I discovered a nail lodged into my right rear tyre this afternoon!

At least it doesn't seem to be affecting tyre pressure... It's just a large silver blob, lol.. Gonna head off to Discount Tyre to get it fixed... I have only had the car for two weeks, lol...

 

I think sometimes that I have personally been responsible for the removal of each and every nail from each and every road in my tranquil little quadrant of Tarrant County....or at least my MINI has. On the up-side, I have developed a profound love and respect for the MINI flat tire monitor as I have never been stranded. Begs a question, though...who the he** are the buggars leaving these massively large spikes all over the place........much less using them in the first place??

 

LOL, maybe it's a Texas thing... Everything is bigger in Texas, after all

My flat tire monitor has not gone off, so I dunno if it's just lodged in there or it's a really short one or something... I plan to go get it fixed after work tomm or on Fri.

 

I picked up a big staple and got two punctures when my car was a few months old. Took it to NTB to get it fixed. Worked great for about a week, then it started leaking again. When the guy dismounted the tire, he put a tear in the bead's sealing surface. I pointed it out to him and all I said is "You know what this means?" He replied "Yes sir", and started writing down the brand and size of the tire to order a new one.

The moral of the story is that these tires are hard to mount and dismount, so damage to the bead is VERY likely. Stay with one of the big chain stores where they don't argue when something gets messed up, they just order the new tire and install it.

Rawhyde

 

Get a spray bottle of soapy water, and spray the object/'silvery blob'. If it bubbles, it's gone through. If it doesn't, you could try to remove the object with a set of needlenose pliers.

And if after you take the object out, you hear the unmistakeable sound of air hissing out of the tire, you always have the donut hiding under the car!


-Paul!

 

Well, got it fixed after work today, so feel much better now

I was impressed since the technician obviously knew where the little thing is to take off the little plastic hub cab on my wheel since it was given to me with my keys, lol... I guess they know to look in the boot!

Not sure what kind of nail it was, but at least it's fixed!

 

Hey, could they just patch it? Do you have run-flat's? I was told by a co-worker who also has a MINI w/ Run Flats that they cannot be patched...I wonder if they took him for a ride so to speak?

 

Most MINI service shops claim that, but if you can find an independent shop or NTB, Mr. Tire, etc. that deals with runflat tires, I have yet to hear of one that won't repair a runflat.

Why MINI insists that they can't be repaired is beyond me, since they so obviously can.


-Paul!

 

Trying to sell tire insurance?? They tried to sell me one for $500 (and told me about how you can't fix the tires), but I politely declined.

 

Good to know. Thanks!

 

Please remember that todays tires are all steel belted radials, not bias ply like the good old days. Tires should be plugged and patched.

But, I want to give you something to think about: Steel belted radials have a layer of steel in the tread. If a nail goes through the tread, it goes through the steel. Now if you drive through a puddle, where do you think the water goes? Water, steel and air then can start to rust. The rubber in tires doesn't really stick to the steel in the steel belts(a steel skin is bonded to the steel, so the rubber sticks to it), then when this rusting happens it can create a bubble and can lead to belt seperation and this could lead to a tire failure.

Please be careful when dealing with your tires. They are the only contact with the road. It won't help much if you have ABS, TC, active this or that if your tire fails. Check your air pressures when you fill your gas tank, you might catch a leak even before the tire pressure monitor does.

 

Runflat tires should not be repaired if they are driven with no or little air pressure. The small nail hole is not the problem, but the sidewall and the inner liner damage caused by running with no or little air pressure. The sidewall has additional support to it to run with no air, but should not be run on for more than 50 miles. The inner liner is a thin layer of rubber that actually holds the air(kinda like a molded in inner tube), if this inner liner rubs on itself it can be damaged.

Please have the tire inspected for these damages as wellas the nail hole before ramming a plug in and driving 70 mph and cornering hard.

 

All very good points! Thanks for the info. The one thing I am concerned with is we make frequent trips to Michigan from Chicago. I can already see it, 140 miles from home, 9PM on a Sunday night, and a tire goes flat...Do you think there will be an open tire store at 9 PM on a Sunday within 50 miles???? I wonder how MINI Roadside assistance will feel about towing the car 100+ miles back to the dealership?!?!?!?!

 

I'm sure the tire company has a safty factor in their 50 mile limit. If you use common sense and drive a slower speed with slower cornering, you should be able to get to a repair shop.

I am by no means an expert on tires, that's my wife she has been a tire tread compounder for the last ten years. Try to convince her that you need higher priced performance tires for a 115 hp Mini. Note: Have replaced the 175/65r15 Conti's with 205/55r15 Bridgestone Potenza RE750. Talk about cornering on rails!!!

 

Pulled a 1 inch nail out of my rear tire this week. To my surprise air didn't go wooshing out. It DID however produce a 5psi per day leak. Picked up some slime today from Walmart and put in about 4 oz into the tire.

http://www.slime.com/customercare/viewfaq.php?id=1&q=

It's the only coagulating tire repair system that isn't temporary so I thought I'd give it a try. I pumped it up to 36psi tonight and I'll check on it in the morning and give y'all an update.

 

Pyratio, what kind of tires do you have, runflats?

 

Oh, I don't have run-flats... sorry didn't clarify!

They fixed it for free too since I used to take my Honda to the same place which had tyres I had bought there, but I guess since I was a good customer, they did it for free!

 

--Hey there davavd, yep I've got Pirelli run flats - the Euophori@ model.

I'm also happy to report that the slime repaired the tires. I checked the tire pressure this morning and I lost zero psi! Yay!

The slime repair system worked for me and is guaranteed for 2 years from date of repair. However the guarantee will only refund the cost of the product if the patch fails. Only $10 sad to say. But it saved me from taking it to a "special" run flat repair place, $50 I'm told, and or purchasing a new tire ($100 to $175). I'm pretty sure the patch will outlast the tire as the treadwear is only rated at 180. Good for maybe 2 years and I've already taken 1 year and one superlap track days life out of it already.

For those of you worrying about adding too much weight to your tires after a repair, the calculations on the bottle add up to 7 ounces of slime repair (for a 17 inch tire) to be put in your tire to repair a hole up to 1/4 inch big. That's a pretty big hole. Since I only had a slow leak I only put in 4 oz. and it did the trick. I'll probably go tooling around town today when I'm finished with my homework and I'll check the tire pressure again when I get back home.

Happy Motoring everyone!