Hi all, after lurking a while thought I'd finally post 
(Sorry its a long one!)
I recently had a puncture on the RFTs, and since that was something I was curious about before I got the car but couldn’t find much first hand information I thought I'd share. The below are just my thoughts, may well wildly differ from other peoples perspective and experience, and shouldn’t be taken as anything meaningful or conclusive!
I got the puncture driving to work last Thursday. I’d just come off the M25 and was heading down an A road at about 50 when the red light came on the dashboard. There was no abnormal vibration and I only had about a mile to work so carried on (below 50), and stopped to check when I got there. I was running late, so only gave it a quick check - there was no obvious sign of deflation, and I couldnt see any foreign bodies, so wasn’t sure if it was really a flat or just a miscalibration/fault. That evening, I borrowed a gauge and checked pressures before leaving work. The back right (drivers side) tyre was now down to 0 psi, though there wasn’t much to see indicating that, and I found a screw lodged right in the middle of the tread. I drove it home on the RFTs, avoiding the motorway and made it back without incident.
Normally I’d have just ordered new tires, garaged it until fixed and use the wifes Clio, but sods law, that got reversed into (while parked) last week so is in the garage being repaired, and we needed the car for a weekend away (not far), so over the next few days I had to drive it a bit more. The manual says the RFTs are good for 30-150 miles at up to 50mph, depending on load. I’ve heard plenty of anecdotal evidence that that’s very conservative… but I didn’t fancy finding out.
Altogether I did a very nervous 130 lightly loaded miles over 4 days on it before the tyres were replaced. My thoughts on the RFTs:
First and foremost, they did the job. When punctured I was warned (not sure how quickly, but quick enough that I didn’t have any problems), and they let me continue to a safe place to stop and check them. They also got me home, and survived 130 miles.
Secondly though, with a puncture, the normal tramlining was greatly exacerbated…. every time I crossed a rut it pulled pretty hard, doing 50 was quite scary.
Thirdly, and this is perhaps just me and my paranoia, the ambiguity over exactly how long you can continue driving on them made it fairly stressful. I’ve driven a car on a space saver before, again for about 100 miles limited to 50 (puncture halfway through a long journey), and found it much more predictable and also had much more confidence (maybe misguided?) that it wasn’t about to suddenly disintegrate on me. Every bump, bang and tramline swoop had me wincing and looking for chunks of tread flying back in the wing mirror,
Unfortunately I cant comment on how easily/how long it took to get replacement RFTs, because I’d already decided that I would be replacing the RFTs when worn out. I took the opportunity to switch to PS2s as planned. I was fairly lucky in that the two rears were about done anyway (14k miles), though the 2 fronts had plenty left. Cant think why 8)
I sourced the PS2s from BlackCircles, who I’d definitely recommend. I checked online for sizing and prices Thursday night, and phoned to place the order Friday morning (they suggest you phone if you want fitting asap). They had a good selection of fitters within easy range of me, so I chose the highest rated in the area (5* from user feedback) and was able to book for a Tuesday fitting (which is 2 working days). The guy I spoke to on the phone was helpful, efficient, and even phoned me back on Monday as requested to let me know they’d been delivered to the fitter in case I could get there early. The set of 4 cost me £650, fitted and balanced.
One slight query I had (and have seen discussed in another thread here) is that these are the “extra load” PS2s (I don’t know if they actually all are, or if this is a recent designation change or something?) I also noticed that they’re listing PS2 ZPs which appear to be a PS2 run flat tyre… but since I don’t know of anyone who’s tried them yet, thought I’d stick to the plan.
I did get a call from the fitters though, about half an hour after dropping the car off to query whether I had ordered the right tyres. The fitter had realized they were taking off RFTs and fitting non-RFTs, and advised against fitting them. I confirmed the PS2s were the ones I wanted, that I knew I was switching to non-RFTs, and would make arrangements for a spare or tire foam. He did however, then warn me fairly adamantly, that it would cause all kinds of problems with the electronics and I would probably be stuck with lots of warning lights. I wasn’t expecting that, and if I hadn’t seen so many posts from other people switching without problems would probably have reconsidered on the basis of how convinced he was. I told him I know of other people who’d changed to those tires without problems and said I’d take the risk, and he seemed reasonably happy to proceed. After fitting I got the receipt with a handwritten disclaimer on it recording that I’d specifically requested the non-RFTs fitted against their advice. They were fine though, just wanted to cover themselves I guess.
Having read a few worrying comments about invalidating insurance policies by switching, I decided to bite the bullet and phoned my insurer to tell them about the change, prepared to be vilified and charged accordingly. Happily when I told them (and explicitly reiterated I was switching from factory fit RFTs to third party non-RFTs) they said thanks, but they didn’t need to be notified for any tyre changes, it wouldn’t affect my policy and theyre fine with it. Happy days.
That was privilege btw.
I’ve also called in at the local stealer and ordered the M Mobility kit, which they’ve ordered in without any fuss. I know you can put together something similar yourself for quite a bit less (it was £80!), but I’d rather go with the proven, fairly compact (and more importantly wife friendly) solution so thought I’d cough up for it.
The PS2s aren’t scrubbed in yet (<150 miles) so cant reach any real conclusions on their performance. Its fair to say though that the tramlining and harsh ride were immediately massively improved and it already inspires a lot more confidence. I think the turn-in is perhaps slightly less scalpel sharp than with the RFTs, but thats a trade-off I’d gladly make. So far, so good then
I’ll try to update once theyre properly scrubbed in, if I’m not too busy out having fun
(Sorry its a long one!)
