Runflats Binned!! + another problem to sort....

[MattZCars]

So after around 10 days of near death experiences on B roads, today I've ditched the runflats….YAY!!

I know it's been done to death really but everything that's been said about the improvement is right, the difference is massive and it's all good! And I'm still a noob so I'm allowed to be over enthusiastic about it!

The differences I've found so far:

1. Steering feel is much better, lighter at low speed and much more consistent and linear. There was a weird feeling of the steering being very heavy on initial turn of the wheel that's now gone. Feels much more like a drivers car now
2. Car tracks straight even on poor surfaces. The biggest difference! The car doesn't want to kill me anymore :voodoo:
3. Low speed ride. Was very unsettled on bad roads, now just a bit jiggly! Miles better though

The other thing I found isn't so great.....A BROKEN REAR SPRING .. but having looked here and on YouTube it looks like an easy fix...phew!

Like I said at the beginning.....I'm gonna be busy!! lay:

 

[davros]

This is something I want to do this year. What tyres did you you replace the run flats with?

Luckily the rear springs are a nice straightforward job on the Z4

 

[MattZCars]

This is something I want to do this year. What tyres did you you replace the run flats with?

Luckily the rear springs are a nice straightforward job on the Z4

I would recommend it 100%. The improvement is noticeable at almost any speed. To be honest when I first drove the car home on the motorway I didn't think the runflats were so bad. But as soon as I got on more mixed roads I knew they had to go!

I've got Vredestein Ultrac Vorti's but mostly because they were on the replacement wheels I got from Oldgitdave! I had Ultrac Sessanta's on my Scoob before and they were very good, too early to tell on the Vorti's yet. I think you're probably running 18's on yours (sorry, I'm not totally on top of all the wheel options yet!) so I would ask/search around the forum. I think there's even a section on wheels & tyres here so it should be easy enough to get some better recommendations than my limited experience will give you

 

[davros]

Cheers for the info I’ve read some good stuff on the Vorti’s and it sounds like your enjoying them

Yep, I’m running 18’s. Unfortunately, the car came with brand new run flats on it, when I bought it otherwise I’d have swapped the run flats a long time ago.

There’s still plenty of tread on them, but you hit the nail on the head when you said the car felt like it wanted to kill you with the run flats on , so it’s definitely something I’ll have to do in the next month or so.

 

[MKZ4000]

I had a mixture of kumho and budget tyres on mine (non runflats) and the car tramlined like crazy.

I've recently changed to Goodyear Assy 3 all round and the tramlining has gone completely. I'd definitely recommend them

 

[davros]

I’ll have to price up the Goodyear’s too it will certainly be worth the money to get rid of the tramlining

 

[Mr Tidy]

Good to hear it is much better on the non-runflats.

Mine had decent run-flats on when I got it, but last year was heading towards needing a couple of rears tyres so I might have swapped over but I ended up buying a different set of wheels that came with good run-flats - I really need to try non RFTs some time! :roll:

Good luck swapping the springs.

 

[jamie_z4]

Ive got a pair of rear springs which were replaced for the MOT a couple of years back coming off my car soon , would take £30 posted if they are of intrest. mines a 2.5i too.

 

[Vijay]

This is something I want to do this year. What tyres did you you replace the run flats with?

Luckily the rear springs are a nice straightforward job on the Z4

I would recommend it 100%. The improvement is noticeable at almost any speed. To be honest when I first drove the car home on the motorway I didn't think the runflats were so bad. But as soon as I got on more mixed roads I knew they had to go!

I've got Vredestein Ultrac Vorti's but mostly because they were on the replacement wheels I got from Oldgitdave! I had Ultrac Sessanta's on my Scoob before and they were very good, too early to tell on the Vorti's yet. I think you're probably running 18's on yours (sorry, I'm not totally on top of all the wheel options yet!) so I would ask/search around the forum. I think there's even a section on wheels & tyres here so it should be easy enough to get some better recommendations than my limited experience will give you

My experience too!
Driving round North London roads, it feels like a really need to concentrate on what I’m doing, even after recently replacing the front bushes. I’m hoping to see an improvement once my runflats are worn and replaced.

 

[MattZCars]

Ive got a pair of rear springs which were replaced for the MOT a couple of years back coming off my car soon , would take £30 posted if they are of intrest. mines a 2.5i too.

Hi Jamie, they could well be of interest yes! Thanks for the offer do you know the make please and a timescale for when they'll be available. Now I've got proper tyres I'm itching to push the car a bit....or at least I was until I saw the spring

 

[jamie_z4]

Ive got a pair of rear springs which were replaced for the MOT a couple of years back coming off my car soon , would take £30 posted if they are of intrest. mines a 2.5i too.

