[Closed] Car tyres: run flat v can of foam

The only puncture i’ve had in the last 20 years was a gash in the sidewall so foam was useless. Piece of mind has to be worth £70 or just take the risk. If you have puncture recovery included in breakdown cover it’ll be a minor inconvenience.

I’ve used tyre foam a couple of times.

I’ve never had a problem and it’s always gotten me home. I’ve usually left it in there until I needed to replace the tyre.

So with the lower cost and better ride I’d get normal tyres.

The 70 quid difference will buy a few cans of tyre foam :o)

On the flip side to the above, I’ve had 3 punctures in the last two years on my run flat tyres and I’ve been glad of the convenience of being able to drive somewhere to get them replaced, rather than messing about at the side of the road. Far safer in my view.

Foam cost me dear at Easter, en route to a fell race in Keswick in a hire car. Gashed sidewall on a stone that had fallen out of a wall, no hope of sealing. That was at 9am, missed the race by a good few hours waiting for recovery on a bank holiday weekend.
By the time I'd paid for the rental, the replacement tyre and foam, I could've bought an old banger with a spare tyre...

My car has normal tyres instead of run flats. My mate I bought it off had swapped them and I've just put another set on. I carry a couple of cans of goo.

Next tyre change though I think I'm going to go back to rfts. We've had quite a run of punctures in the last couple of years.

I think the cost difference for mine is around £70 too, worth it the first time I get stuck somewhere.

I'd go for foam and recovery membership, I hate run flats, but our road surfaces may be worse than yours

My current car has had 3 punctures in 70k miles. All caused by nails or similar in tread. None resulted in a loss of more than a few psi and i simply topped up tyre and got the car to a tyre place for repair.
The benefits of a better ride I enjoy every time I drive the car.

I had RFTs on a BMW (19”). The ride quality was poor and when I did get a puncture it couldn’t be repaired (nail in the centre of the tread, not in the sidewalk or anywhere dangerous) - few can apparently.

I swapped to non-RFTs and a can of foam. Might be worth checking with your insurance co, as IIRC some consider it a mod, if the car is fitted with RFTs as standard.

Run flats are not repairable as your running on the compressed sidewalk with the rims of the wheel so damage is done to the sidewall. They’re a get you home measure. Normal tyres are not supposed to be repairable either if the tyre has been mostly or fully deflated again due to the damage to the structure of the sidewall. Any tyre place that repairs a tyre that has been fully deflated and driven whilst deflated is very naughty.

Do cars not come with spare wheels any more?
Genuine question...

My 07 octy has a full size somewhere in the boot!

DrP

DrP,
As mad as it seems, many modern cars don’t.
They have a can of foam and a compressor, and/or rft’s.
I wouldn’t buy a car that didn’t have a spare, as the last three punctures in our house were all sidewall gashes, so totally unrepairable, and would have resulted in waiting for recovery.
I think it’s mostly an effort at reducing weight for co2 purposes.

Do these modern cars with no spare not have a place to put a spare?

The ‘kit’ which contains the foam and compressor is often ‘spare wheel sized and shaped’
Not in every case afaik.

Spare tyres have been taken away due to the need to improve emissions or for space reasons...cars are getting bigger and interior space getting smaller so they can meet crash protection, so space is becoming a premium so ditching the spare wheel becomes handy. Despite a few people on here reporting a lot of punctures most people hardly ever get them so you're carrying around alot of weight for nothing. I had read that BMW were ditching run flats too because of their significant additional weight they were struggling to meet emissions regulations, but my wife has just swapped her BMW over for a new one on her PCP and it has run flats so clearly not done it yet. In her previous 1 series there wan't even a spare wheel well so no chance of carrying a spare...some manufacturers keep it as an option.

Also I think these days most people wouldn't even know how to change a spare wheel so probably an H&S issue to let anyone do it. Back when I were a lad I was taught how to change a wheel, monitor and top up the oil and fluids, change a fan belt etc. Kids these days probably don't even know there is oil in the engine they're so used to just getting and using products without having to do any maintenance.

I think it’s mostly an effort at reducing weight for co2 purposes.

Actually, as I discovered, it was so the factory fitted Bose sub woofer had a home...

Of course, there’s always that important third option 😂😂

If be moving to non runflats for the ride more than anything else. With the proviso that your recovery company will still recovering you in the even if a blowout/failure. Worth checking.

Kids these days probably don’t even know there is oil in the engine they’re so used to just getting and using products without having to do any maintenance.

Except now it's part of the driving test.

But hey, it's not like it is in your day, right? Kids these days are all idiots and your generation were all amazing at everything.

No real clear consensus then. The roads aren't fantastic round here but are million times better than Edinburgh!

