Is this tire repairable?
 

Got a nasty nail in my tire, but I can't tell if it's repairable. Everyone's interpretation of whether or not the tire is repairable is subjective, within one inch of sidewall, on the shoulder (subjective what people consider the shoulder), entire last block of the tread, etc. Do you think this tire is repairable?

If I was in the middle of know where; I would bust out my patch kit and "fix" it, then drive to the nearest tire store and get a new tire. So yes... and no.


Most likely they will say it's too close to the side wall.




Have you tried taking it out? is it leaking? (if that is a short self-tapper, there is a very small possibility that is not all the way through)

Well I'm no "Tire expert" but I am a Frugal SOB...I'd plug that all day, every day. :D

It looks to be angled toward the center of the tire.
If it was angled the other way, there may be internal sidewall damage, or not.

That looks like it would be best to have the tire off and patched from the inside.

looks fine... should be able to patch it

Ya never know until you look inside the tire. Once I had a nail right in the center of the tire. I took it to the shop to patch. I'm sitting in the waiting room and the tech comes in and says, "you not going to believe this.." and calls me to come take a look. The nail was like 8 inches long, bent at about 90 degrees and the point rubbing on the sidewall and made a huge gash on the inside sidewall. Tire was ruined.

It would probably patch. Here's a picture of a 'patch guide' from the same patches we use in my shop.

http://www.armandotiressupplies.com/.../i/ti13673.jpg

Pretty much you would set that inside the tire and then determine what to do. Honestly though, when it's close enough to have to gauge, it's too close to feel completely confident in the repair in my opinion and finding a shop to patch it may prove difficult.

@Sapphireho - Hah, wow. How does an 8 inch nail get the directional angle to pierce a tire?
@nocoolname - I don't know how confident I am in doing my own patch. Would this take a lot of time to do? Some of the workers at the tire shops said that since one side of the plug sits at an angle there is a chance that it would come loose. But you said that it's viable and you work at a shop, so what would I do?

So, everywhere I called, they said they couldn't do it, or were reluctant to do it. Blows.

I'm just gonna plug it. Does anyone know the risk of running plugged tires and how realistically likely something bad will happen? Because I keep hearing that people run plugged tires have good experiences with them and are able to run it until the end of the tire life.

Put it this way, I learned how to plug tires in the late 70's working at a Sunoco station/garage. I've been plugging my own tires ever since, as well as for family and friends and have never had a plugged tire fail...however YMMV.

Had literally the same screw in the same spot on the same tire.
Plugged that shit.
Over a year later no problems.

Lots of hard miles put on it.

Just lucky. That was on my 1978 Golf GTI. I was pretty poor then, and the tire was pretty new with no insurance. It sucked.

Sorry it's totaled. You need a new car. Keep it any longer and the car will catch fire. Buy a civic.

















Yes it's fixable.

+1 In a New York minute.

I'd suggest you have it plugged and patched.


humfrz