Vehicle specific tyres

MikeHiow · 24 May 2011 at 15:42

I've just had an interesting conversation with Camskill after the two premium contact twos I ordered were not in stock.

Now, I'm aware a vehicle specific tyre (such as one labelled for a BMW) may be different with varying compounds, sidewall strength etc. but seeing as most tyres are completely generic anyway, I could not see this as a massive problem.

Camskill have told me that it is actually illegal to fit a BMW specific tyre to something other than a BMW, which seems silly to me as I could legally fit these tyres to a 30 year old BMW that they still weren't designed for - as long as the speed/weight rating was in spec, what is the issue?

Fortunately, it turns out I chose the BMW specific one by accident and they have the non-specific ones in stock (I had originally thought it was the other way around), so there is no issue, I just find this all a bit odd.

bandit · 24 May 2011 at 15:45

AFAIK BMW specific tyres are only those that have been tested and validated by BMW. it does not mean you cant use anything else, or use them on something else :confused:

?

Matt82 · 24 May 2011 at 15:46

that would be like saying i would never be allowed to put my VW approved oil into a ford or whatever.

who enforces the BMW law, fox?

jigger · 24 May 2011 at 15:52

My friend has a tyre shop and I'm taking two cars for tyres and tracking in morning.

I cant see how it could be illegal as long as the tyres are the within correct size range for the wheel but I'll ask.

[TW]Fox · 24 May 2011 at 16:23

They are wrong.

I have Mercedes-Benz ones on mine..

TomO · 24 May 2011 at 16:43

[TW]Fox;19213728 said:
They are wrong.

I have Mercedes-Benz ones on mine..

I have Mercedes-Benz one on mine!

... wait a minute...

Skeeter · 24 May 2011 at 16:44

Could it not just be that Camskill have some sort of 'argreement' with BMW that they will only fit BMW tyres to BMWs? Telling a seller its "illegal" is probably simpler than saying "well, were not really allowed too, BMW have told us were not supposed to do that, so, um, no, we cant really do it....". Either that or the guy on the phone just interpreted the instruction from his boss to only sell BMW tyres to go on BMWs as some how some sort of law?

Alibaba99 · 24 May 2011 at 17:15

A couple of years ago I attended a car meet at Center mavity. During the discussion of the importance of tyres Chris mentioned a recent S2000 that was in for alignment work which tried turning one way under acceleration and back the other on decel. A check of the alignment showed that everything was at least pointing in the correct direction and none of the numbers indicated why the car behaved as it did.

On closer examination it was found that the two recently fitted rear tyres were both vehicle specific fits and for different cars and it was the slightly different construction across the axle that was causing the car to yaw.

Vehicle specific fits are not always the same.

NVP · 25 May 2011 at 13:22

Coincidentally, my car is with Sytner Cov this week and they have called me today to tell me that I have the wrong tyres on my car

I have Potenza RE050A's on the front and S001's (or 2's) on the back - Firstly I know this is bad, but the garage who fit my rears said the RE050As were replaced with the S001's so it wouldn't matter too much.

Anyway, BMW told me both types of tyres were wrong so I asked to speak to their tyre expert who said that the RE050A's are for SEATs and the like and were not approved by BMW. He said I need the RE040A*'s (which I had on previously).

Does this make any sense to you guys? Should I go back to the RE040A*'s or stick with what I've got? I remember Gaygle recommended the RE050A's, what do you think?

[TW]Fox · 25 May 2011 at 13:26

Bizarre. I wouldnt worry.

Sin_Chase · 25 May 2011 at 13:35

RE050As (asymmetrical) are generic. They are on the front of my S2000 as the S2000 specific MZs are end of line and impossible to get hold of easily.

I run the S2000 specific RE050MZs on the rear. I will likely go all round RE050A when the rear MZs disappear also.

ubersonic · 25 May 2011 at 14:16

Could it be like coke cans? cans in a multipack are cheaper per can than single cans, hence why they say "multipack can not for resale" and shops are not supposed ot sell them singly (but they do anyway).

Maybe the is something similar with tyres where a tyre manufacturer supplies X tyre with a bmw/merc/porsche stamp on it cheaper than the regular X tyre and instructs resellers they are only to fit them to that brand of car, the car manufacturer may then recommend that tyre in return (tyre manufacturer gets their tyre recommended, car manufacturer gets discount tyres for their customers, win win)

Its just an idea but its the best reason that springs to mind.

