dam nails

[tnoy66]

6.30 yesterday morning I set off for work and car tries to head for curb, I correct it and it does it again. So I stop and find my front left tyre's completely flat. Back home and swap the wheel.

Today I go to get it fixed. Show guy where it is and he says nope that needs a new tyre. Hole is too close to edge I was hoping it would be ok as it's not right on the edge.

So he tells me price of a new one and I tell him to order one. He rings me tonight just before 6 to say he can't get one

I'd put some snow tyres on my car for winter as its RWD. Pirelli have none in stock now and the ones they have coming are somewhere on a boat between here and China, with no idea when they will arrive.

So at the moment I'm driving very steadily on 3 snow tyres and one summer tyre. I know its not good and it definately doesn't feel great but for now I have no option. I'm thinking that a summer tyre is better than the space saver wheel, anybody any opinions on which would be best until I can get sorted?

I've told him to at least try to mend the puncture and keep me on 4 snow tyres until Pirelli get new stock.

All because of a dammed nail

[andriver]

Any other tyre shops have them?

[tnoy66]

UK tyre shops don't stock snow tyres, they order them as and when asked for. There are very few people over here that swap between summer and winter. They just slip and slide and hope they don't crash.

We are getting less and less snow each year, but when it comes I want to be able to drive safely. Most importantly, I don't want to get stuck at work when it does snow, I need to be able to escape

[TortoiseAWD]

If the nail isn't really that close to the shoulder, you might try another shop for a repair; perhaps they'll do it where the first wouldn't. If nothing else, a less-than-perfect repair would put you back on four snows until you can find a replacement. I definitely wouldn't drive it in the snow/ice/slush until you can get the tire replaced; three corners with traction and one without sounds like a recipe for a spin when you least expect it, IMO. A judgement call, to be sure, but I'd rather be driving on a full set of snows with one temporary repair than driving on a mismatched set in the event of foul weather.

This is probably a long shot, but have you checked with the big online vendors (Tire Rack and the like) to see if they can ship to the UK?

Best of luck resolving the issue,
Tort

[tnoy66]

I've asked them to try to repair it, but I'm not sure of the angle it went in. We have quite strict rules about puncture repair here where every shop has to use the same method for legal reasons. They use a 'T shaped' rubber thing which has to go from the inside and is pulled through to the outside. The flat of the 'T' is supposed to fit flat on the inside of the tyre without bending at all. All I can hope is that it went in at a slight angle towards the centre of the tread giving more area to seat properly. I'm certainly not happy driving 3 + 1 and I'm hoping the snow does stay away until i'm sorted.

Thanks Tort for reminding me of TireRack, they do ship to UK but its the cost again. If it can't be mended I'll contact Gary at Tirerack and beg and plead for quick cheap shipping

[K_Csaxo]

i understand the pain of having nails in your tyres. i ended up buying 3 new ones for my service last summer, the two at the front were due to my camber angle and the third had 3 nails in it!

[tnoy66]

K_C you think thats bad, at least you're still driving on them. I had to fit 3 tyres to my last car just before I sold it Nothing worse than spending money on a car you're selling.........except the dam prob I got now

[Dude]

Where do those nails come from? You would not think that nails would be lying around on the road, but they are.

I once had a nail puncture my tire. I changed it and put on the temporary spare (the car did not have a full-size spare).

Five minutes later, the temporary spare went flat. Was it under-inflated? No. A nail punctured it as well!

Nails are such a pain!!

[ZGripT]

Remember when you were kids, your bicycle had air tubes inside the tires? Well they still make them for car tires as well. In the past, I have used them when I had side or edge punctures in my radials and got many more miles of use from them before having to replace them. They glue a patch INSIDE the tire and then install the inner tube. The pressure of the tube keeps the patch against tire. As long as the treads are not splitting this is a good alternative. BTW, where do you think all those big black swimming tubes you take to the beach come from? Truck tire inner tubes!

[titus]

-
Had a tube placed inside a tire, coupla years back. Puncture was in the sidewall (how the nail jumped up there is a good question).
If your rules allow it, should make for better traction. eh?

[4DSC]

Originally posted by tnoy66
UK tyre shops don't stock snow tyres, they order them as and when asked for. There are very few people over here that swap between summer and winter. They just slip and slide and hope they don't crash.

No way! Really? LOL And here I had read that Europe, in general, tended to swap tires more than in North America.

Personally if it were this much trouble, I would just try and plug the tire myself. I'm sure you can probably find a do it yourself kit somewhere. What it usually includes is a package of plugs, some rubber cement, a drill-like tool to clean out the hole, and a hook to insert the plug strips. Some other kits I've seen use tapered rod-like plugs which I assume you just push in.

My father has plugged a couple tires with punctures quite close to the sidewall this way and they turned out fine. At worst it's just going to leak again and go flat. At best you have a semi-permanet fix that doesn't even require you to dismount the tire (we've never patched the tire on the inside). Just don't drive on any Autobahns or similar roads, because the tire isn't as strong anymore...

[tnoy66]

Originally posted by 4DSC
What it usually includes is a package of plugs, some rubber cement, a drill-like tool to clean out the hole, and a hook to insert the plug strips.

I finally have it sorted thanks to a version of the above.

Here's the story. Many years ago there was a product available locally called Ultraseal. A mixture of fine rubber fibres and a waterygel. This was inserted into the tyre through the valve. The basics were, that if you had a puncture and the nail/screw/whatever came out, then this waterygel would be forced into the hole to block it. I used to use it all the time and when it came to fitting new tyres, I often found that there was at least one nail in one tyre but I never knew because the Ultraseal had formed a seal around the nail

Unfortunately Manufacture/distributor probs meant the nearest place I could get it was about an hour away, so I gradually stopped using it.

Anyway, it just happens that another company appeared locally called Tyreseal who use the same type of rubber fibre/waterygel sealant. So I called in today expecting them to just pump in the sealant, but first they plugged the hole as above with rubber strips covered in some sticky gunk (took 3 attempts but it worked). I then had this sealant put into all 4 snow tyres so that hopefully I don't have the same problem again

He fitted my repaired wheel back on the car and was going to lean the removed summer wheel against my bumper :scared good job I was there to stop him. Apart from that, he got me sorted thankfully

If you're intrigued by this sealant check out these sites, http://www.ultraseal.biz/home1.htm and http://www.tyreseal.co.uk

This stuff really does work. The only slight downside I ever found, using it previously, was a very slight vibration through the steering wheel, but that was the combo of the sealant and low profile tyres. I was using 205/40/17 tyres and it wasn't really recommended for them. As I had no spare (boot was full of ICE), I could live with it. I have no vibration this time with my 55 profile tyres.