Should have done it sooner

[Bill McMahon]

After almost two years of putting up with the poor ride quality of the run flats, (04 z4 3.0) I put a new set of Conti extreme contact DWS on today. WOW what a difference, it's like a different car. Love these new sneakers......

[inTgr8r]

Haha..... Yeah, I'm sure the change is extreme.

[MetMan]

I'm on my second set of Continentals and absolutely love them. With regular rotation (every 4k for me) you should see very good tread life also.

[Bill McMahon]

That's good to hear, so far I'm blown away with the improvement over the run flats. Can't wait to see the difference in wet weather.

[Aries326]

Pretty much the same thing I did. I waited until the tires were bald and didn't pass inspection. Much better now. :-)

[krusty]

Originally Posted by Aries326

Pretty much the same thing I did. I waited until the tires were bald and didn't pass inspection. Much better now. :-)

Yeeeoooch. Leaving tyres until they are bald is not very wise ... and especially on the Z4 default Bridgestone Potenza's which have poor wet weather performance in my view. Just a few mm drop in tyre thread thickness makes a huge difference to stopping distance in wet conditions.

[Bill McMahon]

My run flats still had plenty of life and I was trying to wait until they needed to be replaced. I read where switching made such a difference in the ride that I decided to pull the trigger now rather than wait. Felt a little guilty replacing good tires but once I got into the car after the new tires were on, the guilt was replaced with a big smile. No second guessing this one.

[Aries326]

Originally Posted by krusty

Yeeeoooch. Leaving tyres until they are bald is not very wise ... and especially on the Z4 default Bridgestone Potenza's which have poor wet weather performance in my view. Just a few mm drop in tyre thread thickness makes a huge difference to stopping distance in wet conditions.

I was pretty surprised that when I brought it in for inspection, the tires were that bald. I don't think my wife was responsible for it. Good thing I don't drive it in the rain.

[ANUSTART]

I had the DWS on the car for a little over a year before retiring it from bad weather use. Excellent choice in tire. I was amazed at how well they did in all weather types. Even snow. Enjoy the new kicks!

[Bill McMahon]

Quick update, had the z4 out in the rain today and these tires were incredible. Very sure footed without a trace of traction loss. I hope that I will not get to test the snow performance until next year. This forum is great, I was able to research the run flat vs non run flat discussions and make a great choice in new tire selection. Thanks fellow ZPOST members!

[igeak691]

My rear tires still had plenty of tread, whereas my front run flats had been warn down to almost ripping apart because of the negative camber. Replaced only the fronts with the DWS, and I already feel a huge difference. Can't wait to run down the rears and replace them too.. right now the rear driver side is the run flat and the rear passenger side is a maxtrek ingen a1. Couldn't afford replacing all four at the moment, but this will have to do for now.

Does everyone elses front tires wear terribly also because of camber?

[pomerlo]

Hi Bill... I'm also in the market for new Conti on my 03 Z4 3.0i with 18 in wheels. I already have ditched the run flat with Dunlop but the car still tramlining badly. The alignement was done recently... it reduced considerably the problem but it still there. My goal is to reduce or at best eleminate the tramlining. I want to know if you were experiencing tramlining and reduced it with the Conti ?

Any other input from other users is also welcome !
TIA

[Bill McMahon]

Originally Posted by pomerlo

Hi Bill... I'm also in the market for new Conti on my 03 Z4 3.0i with 18 in wheels. I already have ditched the run flat with Dunlop but the car still tramlining badly. The alignement was done recently... it reduced considerably the problem but it still there. My goal is to reduce or at best eleminate the tramlining. I want to know if you were experiencing tramlining and reduced it with the Conti ?

Any other input from other users is also welcome !
TIA

The tramlining with the run flats was very noticeable and very annoying. I felt that I could not take my eyes off the road even for a second, was constantly adjusting the wheel to keep the car on course. No tramlining at all with the Contis. Amazing ride difference. Had it on the highway yesterday and felt like a different car......love these tires!

[pomerlo]

Many thanks for your input. This is another confirmation that I must do the move.

[unluky]

I almost took my car back after I bought I the tramlining was so bad. In though something was wrong. I found the run flat flat info on this site and ordered a new set of Conti's that night. My GF had them on her TL at the time and loved them, so it was an easy decision.

