mixing runflat and non-runflat?

[mariamartinez]

hi can you mix runflat and non runflat tyres from the same manufacturer? ie with no ill effects?

[SRGTD]

From National Tyres website;

Mixing Conventional Tyres with Run Flat Tyres
As a general rule of thumb, you should avoid mixing different tyre types on a vehicle. This is also true of combining conventional and run flat tyres on a car – as their handling characteristics may differ, they should not be mixed on a vehicle.

Assuming your question relates to the mk7 Golf, it wasn't designed to use run flats; intrigued to know why you'd want to.

[itavaltalainen]

You can use run flats on the mk7 as it has TPMS.
Why you'd want to is the better question, they are usually less comfortable and apart from being run flat offer no other advantages, not to mention that they are usually more expensive compared to their non-rf counterparts.
I would not mix them with normal ones, almost as bad as mixing summer and winter tyres (which I have seen on some ATS Euromaster vans.....).

[Daz Auto]

I believe it is not illegal to fit different tyres. However, it is not recommended as it may cause an imbalance in certain circumstances. Though that would probably be during extreme handling i.e. emergency braking and cornering.

I would not mix them with normal ones, almost as bad as mixing summer and winter tyres (which I have seen on some ATS Euromaster vans.....).

... my insurance company told me that the car would not be covered in the event of an accident, if I mixed summer and winter tyres. My research already told me that it could make the car unstable.

I know it is not recommended to mix tyres. Especially on the same axle. This causes a dilemma when 1 tyre is damaged beyond repair. For example: when our A3 was a few months old I found a screw near the edge of the tread on a rear tyre. It was not possible for the local tyre depot to get the OEM tyre. So we replaced the Goodyear with a Dunlop. The tyres are both the same tread depth, only used in summer and on the rear of a 1.6L diesel.

[Finglonga]

No you can't mix them even on different axles as the side-wall flexes different and will make the car unstable.

They are terrible things anyway and make the ride harsh and choppy. My 335i e92 had runflats and I took them off to put proper tyres on and just done the same to the wife's 1 Series.

[eatontrifles]

I ran a 3 series estate (which came with runflats as standard) prior to the Golf and had a period of around 1 month with runflats on the front and normal tyres on the back, due to not having funds to change all of the tyres at once. The drive instantly became borderline dangerous, with the back end feeling floaty at anything over 40mph. As soon as I could I swapped the fronts to non runflats and all was good again.

[Gnasher]

You can use run flats on the mk7 as it has TPMS.
Why you'd want to is the better question, they are usually less comfortable and apart from being run flat offer no other advantages, not to mention that they are usually more expensive compared to their non-rf counterparts.
I would not mix them with normal ones, almost as bad as mixing summer and winter tyres (which I have seen on some ATS Euromaster vans.....).

I'll be honest, I'm not 100% but I think you're wrong.

If the TPMS on the golf had the sensors in the wheels to actually check the pressure then you could use runflat tyres safely.
However the TPMS is the type that only uses the ABS sensors to check for wheel rotation speeds. A runflat tyre will not have (by it's design) the difference in radius (due to the much stiffer sidewalls) meaning it would not have the difference in rotational speed that the car would need to sense a flat.

The whole idea of runflats is that they do not deform due to a puncture, rendering the golf's TPMS useless and allowing you to drive on a flat tyre with no indication of it.

[itavaltalainen]

Run flats do deform - just not as much as normal tyres, the contact surface still reduces in diameter which is enough to get picked up.
BMW used indirect TPMS until 2009 on most cars (if they don't still on some) and supplied run flats.

[eatontrifles]

Run flats do deform - just not as much as normal tyres, the contact surface still reduces in diameter which is enough to get picked up.
BMW used indirect TPMS until 2009 on most cars (if they don't still on some) and supplied run flats.

Yep, this is the system my 3 series mentioned above had.

[Gnasher]

I stand corrected - I thought the system might not be sensitive enough to the lower amount of deformation on runflats.

Happy to be wrong - I bet you hate it when someone thinks they're right, but you know you are lol.