[Jmm_22]

i got a piece of metal in my rear driver tire today and it's not patchable because it's on the shoulder. I called 10 suppliers and went to BMW and they cannot find a replacement 265/35/19 98Y Continental.

The closest I could find was the same tire, except 94Y instead of 98Y. I belive 94 is a slightly lower load index, its a Porsche N1. I'd assume the tire would work because it's the same dimensions, tread, etc. just a lower load. Am I correct? I don't push the car or track it. It's a daily driver and driven on the highway for about 10 miles a day.

I know the Contis aren't well liked; however, they only have 4000 miles on them and almost no wear. I don't want spend $1600 on 4 new tires at this point.

[GTIGUY1992]

A 94 load index means it can carry 1477 lbs per tire. The M2 comes with 93Y on the fronts and 98Ys only on the rears so in total your load index will still be well over the GVWR of the car which is 4430 lbs. so in my own opinion you should be fine. That said, I am sure downgrading the load index means you will have a marginally more "squishy" or compliant ride.

I am not sure what the Porsche N1 rating is, that sounds like model designations proprietary to the OEM and not correlative to any tire load rating/spec.

Edit: One thing I didn't think about is legal implication, if you have state inspections it might not pass but I have no idea how strict those are- I live in an inspectionless state. Also for insurance purposes it might get dicey if your provider ever finds out. But both of these are pretty "out there" scenarios.

[chris719]

Originally Posted by Jmm_22

i got a piece of metal in my rear driver tire today and it's not patchable because it's on the shoulder. I called 10 suppliers and went to BMW and they cannot find a replacement 265/35/19 98Y Continental.

The closest I could find was the same tire, except 94Y instead of 98Y. I belive 94 is a slightly lower load index, its a Porsche N1. I'd assume the tire would work because it's the same dimensions, tread, etc. just a lower load. Am I correct? I don't push the car or track it. It's a daily driver and driven on the highway for about 10 miles a day.

I know the Contis aren't well liked; however, they only have 4000 miles on them and almost no wear. I don't want spend $1600 on 4 new tires at this point.

I'd probably replace the entire axle but I am pretty conservative. The N1 tire is going to potentially have a different compound or tread pattern; no one really knows what customizations the OEMs request.

[AndrewC1989]

Originally Posted by Jmm_22

I know the Contis aren't well liked; however, they only have 4000 miles on them and almost no wear. I don't want spend $1600 on 4 new tires at this point.

It isn't generally recommended to just swap one tire so you'd realistically be looking at replacing 2. Maybe I drive aggressively but my Contis hit the wear bars at 7500 miles so you might want to consider biting the bullet now by just replacing all 4 with something better. I got my MPS4S for ~$1200. Less after the mail in rebate.