Modern tires are better than they used to be. No question. Flats are rare. But every time I seem to have an ordinary flat, they tell me "You need a new tire. It can't be fixed."

Are they just bullshitting me? I had a flat about a year ago. Local guy removed the culprit and plugged it. It was near the edge but on the tread. It held fine until I started having a slow leak a couple weeks ago. Losing a couple PSI/day.

I went to a tire place (Mavis) and, of course, they said they can't plug it or patch it. Just smells like bullshit to me. They used to plug and patch tires all the time. What happened?

 

Well, your example is a good one. Patches near the sidewall are unreliable because they're more likely to fail, as yours has. I haven't had much issue with patching a small hole near the centre of the tire. Nothing seems to have changed lately.

 

Liability. Anything close to the shoulder of a tire will generally be regarded as unrepairable.

 

Nothing happened. People sell refurbished tires all the time. But you're not going to get a refurbished or a patched tire from a nice tire shop, where their job is to sell new tires. The people who buy patched tires or refurbished tires are either people in certain industries, like trucking companies, or people who are really poor who can't afford new tires. The companies can get them from reputable sources, the poor people have to get them from back-alley black market garages.

 

I think all replies so far are correct, depending on puncture and/or who you are dealing with. But, as you know, tires are compromised to some degree with any puncture; and as you also know, tire failure can kill you. Those much improved modern tires are very expensive, but I'd much rather err on the side of buying a tire I don't absolutely need vs. not buying a tire I absolutely do need. It's annoying to throw away a tire based on a dealer's judgement call, but better safe than...

 

Tires can be repaired.....in some cases. One needs to understand what is inside the tire to know which areas can be plugged and which areas should not be. There are many really good videos on YouTube showing how tires are made.
The normal rule of thumb is that the tread area can be repaired if it is just punctured, like by a nail or screw. A patch/plug is pushed into the hole with glue to keep it in place. A better method is with an "umbrella plug" that looks, well, like an umbrella. There is a wealth of information out there that explains and shows what I am talking about. Search engines are your friend.......sometimes.

 

Two things I don't mess around with or go cheap on is the battery and tires. I always replace both long before I need to because it's just not worth the headache or inconvenience of being dead in the water (or on the road) because of either.

Tires are THE most important safety feature on the car. Literally, where the rubber meets the road. If they're not the best they can be, it doesn't matter how good your brakes are or how good the drive trane is.

It just amazes me that there's no technology that can safely and effectively repair a simple hole in a tire. Burns my ass having to replace one tire only about halfway through the life of the set.

Here's the original offender. Only about 1/16" in diameter but if you look closely, it's tubular. Tire lost all it's air in about 2 minutes.

 

I ended up buying tires exclusively at https://www.discounttiredirect.com/ and then purchasing the warranty on the tire.
Depending on the type of tire, I've seen the warranty go for as low as $14 per tire and as high as $23 for a high performance summer tire.

All this to say; using the warranty to replace a tire at $14** makes tire rotation/buying new sets much easier on the stomach.
Hey, I even had the sales rep on the phone ask me if my other three tires were good.. wink wink.

**$14 per tire is for a 16inch tire per my own personal experience.
Also, In my experience, the replacement tire is pretty quick to arrive at your destination of choice. either at your residence or at a discount tire. I Like to ship the tires to my house and then go to a "hood Shop" to swap tires, balance and rotate. My gf likes to have them delivered to a discount tire where they do everything at once

 

The reason repairs near the edge of the tread are strongly frowned upon is there is much more movement in the tire at the edge, It flexes more on each revolution of the tire than the sidewall (where repairs are not possible) or the tread section. So, as NooYawkuh found, repairs in this area are not likely to stay "repaired'.

 

Perhaps a stray piece of a Stop Stick that had been deployed?

 

I'm sure the tire shop will advise you appropriately, but if there is significant difference in tread of the tires it can affect AWD performance and put unnecessary stress on the system.
https://www.dunntire.com/blog/Tire-R...d-AWD-Vehicles
Depending on where in the tire life you are, they might recommend replacing all 4, if a safe repair is not possible.

