This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Driving 30 mph TPMS light came on indicating front driver tire low, got home and took tried to inflate tire, with no luck. Took tire off and the inside tire wall had blown out. 1 month later the same blow out occurred on passenger rear tire. There was good tread on both tires. Don't know if it matters, but both tires where run flat. I have contacted Bridgestone, but no response. I'm attaching pictures.
The wheels/rims on my BMW are contributing to my tires faults. The Bridgestone potenza rts tires are constantly having bubbles form on the tires with normal driving. I have replaced several tires as a result. They tell me it is road hazard. If that was the case I would have replaced tires on my other cars that I drive much more frequently. Last week another blowout on interstate 395 in va. $500 for a new tire and then they find another tire with a bubble. BMW is at fault as well.
TPMS alerted us of a low tire. When taken to repair we where notified the left rear rim was cracked and leaking air. Car was only driven on the highway, no rough roads...what would cause the rim to crack? I understand the uk's ntsb has issued a recall as BMW admitted that their wheels had defective alloy metal causing the rims to breakdown. However, BMW of North America has not admitted to any defective metal and has not accepted responsibility. Hope this gets reviewed for safety before some gets physically injured or dies as a result of these defective wheels. Having reviewed the forum, there are hundreds of these discussions regarding cracked rims on bmws. This is not a one case incident, thereby warrants further investigation.
You can't hit a pot hole without bending a rim my daughter just bought 09 328 with 7800 miles, drove it 3000miles, has one cracked rim, two bent rims and the shop said she has two damaged tires. She bought 4 new tires. I'm sorry I told her to buy BMW. My son bought 08 335xi with 60000 miles. Drove it for a few months, the dealer said it needed 3 rims straighten. Also because it had a mis the dealer gave him an estimate for $18,000 to fix the rims, the two leaks and the transmission. He got rid of it as fast as he could and took a beating. I have been driving for 56yrs without a bent rim until I bought the 07 BMW.
I just discovered that the left rear rim on my 2007 BMW 328 convertible is cracked. My car has less than 38K miles on it. The tires are 225/45 17' run-flats. I had four new tires put on about 6 months ago. I got the low tire pressure warning light about a week ago when I started the car. I checked, didn't notice anything, and reset the tpm successfully. Since it was a cold morning, I figured the sensor was just reacting to pressure change due to the temperature change. A few days later, it came again. I decided to check, and found the pressure was down to about 25 psi. I filled the tire to recommended psi. I drove about 260 miles on Sunday, mostly freeway speeds. When I was about 30 miles from home, the warning light came on again. At that time I was on a freeway, going about 70 mph. Once I got to home, I filled the tire (again it was about 25 psi), and the warning stopped. Yesterday the light came on, and I took it to my local tire shop. They didn't find a puncture; but remounted it and filled it. I drove home, and a few hours later, the warning came on again. This morning, I took it back to the shop, and they again removed the tire. This time they did a very close inspection and found the crack in the rim. They are ordering me a replacement rim. From what I have seen on the internet, there seems to be a problem with the BMW rims and run-flat tires. This is definitely a safety issue, if the rim would have a catastrophic failure while the car was traveling at highway speeds this could be deadly.
I just purchased a 2007 used BMW 328xi with ~45K miles. One week to the date of purchase, the tire pressure warning light came on in the car. I took it to the dealership (still under warranty for 5K more miles) and they told me I had a cracked rim, "likely due to impact." I have driven it only on roads under normal conditions, hitting no significant potholes or other road obstructions. The rim is not covered under warranty and will cost ~$500 to replace. I checked this out incident reports online and it seems that many people have complained about the rims/run-flat tires being defective under normal driving conditions.
Runflat tires on BMW 328xi are not suited to american roads. Hit a pothole on the highway with the runflat tires. Wheel was damaged and tire was damaged as well. Runflat tires seem less resilient than standard tires, and result in greater likelihood of wheel damage. Tire did not go flat, but wheel and tire need replacement.
I discovered few weeks ago that the car I lease since 2008 does not have a spare tire. When I inquire the reason why, the manufacturer explained that the car uses especial tires called run flat which in the event of a tire problem would allow me to go to the next tire shop. There are a number of problems with this argument. First, the rationale for eliminating a spare tire is flawed and unsafe: A spare provides drivers with an extra wheel ' including both tire and rim, in case something happens with either component. Eliminating the spare because a car has rfts (run flat tires) fails to take into consideration that the wheels of the car can also suffer damage to the point of immobilizing the vehicle. This is an important safety hazard that would be easily solved with a spare tire. Second, after researching about rfts I found out that most tire shops in the metropolitan area where I live don't carry these tires (one needs to pre-order them) and cannot even repair them. I cannot imagine what would be the availability outside metropolitan areas. Third, these tires are twice or three times as expensive as a regular tire ' the cheapest rft for my car are $200 per tire; and according to tire shop employees they typically last half the mileage of a regular tire. Fourth, and perhaps the most concerning issue, when I was buying the car nobody at the dealership disclosed the type of tires the car had or the lack of spare tire. If I would have known this information I simply would not have leased the vehicle. I contacted the manufacturer and they said that even though they suggest their dealers disclose this information, they cannot monitor nor can they do anything to make the dealers comply. I think both manufacturer and dealers are to blame for putting people at risk by eliminating the spare tire, and for not being forthcoming and explicit about the introduction of new technologies that may affect the purchase decision.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Fleming Island, FL, USA