight. I anticipate the same from this vehicle.

I'm off to figure out this new vehicle.
 
In the month that I've had my i3, the TPMS has not complained at all about tire pressures. (Well, except for the morning when one of the rears was at 12 PSI due to a screw puncture.) I drove it the whole first week with pressures varying 7 pounds between sides, and it didn't make a peep.

I know that some earlier TPMS systems used to be annoying with false alarms due to a small acceptable pressure range, but so far my i3 seems to be very tolerant to large pressure variances at least down here close to sea level.....
 
vreihen said:
Since I'm sure that nobody (outside of the BMW dealers) keeps the i3's unique tires in stock locally, I would just have it towed to my friendly local tire shop and get a ride home to grab another tire. (*)

* When installing new tires on any vehicle, I always stash the best of the old ones in the garage in case of a puncture. I haven't done a tire swap on the i3 yet, so I guess I'll just have to drive one of the ICE vehicles in my driveway for a few days should I have to wait for tires to be shipped in an emergency.....

Actually I’ve found i3 tires readily available. I happen to live walking distance from a Firestone/Bridgestone store. While they didn’t have replacements at the location, they got them from the local warehouse in a matter of hours. Same situation I’ve experienced with our second car, an E90 3-series that came with Bridgestone run flats.

For what it’s worth, I had a 2014 i3 with the 19” all seasons. During its three-year lease, I had to have one tire replaced due to a puncture in the sidewall and plugged about three other punctures. The 2017 I currently drive came with the 20” summer tires. In two years, it’s experienced zero punctures or tires/wheel issues. I believe the difference is 100% circumstantial though. The city, AT&T, and Comcast repeatedly dug up and repaved the streets fronting both my home and office in the 2014 to 2016 time period. We had an equivalent number of punctures with the E90 during that same span. No tire issues in either vehicle since.

Also, I never resorted to the tire sealant in the i3. The TPMS provided enough warning in each time that I made it to the tire shop before going completely flat.
 
i bought a spare tire (doughnut) and carry it in the trunk whenever going on long dist travel (> 200 miles away from home).
 
Doesn't help the REX owners, but I think I'm going to mount a CLK expanding spare in the area of the car where REX's have their muffler/intake box.
 
Correct, no spare. This is one of the many weight saving measures in the design of the vehicle. The problem you'll encounter isn't that you can't get home or to a shop. You'll have your road side assistance for that. The issue is that no shop will have a spare tire in stock for you to have it replaced right away assuming it needs more than a patch. Some owners have elected to buy one of each tire size as spares in their garage or home for an emergency situation so that they're care doesn't experience more downtime than necessary. I don't have a spare. I drive in an urban environment mostly and will just call for road side assistance. I do run the risk of them not having a flat bed truck which is necessary. My roadside company, AAA doesn't have the dolly system but that's also an alternative. A regular tow truck won't do, so you'll need to wait for availability of the flat bed or pay extra to an outside company to use their dolly system.
 
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