I recently had a puncture on the RFTs, and since that was something I was curious about before I got the car but couldn’t find much first hand information I thought I'd share. The below are just my thoughts, may well wildly differ from other peoples perspective and experience, and shouldn’t be taken as anything meaningful or conclusive!
I got the puncture driving to work last Thursday. I’d just come off the M25 and was heading down an A road at about 50 when the red light came on the dashboard. There was no abnormal vibration and I only had about a mile to work so carried on (below 50), and stopped to check when I got there. I was running late, so only gave it a quick check - there was no obvious sign of deflation, and I couldnt see any foreign bodies, so wasn’t sure if it was really a flat or just a miscalibration/fault. That evening, I borrowed a gauge and checked pressures before leaving work. The back right (drivers side) tyre was now down to 0 psi, though there wasn’t much to see indicating that, and I found a screw lodged right in the middle of the tread. I drove it home on the RFTs, avoiding the motorway and made it back without incident.
Normally I’d have just ordered new tires, garaged it until fixed and use the wifes Clio, but sods law, that got reversed into (while parked) last week so is in the garage being repaired, and we needed the car for a weekend away (not far), so over the next few days I had to drive it a bit more. The manual says the RFTs are good for 30-150 miles at up to 50mph, depending on load. I’ve heard plenty of anecdotal evidence that that’s very conservative… but I didn’t fancy finding out.
Altogether I did a very nervous 130 lightly loaded miles over 4 days on it before the tyres were replaced. My thoughts on the RFTs:
First and foremost, they did the job. When punctured I was warned (not sure how quickly, but quick enough that I didn’t have any problems), and they let me continue to a safe place to stop and check them. They also got me home, and survived 130 miles.
Secondly though, with a puncture, the normal tramlining was greatly exacerbated…. every time I crossed a rut it pulled pretty hard, doing 50 was quite scary.
Thirdly, and this is perhaps just me and my paranoia, the ambiguity over exactly how long you can continue driving on them made it fairly stressful. I’ve driven a car on a space saver before, again for about 100 miles limited to 50 (puncture halfway through a long journey), and found it much more predictable and also had much more confidence (maybe misguided?) that it wasn’t about to suddenly disintegrate on me. Every bump, bang and tramline swoop had me wincing and looking for chunks of tread flying back in the wing mirror,
Unfortunately I cant comment on how easily/how long it took to get replacement RFTs, because I’d already decided that I would be replacing the RFTs when worn out. I took the opportunity to switch to PS2s as planned. I was fairly lucky in that the two rears were about done anyway (14k miles), though the 2 fronts had plenty left. Cant think why 8)
I sourced the PS2s from BlackCircles, who I’d definitely recommend. I checked online for sizing and prices Thursday night, and phoned to place the order Friday morning (they suggest you phone if you want fitting asap). They had a good selection of fitters within easy range of me, so I chose the highest rated in the area (5* from user feedback) and was able to book for a Tuesday fitting (which is 2 working days). The guy I spoke to on the phone was helpful, efficient, and even phoned me back on Monday as requested to let me know they’d been delivered to the fitter in case I could get there early. The set of 4 cost me £650, fitted and balanced.
One slight query I had (and have seen discussed in another thread here) is that these are the “extra load” PS2s (I don’t know if they actually all are, or if this is a recent designation change or something?) I also noticed that they’re listing PS2 ZPs which appear to be a PS2 run flat tyre… but since I don’t know of anyone who’s tried them yet, thought I’d stick to the plan.
I did get a call from the fitters though, about half an hour after dropping the car off to query whether I had ordered the right tyres. The fitter had realized they were taking off RFTs and fitting non-RFTs, and advised against fitting them. I confirmed the PS2s were the ones I wanted, that I knew I was switching to non-RFTs, and would make arrangements for a spare or tire foam. He did however, then warn me fairly adamantly, that it would cause all kinds of problems with the electronics and I would probably be stuck with lots of warning lights. I wasn’t expecting that, and if I hadn’t seen so many posts from other people switching without problems would probably have reconsidered on the basis of how convinced he was. I told him I know of other people who’d changed to those tires without problems and said I’d take the risk, and he seemed reasonably happy to proceed. After fitting I got the receipt with a handwritten disclaimer on it recording that I’d specifically requested the non-RFTs fitted against their advice. They were fine though, just wanted to cover themselves I guess.
Having read a few worrying comments about invalidating insurance policies by switching, I decided to bite the bullet and phoned my insurer to tell them about the change, prepared to be vilified and charged accordingly. Happily when I told them (and explicitly reiterated I was switching from factory fit RFTs to third party non-RFTs) they said thanks, but they didn’t need to be notified for any tyre changes, it wouldn’t affect my policy and theyre fine with it. Happy days.
That was privilege btw.
I’ve also called in at the local stealer and ordered the M Mobility kit, which they’ve ordered in without any fuss. I know you can put together something similar yourself for quite a bit less (it was £80!), but I’d rather go with the proven, fairly compact (and more importantly wife friendly) solution so thought I’d cough up for it.
The PS2s aren’t scrubbed in yet (<150 miles) so cant reach any real conclusions on their performance. Its fair to say though that the tramlining and harsh ride were immediately massively improved and it already inspires a lot more confidence. I think the turn-in is perhaps slightly less scalpel sharp than with the RFTs, but thats a trade-off I’d gladly make. So far, so good then
I’ll try to update once theyre properly scrubbed in, if I’m not too busy out having fun