Cure the car wondering right off the bat and rode great to boot. Also love I can rotate them (side 2 side) to increase life as well. My 300zxTT eats ties because you can not rotate them, this was a big plus for me.

[pomerlo]

@unluky.... Thanks for the input. I assume you have 18 in wheels on your 04 Z4 3.0? Different size front and rear ?. If I get it, so you swap left and right ?

@Bill.... Do you also have 18's on your 04 Z4 ?

[Bill McMahon]

Originally Posted by pomerlo

@unluky.... Thanks for the input. I assume you have 18 in wheels on your 04 Z4 3.0? Different size front and rear ?. If I get it, so you swap left and right ?

@Bill.... Do you also have 18's on your 04 Z4 ?

I have 18 inch wheels with larger size on rear. My understanding is you can rotate side to side to extend tire life.

Bill

[unluky]

Yep, 18's with staggered sizes, but non directional wheels and non directional tires mean they can be swapped side to side.

[TennesseeZ4]

Last year with lots of tread left on my '03 3.0, I decided I was done with the RFT, and made the move to Michelin Pilot SS. It was like I had traded cars the difference was so noticeable. No more 'mind of its own' movement of the steering wheel, and a much more acceptable ride. Not to mention cornering, etc..

[gas-can]

Nice Bill.

When I had mine replaced, I felt like I was riding on velvet lol.

That said, it seems I was one of the few that hated the DWS. I just hated those tires -so much that I replaced them with the summer version (DW) within 4000 miles. I have those now and I absolutely love them, but my car just went nuts when I put the DWS on them.

Anyways, enjoy your new shoes!
-gc

[pomerlo]

Thanks all for your comments.

Was reading a lot on the subject of tramlining on many forums and blogs.
According to what I can read, here is what others have done to correct the problem.

-Correct suspension elements(bushings, tie-rods, shock ect...)
-Get a good wheel alignement by a reputable shop. (weight in the car and trunk ect...)
-Remove a few pounds of air.
-Replace the tire with non run flat.
-Nothing to do, thats the way Z's are made and the tramlining is due to the
design in the suspension...

I dont believe the last one. I cannot believe BMW engineers would have let a car go out like that.

In my case, run flats have been replaced with sport Dunlop which I dont remember the model but the tramlining is still present to the point where the steering behavior is not acceptable.

Suspension and alignement is to the spec on my car and I dont feel that lowering the air pressure below the recommended pressure by the manufacturer would be safe. So the only thing left for me to try is all season tires and the Conti DWS was recommended by many.

But I dont want to spend a $1k and still have the problem. Thats why I try to gather the most info so I can pinpoint the problem more precisely.

Of course I understand that I cannot have a ride like a luxury sedan would offer because after all it is a low riding sport car with 18's wheels mounted on low profile side wall tires. But I'm pretty sure there is room for improvements.

Again, thanks all..... and if others want to share their experience with their Conti, fell free to do so!

gas-can.... Can you describe more precisely what you didn't like about your DWS ? Was it about tramlining ?

[gas-can]

Sorry Pomerlo- my issue with the DWS was not tramlining- it was that the tires made the car feel extremely unstable at speed, increased steering lag, and the reduced traction (though the last one is my fault- I was comparing a summer tire to an all season- not a fair comparison). Some of the problems reduced after the tire got used (which took quite a long time), but it was still at a point where I was not happy with it. I also got an alignment done, and that helped some, but not to the point I felt safe.

The tire shop that I went to replace them said that they had the same issue with that tire (DWS) before- but only with BMW drivers. So makes me think I'm not the only nut.

Regarding your problem, a couple of things:
1. Are you sure the dunlops are good tires? Have you run a search on tirerack/google to see if others have complained of the same issue? I know that tires play a major role in tramlining, so maybe those tires are just lousy at that aspect?
2. Have you gotten a good alignment done? I know that toe settings can have a pretty big effect on this too.
3. What kind of roads do you live around? Obviously this is a sports car so the steering feedback will be higher than a normal car- if you combine that with pretty bad roads, maybe you just have a bad combo on hand?

-gc