Is my tire gone?

[dpesce]

Originally Posted by beagoodruslan

Can a guy that works at a tire shop chim in?

Worked at a Subie dealership for a year and a half.

We wouldn't plug or patch any tire within the last section of the treads, on either side of the tire, thus would not patch this tire. Can a patch survive in that location under normal driving loads? I would say, most likely.

Definitely do not PLUG that tire! The lateral loading from turning can rip a plug right out and cause a blowout... insurance ain't gon' like what you did there either...

And yes, I had a coworker plug a tire in that spot. Unbelievably, I think it was 4-6 months later, the plug ripped out and a customer nearly wrecked her Outback... so just b/c it worked for John Doe, doesn't mean it's a good idea...

If you have a friend who works at a shop. He would probably patch it for you "off the books" and you'd be liable if it failed. I have patched a tire short term in that area and it lasted till my buddy had money for a new tire but I was really worried about it.

The engineer here is also a good man to trust:

If you take off the rim, you can, from the inside, see where the tread material/thickness changes and that is right in the gray area of this.

[jdubious]

I work at a dealership as well. No way would they let me repair this tire. For my personal vehicle, for everyday driving, I would repair this and see how it goes. For any kind of spirited driving or track use I would repair this if necessary and go easy until I had the money to replace it.

As far as plugs go, I have had good luck for every day driving. I've run plugs in my pickup for up to 3 years with no problems(none on the shoulder however). That is a small pickup tho....plus I keep a close eye on things.

It pretty much boils down to....no reputable shop is going to repair that because of the liability. You might try one of those hole in the wall tire shops where you pull up outside and they use 4 floor jacks. They can patch a tire as good as anyone and have nothing to loose.

Oh, it should also be noted that the company I work for(largest auto group in the US) has done away with patches. We use a system that utilizes a plug with sealer. The tire is removed from the wheel, then the plug is inserted, finally the sealer is applied over the plugged area on the inside of the tire. So far it seems to work with less chance of botching the job.

[dpesce]

[/IMG]

Originally Posted by jdubious

I work at a dealership as well. No way would they let me repair this tire. For my personal vehicle, for everyday driving, I would repair this and see how it goes. For any kind of spirited driving or track use I would repair this if necessary and go easy until I had the money to replace it.

As far as plugs go, I have had good luck for every day driving. I've run plugs in my pickup for up to 3 years with no problems(none on the shoulder however). That is a small pickup tho....plus I keep a close eye on things.

It pretty much boils down to....no reputable shop is going to repair that because of the liability. You might try one of those hole in the wall tire shops where you pull up outside and they use 4 floor jacks. They can patch a tire as good as anyone and have nothing to loose.

Oh, it should also be noted that the company I work for(largest auto group in the US) has done away with patches. We use a system that utilizes a plug with sealer. The tire is removed from the wheel, then the plug is inserted, finally the sealer is applied over the plugged area on the inside of the tire. So far it seems to work with less chance of botching the job.

This.

Also,

Not trying to derail the thread with questions here but that's interesting b/c we actually switched to patches from plugs b/c they were more permanent, more safe etc (or so we were told). However the plug you describe sounds a lot like our patch IG. It is a round rubber piece with stem, we push/pull through the tire from the inside (after prepping the surface ie buffing, cleaning etc) then apply a glue hold it down, and apply a finishing sealant after and blow dry. Maybe we actually are using the same process
This:

[beagoodruslan]

I didn't say ya'll were wrong... Just wanted to join the conversation Sheesh!

[jdubious]

Originally Posted by dpesce

[/IMG]

This.

Also,

Not trying to derail the thread with questions here but that's interesting b/c we actually switched to patches from plugs b/c they were more permanent, more safe etc (or so we were told). However the plug you describe sounds a lot like our patch IG. It is a round rubber piece with stem, we push/pull through the tire from the inside (after prepping the surface ie buffing, cleaning etc) then apply a glue hold it down, and apply a finishing sealant after and blow dry. Maybe we actually are using the same process
This:

This is what we were using for like the last 10 years. From my experience, about 1 in 10 or so is going to leak from installer error. I've tried everything to master them and am not sure if its the bonding agent we use, poor buffing job or what. As a line tech I only patch a tire about once every few weeks, our express service guys usually handle them. Therefore, I don't get the same kind of repetitions as a guy working in a tire shop who would be patching tires daily.

Our new system looks and is installed exactly like a plug. One difference is the plug is inserted from the inside of the tire. The sealer used is a thick rubbery paste. Working for a large chain we had no say in the matter, a kit showed up one day with instructions. I get the feeling someones pocket is getting greased or else their brother sells the kits. So far they seem to work fine.

[dpesce]

Hmm, interdasting...


I probably did somewhere between 30 and 50 of these in my time and never had one leak. I hated it though (took me longer than the 30 minutes it paid to pull the car in, find the leaking tire, run it over to the machine, dismount, repair correctly, remount, and rebalance the tire (lots of guys will mark the tire at the valve stem and just remount it in the same spot: issue here is, the tire was likely imbalanced at the time the customer came in, not necessarily my problem, but I'd rather fix it now than get a comeback in a week b/c 'something doesn't feel right' after service.) However, a couple of the guys I looked up to in the shop would complain endlessly about these things being a futile solution. They'd actually usually just throw $5 my way to do the prep and pop the plug in for them. One guy I worked with probably had a 40 or 50% fail rate on these things. I think it was all in the prep.


Plugs OTOH (I used a Matco kit that was kinda shotty but got the job done) were soooo much quicker but about every 5 or 10 I did, I would notice a small leak and have to try to replug the tire which could be a PITA if I had already cut the plug short before I noticed. Never let a leaky one leave and never once had a plug that I did come back into the shop for pulling out though (of course I wasn't there even 2 years so maybe they're all pulling out right now :P).


I'm very interested in if this new "technology" that your shop got is any good, sounds easier than the patch-plugs we used! In reality, my shop may've gone to them by now anyway (something like 40th largest auto group in the US).