I have a flat in one of my tires and to make matters worse, it is a loaner car. I'm pretty sure I'm liable for any damage which means the dealer is going to charge me full price for a new tire. Is it possible to repair a runflat? I called a local STS but they said no.

Thanks

 

negative. Unfortunately you can't repair a runflat, at least to my knowledge.

 

You CAN repair it, but it depends on where the problem is. Sidewall, no. Basic puncture on the tread, sure.

Also, tire might be under warranty. My local shop would have given me a Eufori under warranty but it was sidewall damage which is not covered by Pirelli...

 

It depends on the damage. If it's center of tread, probably is repairable. If it's sidewall or has scraped the interior of the sidewall, no fixy. Basically they are like other tires. The wife (AKA TireKiller) can cause nails and screws to cross state lines to hunt her down and tag her. I have to take a runflat to Discount about once a month for repair. About half the time they can't fix it, mostly due to sidewall bulges. But these are 17"ers with a short sidewall and most of the bulges are due to pothole impacts.

 

The dealership told me that they can't plug them for safety purposes.

 

Take it too a tyre shop... not the dealership. They can't plug it for sales reasons

 

How much do you want to bet ... if the loaner picked up a nail in the tread while
in the dealer's possesion, that they would plug it?

 

Any tire made can be patched / plugged (race tires are the exception) as long as it is within the safety margins. The margins are defined by how close to the sidewall the puncture is. I have been plugging / patching tires for many years with no issues. Inside patches are the best for many reason, plugs work just as great if done right.

If you had the tire/rim deal from the dealer, they would take your tire and patch it and say nothing. They will not give you a new RF tire because you have a nail in the center threads. If they did, no way in hell they would make money on a $500.00 package for 5 years !!

 

As I said in my OP, called 3 local tire shops, all refused to do it when I told them it was a runflat tire.

 

Most reputable/knowledgeable shops will NOT repair/plug runflats because they have no idea how long the tire has been run flat. The longer the tire has been driven on flat the more likely that the tire has been damaged enough to warrant it being replaced. The tire shops don't want to take the liability of a failure occurs after they "fix"it.

That is why most folks have their own repair/plug kit so they can do it themselves.

 

So do you guys think they'll make me pay for a new tire? On the thing I signed when I took the loaner it says I am responsible for all damages.

 

Ewwww, this is where it get's sticky. I am sure that tire is ~$435 installed by dealer. Now that they know about it I bet they want to do it.

Given the situation, I think you are stuck paying for it (or your insurance if you went that route). Jack up their car in their parking lot, take the wheel to a local tire shop and have them replace it with the same tire for less than dealer charge?

Run-flat tires are just a waste in my opinion. Convenience with a big cost.

 

I've plugged run-flats several times with no problems, but in my case, I *know* the tire was never actually run "flat" for any amount of time. I would always either see the screw/nail in the tire, or the TPMS would worn me when the pressure drops by 3-4 PSI.

With a dealer or a tire shop, they can't be certain that you didn't lose *all* pressure and then continue to drive on the tire for a few hundred miles, so they would be legitimately concerned about the possiblity of hidden damage if they plug the tire.

But, you can treat run-flats just like regular tires when it comes to plugging/patching them, as long as you catch it before the pressure drops to the point where the run-flat properties of the tire are actually used.

 

I had a great relationship with a tire shop that I was a frequent customer. When I had my second run-flat flat. They simply repaired it, and did not charge me so they would not incur a paper trail and liability.

The first time I had a run-flat flat (different shop) it did not go as nicely....

Run-flats are certainly repairable like any other tire, but most places will not.

 

FYI, went to a local shop by my office and they were able to fix it. They said that the tires weren't runflats. I challenged them on that because I know for a fact that they are. Apparently the Continental ContiPro Contact SSR is not your traditional runflat. the guy said on a traditional runflat all the crap inside would have sealed the hole made by the screw and I wouldn't have lost much pressure. He also said runflat tires have the letters RFT on the sidewall, mine have RSC.

 

Ummm..glad you got it fixed but what 'crap inside'? There was nothing inside my Eurof's besides air....

Think your shop may have a gas leak....

Next time, if the nail is in the center and you didn't run the tire sans air....go to Harbor Freight and buy a DynaPlug kit. Go home, pull the nail out and ram the DynaPlug plug in...trim the excess plug off, go top off with air and you be golden!

Many tire shops are learning it takes extra skill with the mounting equipment to handle runflats and since they tend to have a teen running that equipment who screws up the tire or the wheels, the cheap out is to say either "RF can't be repaired" - not true - or the more honest "this store won't".

I keep a Dynaplug in each car....last three nails haven't seen me anywhere near a tire store. Typically if you see the nail in the tire you haven't lost a bit of air yet...if you pull and plug fast you can loose less than a pound of pressure. Your sensor won't even go off.

 

Yeah they weren't too familiar with runflats from the sounds of it. He kept telling me that if it were a runflat, it'd say RFT on the sidewall. I don't think there's a standard on what letters need to appear on the sidewall for Runflats. Different manufacturer's use different letters, like Bridgestone uses RFT I think and Continental uses RSC (Runflat System Component) with an SSR after the tire name indicating (Self Support Runflat).

Bottom line, is this kind of patch that the tireshop did safe? The guy at the shop told me it was.

 

Awesome. How tire shops deal with a flat run flat is so random.

 

It sounds like the tire shop guy was confusing run-flat tires with self-sealing tires (which do have sealing "goop" built into the tire).

 

My guess is they did a plug, not a patch. And yes it is safe. I have put plugs in tires and run them 30k.