100,200 Miles

Of all days, Boxing Day. Went out in the car to go to the shops. Tyres all fine. Been keeping an eye on them everyday to ensure they are not deflating. Then on the way home, all of sudden I get that feeling that something isn't right, like a flat tyre feeling.

I pull over as soon as I can, perhaps 30 seconds later as I was on a small lane with nowhere to stop and yes, rear left tyre was flat. The same one that had problems sealing in the garage when the tyres were first put on. It was already trashed, you can't seem to drive hardly at all on flat tyres any more without ruining them. Not happy.

So spare (skinny space saver) on and limp home.

I managed to luckily source another full set of second hand winter tyres, actually a better set, Dunlop SP Winter Sport 3Ds. Fortunately they are located somewhere near where we are due to visit the next day, so borrowing another car, I collected them.

I was then stuck for a few days as it was the period between Christmas and New Year. But I managed to get a mobile tyre fitter to come round on 29th December to swap all the tyres over.

Still not feeling secure though as the corrosion is obviously still there and could now at any point cause a tyre to deflate. So I am now paranoid about driving anywhere.

99,200 Miles - Winter Tyres

I was lucky last winter...we had no snow. I was not looking forward to driving the Bimmer in the snow, especially not after the minor disaster in the Volvo when it snowed.

So this year, I finally sourced a set of winter tyres for the car. Not brand new, but I found a set off the same car, so the right staggered sizes (8J front, 8.5J rear). They were Nankang SV-2 s. A bit of a budget tyre, but nevertheless, a winter tyre that should cope much better in the low temperatures and especially snow (if we get any) than my Dunlop SP Sport Maxx's.

Got them fitted but unfortunately, this opened a can of worms. On the day the tyres were fitted, when I returned to the garage to collect the car, the left rear tyre was flat in the car park. So the garage took the tyre back off and showed me how badly corroded the wheels are. I didn't think too much of it, thinking all wheels get corroded after a while. Just wire brush it and it'll be fine I thought. So they put plenty of goop on and the tyre sealed and held pressure.

After a couple of days I finally got on the motorway and it felt like the wheels were not balanced. So I took it back and asked them to recheck the wheel balance. When they checked the balance again, they were miles out, almost as if they had not done it at all the first time. Strange, but anyway, they got balanced and all seemed fine.