I had a flat when my RDX was maybe 3 months old with about 2000 miles on it, IIRC. The flat was not repairable (too close to the sidewall, and got the same assessment from an independent tire shop where I had pulled over at the time of the flat, the AAA guy contracted by Acura Roadside that came to repair it and ended up putting on the spare, and the dealer). The dealer told me I was fortunate the other tires were new or I'd have needed to replace all 4.

 

I've seen tubular caltrops but it's not that. Extremely hard metal. Hard to imagine how the tire even picked it up.

About 18K on the original set of Continentals. They ordered the tire and replacing it this week. I don't expect a problem but if I have to, I'll swap them out sooner than I otherwise would have. I'll see how they do in heavy rain. That's what I usually go by when I think it's about time.

 

The car will mask issues before you can notice them but it will be experiencing excessive wear on the components.

 

I understand it is possible to have some tire shops shave the tread on the new tire to match the other three, avoiding having to by the extra three new tires. May be an option for some.

 

tirerack will do it..think it cost me $25 back in 2012

 

Certainly cheaper than buying 3 new tires before they are needed. Of course some may use this opportunity to upgrade the whole set of tires, and tell the spouse that they are needed.

 

This happened to my 2016 at about 24,000 miles. Puncture was too close to the sidewall to patch. Discount Tire even had a display in their showroom showing what areas of the tire could be patched (center) and what couldn't. Although the OEM tires were still available they were costly and I decided if I was going to do that I would do a pair. I had them work me up a price for 4 new Pirelli's. They were having a sale on the model I wanted + a mail in-rebate + they gave me a credit for the 3 OEM tires that still had about 50% life so it ended up being not all that much more than just replacing 2 of the OEM tires. Not the cheapest way to go but I didn't want to go down the mismatched tire road. Never have regretted it.

Tire Repair Guidlines

 

Step son had a flat caused by a puncture in the tread. Couldn't be repaired. Normally we see a nail or screw go in and these are safely repaired with a plug or patch. Lucky him....and I wonder how in the heck it happened...but he managed to have a 6"- 3/8" drive extension from a socket set go through that tire tread! Talk about some bad luck! It had to be flipped up on its end and hit the treat straight in to manage to do that, a one in a million shot for sure. While a normal nail sized object will just push the steel strands aside and slide in, making a normal plug all that is needed this large object must have really disrupted the cord structure and the rubber around it. New tire, period, the only way to safety repair damage that major.

In my life I have successfully repaired hundreds of tires with plugs and internal patches. But, only tires that had nice clean...small...punctures through the steel belts in the tread area. Side ways are much softer to make them flexible and you can cut or bread the plies making a weak spot on the tire.

 

To add just a small bit to ham471s' post, If a tire is patched on the inside, water can, and will get into the still-open-wound from the outside and the steel belts can rust, which is not good, so I don't that tires can be patched on the inside anymore., So if a plug won't work, then it is new tire time.\

How in the world can a socket extension that size even puncture the tread? WOW!

 

Patching the inner liner is part of a proper repair.

 

Hold up JB! What happens in the Forum, stays in the Forum.

 

https://www.bestusedtires.com/

Another option is to just buy one used tire to replace to match the age of the other 3 until it's time to replace the whole set.


I've used the above site with great results

 

Perhaps I didn't make it clear...I knew what I meant when I typed it! LOL

I DID say if a plug won't work, then it can't be patched on the inside ...Just in a different order. Whatever.

Thanks for helping me to clarify this!

 

The inside patches we used were a bit more than a stick on. They look like a mushroom or a letter "T" where the top of the "T" is inside and the "leg" stuck out through the hole in the tire. Some of these could be inserted from the outside with a special tool. The "T" was coated in glue, inserted in the tool and then pushed through the hole in the tire. Next the tool was pulled back out. The top of the "T" popped out inside the tire and held it in place. The leg of the T was cut off even with the tread level of the tire. This type of "patch" just gives a bit more security than a simple cord type plug. This type comes in various styles.

