Kwik-fit and a puncture.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote

You left it jacked up? And unattended? Did you not lower it onto blocks of something? If not, you are asking for a disaster.

Me when I last changed a wheel on a poxy fiat! Although not intentionally, I forgot to place the fooking wheel trim on before the bolts - doh!!

I had a fiat punto in the other day, one of the holes in the trim is different, so you put in one bolt, then the trim, then the other three, but I expect you know that now.

In message , Chris Whelan writes

Which cars have you had or is it that you just don't read the manuals?

>

99% of times this is necessary (IMHO) it's due not to the tyre place, who torque them nowadays, but the length of time they've ben left on. Sometimes several years. A lot of owners only have the wheels removed when the pads start scraping or it fails the test. Servicing they say? "but it passed no problem so it must be all right".

Steve

Try discussing things you know about.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote

This is no discussion - I stand by what I said and you know I am right.

The table shown seems to contradict the written text.

"The repairable area is defined as a percentage of the tyre's "nominal" section width and thus varies by the size of the tyre. "

If you calculate the percentages from the given table (I was bored) you find that they vary from 60% on narrower section tyres to 70% on the wider ones. Clearly then it's not "a" percentage, it's a range of percentages.

Of course it may be that the word "nominal" is what makes the difference but I'm not sure how this is defined (other than by the obvious sidewall markings).

Tim

Why is it I just know it's you ( Roger) that has posted what I am reading without looking at the poster's name

How could a disaster happen if it was in a lockup garage?

I've mainly owned Fords.

Sadly perhaps, I'm the sort of nerd that reads every manual for every car I drive. (And every bit of equipment I own.) I've rented and borrowed a number of makes over the years, and always read the owners guide. Recently, these have included Honda, Peugeot and VW. None have told me to re-torque the wheel bolts. (Or any other fasteners, come to that.)

Chris

Dave Plowman (News) wrote

Don't bother.

You sound like the typical bar room mechanic. Only tool you've ever touched is the one between your legs. And frequently.

Nominal just means the size that's written on the sidewall. Most tyres the actual width of tread, is wider than the stated width.

I think I can guess what the red circular thingie was. Was it about 25-35mm diameter? In that case it was the end of a puncture repair plug.

I'd hazard a guess that they were trying to claim that the entire repair must fall within the repair ruler markings, and were using the end of a repair plug to show that the patch would be outwith the repairable area.

Whereas, the only thing that has to be within the repairable area, is the drill used to make the hole to get the repair plug through. Provided the stalk of the plug is well within the tread reinforcing belt, then the patch can overlap the sidewall as much as it wants.

Yes.

Ah. It didn't look like anything specially made to measure with. Home made, if anything.

Right. I actually downloaded the rule given in the above URL. Printed it out and checked the tyre. Easy since the screw was in one of the main grooves. And it was well within the repair area - by about 10mm.

Thanks for the info. I'm disappointed with Kwik-Fit because my experience of this local branch has always been good. Despite the horror stories you read.