8 months after dumping my run flats I got my first nail. My wife and I had taken a weekend trip to the Kern River (Nice twusty roads) and when I came out of our motel I discovered a nale sticking out of my rear tire.

Luckily I had search NAM and had gotten ahold of a SLIME compressor and tire patch kit. All in all it took a 1/2 hour, to pull the nail, ruff up the hole and patch it.

My wife got to take a long bath and we were on the road.

My fear of not having a spare is now gone.

Motor on all.

 

don't you still need to get that repaired professionally?

 

Nope.

Not IMHO.

I've plugged about ten tires over 20 years and have NEVER had that followed up with a "professional" repair and never had a problem.

 

I haven't plugged as many as 10 tires (only 4 that I can remember), but I've certainly put a lot of miles on tires I plugged myself - with ZERO issues. One of the pluggings was on an OEM 15" Conti on my first MINI. I put about 25K miles on that particular tire before I sold the car.

I have heard that you should plug and patch from the inside... but I've only ever just plugged and haven't had a problem yet.

 

Great advice..

Definitely looking at dumping the R/F and needed to know what to have and I can fix it.

Thank you all

 

I plugged one of the runflats on my car and haven't had any problems with it since. Even though it was a runflat, I felt comfortable plugging it because I knew that the tire was never run all the way "flat" - the pressure had only dropped to about 30 psi before I plugged it. Plus, the screw in the tire was right smack in the middle of the tread, nowhere close to the sidewall.

I *was* surprised at the amount of force it took to get the rasp into the hole to clean out the puncture, but I guess it was a fairly small-diameter screw. After rasping out the hole, I used a little of the rubber cement that came with the plug kit to lube up the plug, so inserting the plug was actually much easier.

Scott

 

I saw this link somewhere on NAM and think it's totally cool.
http://www.dynaplug.com/domestic.html

 

Yes, that is WAY cool! Thanks for re-posting the link. I'll have to order me some - I think the glue for my current kit is either all gone or dried up by now!

 

The thrills of non-runflats.

 

Yep - I have a Dynaplug set now, but haven't needed to use it yet. So in my boot for flat-readiness I have pump, dynaplug, regular plug kit, slime and pliers... yeeeehaw.

 

get ready for a suprise when you dismount that tire and see the "slime" on the inside of your wheel. . .

 

The slime is there as a "last resort". I hope I never need it... because I do NOT want to gunk up my tire/rim. So far plugs have been all I've ever needed.

 

Thanks for the advice and I ordered a Dynaplug kit (with extra plugs) today. We just got back from a week-long trip in the GP and there were many backroads we were traveling where I wished I already had the Dynaplug kit in the car "just in case" (I already have a portable air compressor and tube of slime in the car, but the Dynaplug approach is much better, and my brother-in-law confirmed he uses it a lot for vehicles on their ranch). Our next big trip in the GP is to MOTD '07 and I want to be prepared!

 

I would - Those are a temp solution. You need a mosture tight seal, or you can help introduce oxsidation on the metal reinforcments within your tire. It may be just a matter of time.... Tirerack's Puncture Page

Alex

 

Hmmm.... While Alex knows a LOT more about tires than I ever will, I'm curious about this. I understand the rationale for wanting a water-tight seal. I'd like to better understand WHAT a "professional" tire repair facility would do to my tire that would yield a better waterproof seal than either an old-fashioned self-vulcanizing kit or the dynaplug? I have heard some folks talk about having a "patch" applied to the inner surface of the tire - but that's not going to protect your steel belts from water from the outside...

Would love to be better educated on this. Please tell me what I'm missing.

 

On the subject of plugged tires... I just had winter tires mounted on a set of wheels I got on e-bay at the best tire shop in Chicagoland (KO Tire in Elk Grove Village where Kevin and Lee run the best shop you will ever find). When Lee saw two of my OE high performance summer tires had plugs in them he said that it is illegal to plug High Performance tires (any longer than temporarily) and that it would void the warranty, not to mention possibly be unsafe. Both the plugs where intalled by my dealer. I believe he was only refering to High Performance tires only, not all season. Does anyone know anything further about this? Would I be justified to take the tires over to my dealer and insist they dismount and patch them from inside now?

 

Illegal? Not really, wrong - sure! It does void most manufacture's warranty, and a previosly high speed rated tire will lo longer be rated for speed. The possibility of failure is the "unsafe nature"

Correctly repairing a tire still voids its warranty and speed rating.
I use correctly repaired tires on the street myself, but never on high performance driving scenarios.

Alex

 

when you do have the problem, you wont ever post on NAM again.

they dont fizzle out, they rupture violently at high speed.

In NY it is illegal to use a plug without using a real patch inside. Tires flex a whole lot at high speeds. a big tear in the support just = sucks.

Proper repair methods that I have witnessed:

they carve the hole somewhat, they do plug the hole, then they put a steel and rubberized mesh patch about 2 inches wide or so on the inside that fuses with the rubber. The tire is then rebalanced to the wheel. So, a plug is used, but not only a plug.

everyone who works with cars as a profession knows that plugging a tire and then inflating it is jeopardizing the customer's life.

In a pinch, well, it is obvious that plug is a decent solution instead of calling for a tow or resorting to canabilism I guess.

 

I can say, with some degree of cofidence, that resorting to canabilism does void your tire warrenty.

Thanks Alex for the good tire care reminder . . . I hate to think I can't drive fast on a properly repaired tire but I know it is true.

I've got some "commuter tires" as a result of picking up some orphan holies with all-season tires from the MINI dealer. I meant to buy some winter tires but I'm too cheap to scrap the good all-season rubber and, after all, they are all season (and on snowy days I just borrow my wife's Saab with the M3s we bought from you). It turns out I'm pretty happy with the small touring tires . . . more economical, smoother riding and now, okay to catch a nail. I don't drive at high speed (over 70) day to day and I put the original runflats on for driving events where the influence of other MINI drivers might lead to speed. Hmmm . . . I'm beginning to see the justification I can use with the spouse for buying really expensive summer tires . . . Just to be driven by an old man on weekends!