Someone posted a deal for very cheap Conti run flats on Hotukdeals. Might be worth seeing if they have your size.

There you go:

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/continental-225-45-18-run-flat-tyres-at-ats-euromaster-3262506

I have an F30 3 series on run flats with 18” wheels and have no problem with the ride quality. YMMV though I guess.

Just a word of warning on continental run flats. They wear quite quickly. My last rears only lasted 5000 miles. The set before that was around 9000 miles. I spoke to Kwikfit who agreed that contis wear more quickly than other brands, so I’ve gone back to pirelli p7s that I had on the car before. It’s not like I wheelspin away from every set of traffic lights either (can’t afford to!).

There you go:

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/continental-225-45-18-run-flat-tyres-at-ats-euromaster-3262506/blockquote >

Unfortunately not quite my size, 225/40/18. And they jump up to £130 per tyre!

 

As said above RFT are not repairable and give a much poorer ride. Another negative is that they can cause cracks in alloy wheels due to their stiff sidewalls. For my BMW, I ditched the run flats, bought a foam can, and a space saver tyre and carry those in the boot for longer journeys.

@tenfoot are you perhaps carrying a 6 pot and driving like ColinMcRae round every bend? If your driving is normal then they are truly shitty tyres, I got just under 18k miles from my stock ones.

Nah, it's a 320i, so not quick. Up until recently, I have been doing a lot of stop-start driving, which might explain it. The fronts have been on for 14000 miles and haven't anywhere nearly worn as much. I don't drive hard on them, and have had the rear set-up checked, but as both rears wore evenly, I can only guess it's because the tyres wear quickly.

I've got 21k from the fronts, and the rears have done about 11k with 2-3k left in them. 318d Tourer on Bridgestone Potenza 040.

Ive been threw a lot of RFTs & have switched back & forth between RFT & Non RFT in this time.

My experience is Goodyears A1s are the best value for money RFT & the can be repaired if its in the tread & they haven't been driven at low pressure.

I did find the ride slightly better when i switched to Non RFT, but I've also found RFT have improved a lot of the last 10 years.

Circumstances would dictate from me, are you high mileage? often far from home? do you have good roadside cover? do you have a problem with the ride of the current set up?

last time i needed a set i stuck to RFT for the convenience of the above.

Not particularly high mileage- 10-12k per year. Sometimes head over to the NE from Cumbria with the family or long weekends away. Mostly the car is within 50 miles from home. I don't find the car overly harsh to be fair.

I have RAC cover, I think the roadside relay.

Called into a local tyre place this morning, my fronts need replaced soon and "you might as well so the rears too, they're near the 2mm mark". They have 3mm left, fine for summer IMO.

Gave me a big quote (£600+) for RFT Bridgestones and then a fairly sizeable quote for mid-range (Generals). I've never heard of Generals so filed them under budget brand with a mid range price.

Apparently better handling/comfort of regular tyres but relying on tyre foam if I get a flat.

I don’t find the car overly harsh to be fair

You won't get better handling in a car set up for runflats. You might get slightly better comfort but as above you don't have a problem with the ride so I'd just stick with runflats.

As for cracking alloy wheels, sounds fairly internet myth bearing in mind the wheels will have been designed and tested for run flats. Unless they're cheap aftermarket wheels, in which case it's not the tyres that are the problem!

Dumping my Run-craps.

I bought JCW Mini 2 years ago brand new and now the front tyres are going to need replacement.

I’m not going oem runflats.

I’m going slightly wider by 10mm and choosing a sticky racey tyre. The profile is already 40 on 18’s.

I went to a Mini show and they were running Michelin pilot sport non RF.

The handling, grip, noise levels were night and day.

My car didn’t come with spare wheel space. Just foam or RF.

I toured the U.K. in 2017/18 for holidays and was left in the middle of nowhere in Scotland and Yorkshire moors. The run-flats gave a sense of assurance. Yet the cabin noise and rubbish grip in heavy rain means I’ll be dumping them and using my breakdown cover or foam.

I’ve had a puncture fix a decade ago and was a doddle to swap to the spare wheel. Got the original fixed due to a screw. Just outside uni when I was finishing my master degree exams too.

In your position i would go pilot sports all day long,

I’m going slightly wider by 10mm and choosing a sticky racey tyre. The profile is already 40 on 18’s.

Sounds prime for driving safe on the UK roads.

Interesting mileages on the BMW tyres, I have F31 330d xDrive on 18" whels, chipped, uprated brakes, ACS lowering kit on it and dont hang around, 35k so far on my non run flat tyres, Dunlop sports on the front and Eagle NCT assymmetrics on the rear, all 4 tyres have 4mm of tread left, didn't like the conti run flats when I bought the car, ride was more harsh with them and standard suspension than non runflats and lowered springs.