[bwr001]

Hello,

I bought a new X3 M40i in January 2019 with 21 inch Pirelli tires. In a little less than 2 years, I have only put about 13,000 miles on the car, mainly highway and suburb driving. When I took my M40i to the dealer for regular maintenance, they mentioned that the tires only have 2/32 of tread left and need to be replaced.

I’m not an expert on tires, but 1 year and 9 months seems like a very short tire life. I am very good about checking my tire pressure and am not an aggressive driver. Is it normal for the tires to wear that quickly? Has anyone had experience dealing with Pirelli?

Thanks!

[SteveX3M40i]

Hi,
We just changed our 21” Pirelli runflats on our X3M40i.
Car was new in January 2019 and had covered 28,000 miles on these original tyres.
The car just had a service and we were warned that one rear tyre was very dangerous.
The rear tyres were very worn on the edges.
We replaced them with Bridgestones - which seem much quieter, comfortable ride and better steering feel.
Cheers
Steve

[HoustonEaDo]

I made it to almost 15K miles on my Bridgestones before they needed to be replaced. Also, make sure to get a wheel alignment, the X3s are notorious for being out of whack from the factory

[chassis]

Please describe your driving style.

What inflation pressure do you use?

What tire rotation system do you use?

What brand, model and size tires do you use?

[bwr001]

I would consider my driving style normal. No aggressive acceleration, braking, etc.

I keep the front tires at 33 psi and rear tires at 38 psi (recommended pressures on the tire sticker inside the driver door).

I’ve done the alignment at the BMW dealer and all the recommended maintenance. If it is an alignment issue, would that cause all 4 tires to wear to 2/32, or would the wear patterns be more uneven on certain tires?

[P.Cullen]

I had to replace my Bridgestones after 14k, the overall tread was ok but the outer edges of the front tyres were very badly worn.

Car is booked in to get wheel alignment done this week now that the new tyres are on.

[sbt007]

Will have to wait and see how much my 20 inch Bridgestone Alenzas last. But these are soft compound summer tires on a high performance vehicle and I expect more wear. In the GLC43 forum many people get less than 10K miles on a set and think of it as normal.

[TX3M]

I'm no expert on tires, but I believe summer tires wear much faster than all-season tires. I switched out my Bridgestone Alenzas for Conti DWS06 on my 19" rims as soon as I got my X3 M40i. I'm happy and surprised to report that after 2 years and 25,000 miles of aggressive driving, they still have plenty of tread left. I bet they'll last another 10,000 miles. They are great tires.

[Dandle]

I've had the Bridgestone Alenzas on my car and now have the P Zero PZ4s. The Bridgestones were pretty low by 14k Miles and were changed when one of the rears punctured. I've now done a further 10k on the PZ4s and they are wearing far better, probably about half way down I would think.

[VrmmVrmm]

Originally Posted by Dandle

I've had the Bridgestone Alenzas on my car and now have the P Zero PZ4s. The Bridgestone's were pretty low by 14k Miles and were changed when one of the rears punctured. I've now done a further 10k on the PZ4s and they are wearing far better, probably about half way down I would think.

Similar to yourself my X3 came from new equipped with Bridgestone Alenza RFT. After only 11k miles the front tyre shoulders were fairly shot and at 13k miles I changed all four of them for the same brand & spec and had the realignment done.

I was told the alignment was well out and I replied "from the factory then" as I'm very conservative in my driving....to cut a long story short the 2nd set of Bridgestone Alenzas are going to deliver many many more miles as after a further 13k miles they're not even half worn....alignment is KEY.

[chicagofan00]

I replaced the 21" Bridgestone RFTs a little before 16,000 miles and a year and three months of driving. In general the combination of staggered performance oriented RFTs don't make for something that is going to last and wear like other tires. I've learned over a few different BMWs with the same kind of setup that it is almost guaranteed to mean tire replacement on almost an annual basis. Probably one of if not the only downside I see with the M40.

[VrmmVrmm]

Originally Posted by chicagofan00

I replaced the 21" Bridgestone RFTs a little before 16,000 miles and a year and three months of driving. In general the combination of staggered performance oriented RFTs don't make for something that is going to last and wear like other tires. I've learned over a few different BMWs with the same kind of setup that it is almost guaranteed to mean tire replacement on almost an annual basis. Probably one of if not the only downside I see with the M40.

I do understand the sentiment in your post insofar as a set of tires/tyres annually is a big cost....but....they are the one component that keeps all the other components from being sent to a scrap yard. Not a bad investment...I often changed tyres that anyone else may have gotten 8-10k more miles out of but felt so secure with the new shoes. NOT disagreeing with you at all just another way of looking at it.

[chicagofan00]

Originally Posted by VrmmVrmm

I do understand the sentiment in your post insofar as a set of tires/tyres annually is a big cost....but....they are the one component that keeps all the other components from being sent to a scrap yard. Not a bad investment...I often changed tyres that anyone else may have gotten 8-10k more miles out of but felt so secure with the new shoes. NOT disagreeing with you at all just another way of looking at it.

Oh yeah, I definitely like the feel of the new set of tires and I too will usually error on the side of caution and replace sooner than others may do so but it definitely is a hard pill to swallow when you start to look at it being at an annual cost of about $1,800 per year. I still don't understand how the cost of run flats has not really come down much at all over the years. I'm still paying about the same price for a set of four tires now as I was back in the days with my e92 335i. Albeit those were 19" staggered and these are 21" staggered but still you'd think they would have come down a decent amount more over the years.

[sbt007]

Originally Posted by chicagofan00

Oh yeah, I definitely like the feel of the new set of tires and I too will usually error on the side of caution and replace sooner than others may do so but it definitely is a hard pill to swallow when you start to look at it being at an annual cost of about $1,800 per year. I still don't understand how the cost of run flats has not really come down much at all over the years. I'm still paying about the same price for a set of four tires now as I was back in the days with my e92 335i. Albeit those were 19" staggered and these are 21" staggered but still you'd think they would have come down a decent amount more over the years.

I got the 20" because I prefer that wheel design and was also planning to eventually replace with non-RFT- now it looks like 20" OEM are about $1100 a set which is quite a bit cheaper than the 21".

[chicagofan00]

Originally Posted by sbt007

I got the 20" because I prefer that wheel design and was also planning to eventually replace with non-RFT- now it looks like 20" OEM are about $1100 a set which is quite a bit cheaper than the 21".

Quite a bit cheaper and likely to get many more miles out of them. I was originally wanting to get the 20" wheels but I was impatient when buying and there weren't any M40i's on the lots that had all the options I wanted AND the 20" wheels.

[ANM8]

Originally Posted by VrmmVrmm

Similar to yourself my X3 came from new equipped with Bridgestone Alenza RFT. After only 11k miles the front tyre shoulders were fairly shot and at 13k miles I changed all four of them for the same brand & spec and had the realignment done.

I was told the alignment was well out and I replied "from the factory then" as I'm very conservative in my driving....to cut a long story short the 2nd set of Bridgestone Alenzas are going to deliver many many more miles as after a further 13k miles they're not even half worn....alignment is KEY.

Where do people tend to go for a wheel alignment here in the UK, Main dealer or independent, my fronts are starting to get low on the shoulders, i'll probably wait till they're done and get a full new set, most likely give the PZ4's a go..