theres a nail in my tire... what to do?

[ArmenK]

hey all, theres a nail in one of my tires. At first, I noticed the air was low so i filled it up, but later in the day it had lost some of the air so i checked the tire and discovered a nail in it. Can i patch the tire or have it patched?

 

[cmdavid]

you can try.. its only gonna last for so long though... eventually you're gonna have to replace it..

 

[Viper GTS]

Take it back to the place you bought it. They'll either repair or replace it, & depending on the company may not even charge you for it.

My mom's car had a staple in a tire last week. We put on the spare & took the tire/rim to Les Schwab where we bought the tires. They couldn't repair it so they put on another one - all free of charge. Les Schwab is cool.

Another Les Schwab story...

My dad & I were out and about, he had brand new tires on his car. We're sitting at a stoplight waiting to make a left hand turn, & we see this car across the intersection. I pointed it out & we were trying to figure out what it was (hey, I was young & didn't know as much as I know now). It looked a little like a Miata, but looked much too sporty to be a Miata. Our light turned green, so we were both staring at it as we turned left (It was a third generation RX-7 in case you haven't guessed by now). He was so busy paying attention to the RX-7 that he ran his right front tire into the curb. Oops. Completely destroyed the tire. We took it back to Les Schwab, explained what happened, & fully expected to pay for a new tire. They refused to let him pay for the tire. "Nope, it's road damage - it's covered."

Viper GTS

 

[Brutuskend]

<< eventually you're gonna have to replace it.. >>



Yes, when it wears out!

A nail is no big deal. You can take it some place and have it patched. Or you can get a kit that allows you to fix it yourself.

Basically it's a screwdriver looking thing with a slot cut in it, you take the nail out, put this rubber worm looking thing in the slot, put vulcanizing GOOP on it, stick it in the hole, insert it, twist the screwdriver looking thing (to get the worm looking thing out of the slot) and remove the tool.

Having it patched at a tire store is much better though!!

Either way you should be able to drive on that tire until the tread is gone!

EDIT: Unless the hole is in the side wall. Then your screwed...usually

 

[StageLeft]

Vip[er just sold me on les shwab

 

[ArmenK]

cool, i called sears and theyll do it for $15, sounds good to me

 

[Moohooya]

Leave it alone and drive to a garage to get it repaired. If you pull it out, you'll lose all your air and you won't be dring anywhere.

Normally they can repair a nailhole fairly easily.

Moohoo

 

[Murpheeee]

If you are getting it repaired, make sure they patch it and do not plug it.

I learned the hard way......when you plug a radial tire, you drive a plug through all the steel belts....these belts move very slightly over time as the tire wears....the plug through them is an obstacle to them moving uniformly.

To cut a long story short, after a few more thousand miles my tire started vibrating at 55-60mph, I thought it was alignment or balancing problem.....it was the tire - So I found myself having to replace the tire anyway.

 

[luckydragon]

if you have a costco card they do it for free too, i think its part of the services you recieve as a member

 

[TuffGuy]

had the same thing happen last week. got it fixed at firestone for $13.01. the guy said that the patch will last for the life of the tire.

 

[Brutuskend]

Most places that sell tires offer flat repair's for the life of the tire. (If you buy it there)
What is the life of a tire?
There are wear bars across the face of the tire (they run diagonal across the tread) if the wear bars are showing, the "Life" of the tire is up.
Just beware they don't try and sell you new tires if you don't need them!!!!!!


Tire salesman "You hear that noise?...That means you need four new tires!!!"

Homer "DOHH"

 

[halik]

you can get a spray that wil patch it for you. Its got some rubber thing in it, and when you put it in the tire, it will block the hole

 

[TuffGuy]

<< you can get a spray that wil patch it for you. Its got some rubber thing in it, and when you put it in the tire, it will block the hole >>


yeah, but NOBODY will touch that tire again afterwards.

 

[morkinva]

I learned the hard way......when you plug a radial tire, you drive a plug through all the steel belts....these belts move very slightly over time as the tire wears....the plug through them is an obstacle to them moving uniformly....To cut a long story short, after a few more thousand miles my tire started vibrating at 55-60mph, I thought it was alignment or balancing problem.....it was the tire - So I found myself having to replace the tire anyway.

I don't know what kinda cheap tires you have, I've got a car with beefy 225's which are always picking up nails. I have several plugs in them for years now, no vibrations


_______


yeah, but NOBODY will touch that tire again afterwards


What ? All you have to do is tell them that you used fix-a-flat or whatever in your tire and they take some precaution when taking the tire off the rim cuz I think it's flammable; otherwise, they will 'touch the tire afterwards', as witnessed by a plug repair I had several weeks ago.

 

[Thegonagle]

Don't ever pay someone else to plug your tire. If you just paid $15-20 and they didn't patch it, you got scammed.

The plugging kit is just as Brutuskend described it. It costs all of $8 and takes about a minute to use. I'm only using plugs as a stop-gap measure until I get new tires. Worn out tires pick up nails and screws very easily because the the tread is so thin.