 

I plug like crazy.
They don't want to do it because of liability but really, it's because they can only charge .3 hours for the job which requires jacking up a car, removing a wheel, breaking bead, patching properly then reseating and rebalancing. A lot of labor for not a lot of money.

 

Years ago I got a call from my wife saying she had a flat, and there's "a giant bolt" in her tire. OK, off I go, happy she's OK and finding humor in her description... assuming something closer to a nail in the tire. I arrive to find a GIANT BOLT in her tire. This thing was likely a 3/4"x 3" bolt. I was able to unscrew it from the tire. The right combination of location/angle/speed will obviously allow big stuff to puncture a tire. I'd imagine tire techs have some funny stories.

 

My father in law once had a blowout followed by hellacious rattling. Edge of the tire had about a 4" gash which of course could not be fixed. Inside the tire was a railroad spike. Just have to wonder how some of these things happen.

 

I worked in a gas station while I was in high school and then starting college. That was back when they actually worked on cars! I have repaired tires with rail road spikes in them....hard to believe but true. I have seen a lot of evil stuff go through tires!

 

 

Seriously, railroad spikes? I worked at a service center back in the mid 70's while putting myself through college. That type of severe damage would never be considered repairable.....ever.

 

I should have made myself more clear......We fixed the car with the spike....not the tire! We had to replace the tires due to a lot of major damage to the tire. We never repaired tires that had more than a nail or screw through the tread area. BUT, we did see some strange objects run through tires..

 

None of the tire places want to be liable, its easier to say “no”. However, I found that smaller businesses (family owned) might be able to repair some tires that big chain stores will turn you down. If its a boundary case between repair vs new tire, always good to get couple of opinions from different tire places.

 

Honestly, if a tire puncture is on the border between being repairable or having to buy a replacement tire, ALWAYS go with the replacement. Blowouts don't always occur because of a questionable tire repair, or cause physical harm to the driver or other people, but it does happen. Better safe than sorry, as the saying goes.

If a person cannot afford to buy a new tire (or 2 if necessary) there are usually some good used tires that will work in the mean time. You can see the inside of a used tires before purchasing them, and any patches will be enough to take that tire out of the running.

 

I've never entertained the thought of buying a used tire. I'm not even sure where you buy used tires or how likely they'd be able to match the other tires on the car. Besides, I'm not poor I'm just cheap.

To me, used tires are the stuff of mosquito breeding grounds and out-of-control junkyard fires.

 

Sometimes there are good used tires because the "other guy" had to buy four new tires and they took off one that was decent.
I have given away good used tires locally.I don't try to sell them. I change tires before they are all worn out and rather than pay several dollars a piece for "tire disposal fee" I keep them. I put them on the "freecycle" site here in town and some needy person gets them for their car. I have helped out some people who were struggling to get back on their feet with some tires that would get them to work for six months or a year. They didn't have the hundreds of dollars to buy new tires. I always make sure they are going to the needy and not some jerk who will try to sell them to make a buck. There was a case a few years back here in town where a customer went after a local tire store. They charged him a hefty tire disposal fee but a few days later he saw his tires on the "used rack" at the store for a fat price. (they were some high dollar high performance tires). He nailed them on that and they got some bad press over it in the local news. Karma......

 

I think I may have bought a used tire or two in my hundreds of thousands of miles I have driven.

One example might be: a used tire or two might be a possibility as a temporary fix while the proper tire(s) is delivered.

Used tires are not like a used soda can...most often they result from someone who had one that was damaged beyond repair, and decided to get four new ones. The remaining three are likely very serviceable.

 

I find it hard to believe that the variable torque vectoring of the vehicle isn't forgiving enough to deal with a few 1/32" difference in one wheel or another. All 4 wheels always rotate at different rates anyway. The only exception is the extremely rare instances and short periods when the vehicle is traveling dead straight.