Vince · 25 May 2011 at 14:23

I had this recently when buying a set of tyres for my car - Most places I spoke to told me that they would not fit anything but N2 rated tyres to the car - So SC2's and a handful of others rated by Porsche. After a long conversation with one guy it appears to be down to their insurance, he said to me that if you buy a tyre from them which is not rated for your car and something goes wrong then their insurance will not hold up in a claim.

Hence why I had a nightmare finding the N2 rated tyres and I couldn't find anybody that would fit anything but.

Sin_Chase · 25 May 2011 at 14:24

ubersonic said:
Could it be like coke cans? cans in a multipack are cheaper per can than single cans, hence why they say "multipack can not for resale" and shops are not supposed ot sell them singly (but they do anyway).

Maybe the is something similar with tyres where a tyre manufacturer supplies X tyre with a bmw/merc/porsche stamp on it cheaper than the regular X tyre and instructs resellers they are only to fit them to that brand of car, the car manufacturer may then recommend that tyre in return (tyre manufacturer gets their tyre recommended, car manufacturer gets discount tyres for their customers, win win)

Its just an idea but its the best reason that springs to mind.

Not really.

The tread patterns, compounds etc do actually differ between vehicle specific models.

NVP · 25 May 2011 at 17:34

[TW]Fox;19220487 said:
Bizarre. I wouldnt worry.

Sin_Chase said:
RE050As (asymmetrical) are generic. They are on the front of my S2000 as the S2000 specific MZs are end of line and impossible to get hold of easily.

I run the S2000 specific RE050MZs on the rear. I will likely go all round RE050A when the rear MZs disappear also.

I spoke with their mechanic just now and he mentioned that BMW would have tested all these tyres on all compatible cars and therefore these have not been authorised (but he did not know the exact reason for these specifically).

Although I have not noticed a difference between these and the RE040A*'s, I did have a full KDS alignment done around the same time which meant it would have felt better to me either way. They mentioned it was the E46 that they are not authorised on so perhaps they are correct and these are not actually appropriate? Even though they feel fine to me, perhaps the RE040A*'s are better?

[TW]Fox · 25 May 2011 at 17:39

NVP said:
I spoke with their mechanic just now and he mentioned that BMW would have tested all these tyres on all compatible cars and therefore these have not been authorised (but he did not know the exact reason for these specifically).

Goodyear Eagle F1 Assymetric non runflat tyres are certainly *not* authorised for a runflat fitted BMW.

I happily purchased and had fitted two at a main dealer a few years ago.

There is so much misinformation out there about this sort of stuff, IMHO.

Gaygle · 1 Jun 2011 at 18:38

NVP said:
I spoke with their mechanic just now and he mentioned that BMW would have tested all these tyres on all compatible cars and therefore these have not been authorised (but he did not know the exact reason for these specifically).

Although I have not noticed a difference between these and the RE040A*'s, I did have a full KDS alignment done around the same time which meant it would have felt better to me either way. They mentioned it was the E46 that they are not authorised on so perhaps they are correct and these are not actually appropriate? Even though they feel fine to me, perhaps the RE040A*'s are better?

There were only three tyres that were tested and approved for the E46 IIRC. They were the Bridgestone Potenza RE040, Michelin Pilot Sport (2?) and Pirelli something.

The specialist i go to strongly recommended i get the RE040 rather than the RE050A's and said that he see's so many problems with E46's because of people fitting incorrect tyres (although, when he said this i assume he was talking about people fitting mismatched ditch finders). I didn't want to fit the RE040's due to them being a very old tyre now and partly because they are meant to be fairly crap in wet conditions.

I fitted the RE050A's and they were fantastic. However they gave a bit of tramlining which was annoying. I then got a set of CS3's and at first i was extremely disappointed with their grip and feel. However, as time went on they got better and better. Now they've got about 6000 miles on them, they really are fantastic and although the feel of them isn't quite what the Bridgestone's provided, the 110% improvement in ride quality and absolute elimination of tramlining more than makes up for this. I also run the CS3's at a slightly higher tyre pressure which improves feel.

Although i liked the Bridgestone tyres, i would be inclined to go with the top of the range Continentals or Michelin's over them.

[TW]Fox · 1 Jun 2011 at 18:40

The E46 is very tyre fussy but almost all of this is as a result of mismatched tyres front to back causing handling issues, rather than the choice of tyre brand full stop.