Hi Jamie, they could well be of interest yes! Thanks for the offer do you know the make please and a timescale for when they'll be available. Now I've got proper tyres I'm itching to push the car a bit....or at least I was until I saw the spring

Hi Matt, i'll be taking them off at the weekend so i'll post some pics for you

 

[MattZCars]

Good to hear it is much better on the non-runflats.

Mine had decent run-flats on when I got it, but last year was heading towards needing a couple of rears tyres so I might have swapped over but I ended up buying a different set of wheels that came with good run-flats - I really need to try non RFTs some time! :roll:

Good luck swapping the springs.

I can understand running tyres until they need changing whatever they are, decent boots aren't cheap! I was fortunate to see wheels on here I liked the look of that had decent conventional tyres on. I might have stuck with the run flats otherwise ... but I'm glad I didn't

The springs look like a piece of cake to do, as long as you have a shall we say......er a "substantial" friend to help ....now I've said that I can almost see the title of my next post..... HELP!...noob having problems with rear springs....

Really good to be here and looking forward to making it to a meet or two once I've got mine looking a bit more respectable!

 

[MattZCars]

Ive got a pair of rear springs which were replaced for the MOT a couple of years back coming off my car soon , would take £30 posted if they are of intrest. mines a 2.5i too.

Hi Jamie, they could well be of interest yes! Thanks for the offer do you know the make please and a timescale for when they'll be available. Now I've got proper tyres I'm itching to push the car a bit....or at least I was until I saw the spring

Hi Matt, i'll be taking them off at the weekend so i'll post some pics for you

OK that's brilliant, thanks a lot Jamie, much appreciated!

 

[Mr Tidy]

Really good to be here and looking forward to making it to a meet or two once I've got mine looking a bit more respectable!

Last July we had a meet at the Museum in Beaulieu, but sadly there isn't one this year. Unless you can have a chat with them! :laugh:

Anyway I see you're down to the Ace Cafe in September.

 

[skelters]

Good to hear the tyres have improved the car!

Springs are consumables on these cars.

Disappointed with the lack of "smilies" in the original post!

:? 8) :lol: :x :evil: :roll: :wink: :!: :| :thumbsdown: :hateie: :rtfm: :voodoo: :sos: :crazydude: :bonk: :icb: :trampoline: :worshipbmw: :worthless: :kissass: :stir: :attentionwhore: :titshake: :happyclap: :wub: :withstupid: :spam: :zzzz: :violent1: :roundel: wned: :telloff: :dizzy: :ebay: :soapbox: :hooters: :exitright: :nahnah: :idunno: :drinking: :shutup: :gfight: :sweetheart: nline2long: :bag: lay: :chophead:

 

[Scooba_Steve]

OE Springs have a half-life on these cars.

Fixed that :lol:

 

[MattZCars]

I had a mixture of kumho and budget tyres on mine (non runflats) and the car tramlined like crazy.

I've recently changed to Goodyear Assy 3 all round and the tramlining has gone completely. I'd definitely recommend them

I think that illustrates a really good point for all Z4's, cheap tyres on these cars are really not a good idea :thumbsdown: Unless I'm really skint (it has been known!) I try to avoid them where possible. They are mostly quite poor value for money as well as they rarely last anywhere near as long as quality makes.

It looks like Goodyear, Michelin, Vredestein and maybe Uniroyal are well liked on here, maybe one or two others as well ( I need to read more, type less :roll: )

 

[MattZCars]

I’ll have to price up the Goodyear’s too it will certainly be worth the money to get rid of the tramlining

Yep, I'd say they were a good option

 

[MattZCars]

Good to hear the tyres have improved the car!

Springs are consumables on these cars.

Disappointed with the lack of "smilies" in the original post!

:? 8) :lol: :x :evil: :roll: :wink: :!: :| :thumbsdown: :hateie: :rtfm: :voodoo: :sos: :crazydude: :bonk: :icb: :trampoline: :worshipbmw: :worthless: :kissass: :stir: :attentionwhore: :titshake: :happyclap: :wub: :withstupid: :spam: :zzzz: :violent1: :roundel: wned: :telloff: :dizzy: :ebay: :soapbox: :hooters: :exitright: :nahnah: :idunno: :drinking: :shutup: :gfight: :sweetheart: nline2long: :bag: lay: :chophead:

Ha!ha! OK I'll try harder next time...I'll just start each post by copying and pasting from your reply... :wink: ///

 

[MattZCars]

OE Springs have a half-life on these cars.

Fixed that :lol:

I think it's true on a lot of modern cars, combination of cheap steel and increasingly bad UK roads. I had a front spring snap in a Mondeo when I sat in it...scared the sh1t out of me :lol: and before you say anything, I weigh about 70KG! At least BMW were kind enough to make the rears easy to change :worshipbmw: