So I've decided that my car is the most unlucky car on the planet. I've had it four months now, and it's one dumb thing after another. Anyway, I was driving along when the low tire light came on, so I stopped to check it out. There was a big flip'n screw in the back passenger side tire. I carefully removed the screw, and tried to air it up. No luck there. I called around, but most people wouldn't even look at it. They claimed that a run flat can't be repaired. I finally found one guy who said he would take a look at it. It was too late to make it there before he closed, so my MINI is setting at a friend's house by itself out in the rain. Should I let this guy look at the tire? Is it true that they can't be repaired? If this is true, then I'm not impressed with this tire. I have the car four months, get a screw in a tire (what are screws doing on the highway anyway?! ), and now I have to pay $400-$500 to replace it? What's the point?

 

NO, its not true. Go read the mini2.com FAQ on tires. As long as its in thread, it can be plugged.

$400 for a tire? Why would you pay so much, if you need a new tire, just order it from tirerack.com. Excellent service and half the price you quoted.

I can emphatize about flats. Crap happens. Take a deep breath, see where the screw is, if its in the thread, take it off the car and to a tire place to be repaired that handles runflats. TIrerack can direct you to a local installer that handles RFs.

BTW, if its a RF, you can drive to a local repair shop ... that is the point of a RF. Just drive slowly and no more than 50 miles

Best of Luck

 

It usually works better if you don't pull the object out of the tire before trying to add air. By pulling the object out, you now have nothing plugging the hole that was created and the air just leaks right out. With the object still in the tire you will likely have a much slower loss of air.

 

Why would anyone stick with runflats anyway?

 

My pesonal opinion is don't replace the runflat with another runflat. Get four new non-runflats.

The same bad luck hapened to me. I had an unrepairable flat runflat after about four months. I replaced it and then just a couple months later I got another flat. Then I wised up (as I should have after the first flat) and I rid myself of the runflats and bought four new non-runflats for less than the cost of two runflats.

Now I won't have the problem of everyone not wanting to fix a runflat and if I have an unrepairable flat I can get a new one for less than half the cost of a runflat.

I also now carry one of those inflator/flat fix things in the boot.

 

I had a big fat screw in my runflats as well. The dealer wouldn't plug it, but a tire shop would. It's been over a month and it's holding up well. Apparently, a fellow car club member told me, if the hole is on the sidewall, it can't be repaired, but if it's in the tread, then plug away.

 

I travel solo across the country every year for 6-8 weeks and like the runflats. I know I can find a tire place if I need a new tire, especially because I have the 16-inch Dunlops. There are some of us that like them!

 

Thank you for all your comments. I'll take it to this guy tomorrow and see what he says. I didn't know if I could trust him or not, since no one else seemed to want to mess with it. I was going to drive the car back home when I realized that I wouldn't make it to the tire shop, but it was raining and the back end of the car kept fish tailing. ...not sure why a flat would cause that, but I decided to pull it in to a friends place that was close by and leave it there rather than drive home in the rain like that. (I was a good 15-20 from home)

 

Just because you (and others) do not like RFs does not mean the masses do not. I would MUCH rather have my wife driving on RFs than carrying a bottle of goop.

 

He was able to fix it. The amazing thing is that he had a cigar in his mouth the entire time. He never took it out...not even to talk. That takes talent my friends. I just hope the tire holds.