Tyre face penetrated - vulcanise or leave?

The message from Tim S contains these words:

Get it properly repaired. You never know when it's going to start going down.

If it isn't leaking air, it'll probably stay that way.

There's a potential problem in that water may now be able to get into the steel belts, if it hasn't already. This can cause tyre failure later, due to tread separation if the steel belts rust.

I'd be inclined to put it onto the fastest wearing corner of the car and continue to monitor the area closely for any bulge forming under the tread.

I've had to throw a tyre away in exactly the same circumstances (bulge forming a year or two after I removed a screw that'd been stopped by the steel belts).

John

Thanks John. I hadn't considered the water/rust aspect. Reason I rotated the tyres in the first place was that the fronts were down to 2.5-3.5mm and the rear's were 5+mm. In this case the penetrated tyre will go on the front so will be out of tread early next year anyway. Not that I like suspect tyres on the front - rather have a rear failure at speed... Then again, I can't see it blowing out if monitored as you say.

Cheers

Tim

Tyre repairs are essential maintenance, you do them as soon as you can after you see the need. you don't say how close to the edge it is. it needs repair or replacement before it lets you or some other unsuspecting person down

mrcheerful

1.5" in from the edge. Certainly if it were near/on the wall, I'd write off the tyre straight away.

Fair comment.

Cheers

Tim

I suggest you mark the spot and remove the screw. If the tyre stays inflated it'll be OK to use as normal. If it goes down, you can have it repaired properly, and it'll help if you can point out where it was punctured. I suspect it's only the screw plugging the hole, that's stopping the tyre from deflating. Mike.

Hi Mike,

No, I did remove the screw (which is how I knew how far it had gone in).

No sign of leakage. I've just been reading about vulcanized rubber plugs - might be the answer if anyone near Tonbridge can do that. I'll ask tomorrow.

Cheers

Tim

Thanks all for the thoughts so far.

Two conclusions I have come to as a result:

1) It *probably* hasn't penetrated the steel bands. I've probed the hole and I can't feel anything except rubber. 2) I've just extracted it and it's in the boot. Chances are the object sealed the hole so probably hasn't let any water near the steel yet, even if it just got that far.

Think I'll drop in my local trusted tyre place tomorrow and see if there's anything preventative they can do.

Well personally, if I had removed a screw or nail and the tyre didn't deflate then I would consider that particular tyre to be okay and continue using it as before (subject to weekly air-pressure checks etc). If it had deflated and the damage wasn't deemed to be terminal for the tyre I'd have had an inner-tube put in. And talk of the steel-belting rusting? Purleeze! Maybe on something that does 5000 miles a year and the tyres last for 35,000 miles a possibility but the rubber itself will be well shot by then anyway.

Dave

Such as? There's nothing they can do. The tyre doesn't leak, all that has happened is that the rubber on the tread has been damaged by the screw. Such damage is common on tyres, mostly caused by sharp stones. There is no way that this sort of damage can be repaired. Neither is it inherently unsafe to continue using a tyre with such superficial damage. You're being overly concerned IMO. Mike.

The message from Tim S contains these words:

Any tyre shop I've ever been to will do it.

Inner tube? That's not a good piece of advice.

Modern tyres aren't designed for use with tubes, the inner surface will rub the tube and could quite possibly cause a high speed blow out.

Actually if it happens you may realise that you'ld prefer a fron failure at speed.

Doesn't seem logical to me - why would that be? Front is handling the traction and steering, rears are trailing. Surely a rear failure will have less impact on the stability???

Not having suffered from a high speed blow out, I don't have the experience...

Cheers

Tim

Yes I know - I picked about 20 bits of pointy rocks out of each rear tyre! ;->

Possibly... I have a family (with sprogs) to think about and the missus drives this car a lot.

So healthy paranoia really... I'm au-fait with most types of tyre damage, this one is a bit weird - deep but not leaking. If like some of the stones, it has gone to a max of 2mm below the tread base, I'd have thought nothing of it. 5mm I'm thinking "is the tyre now primed for sudden failure?"...

Cheers

Tim

I've had 2 front blowouts, one at 60mph and one at about half that. Heavy steering was the only noticeable effect on steering, although I'm sure I would have got understeer if I tried a tight manoeuvre.

A rear blowout would be likely to result in oversteer with a lesser manoeuvre. Understeer is more intuitive to control, and less likely to result in grief.

John

The only thing they could realistically do is to find where it was and drill it right through and plug it with a tapered plug, the same as if it *was* a puncture. But I wouldn't bother.

OK. Thanks. I'm surprised, but as I said, I haven't "had the pleasure", so I will bow towards experience... Never was any good at dynamic mechanics.

Cheers

Tim

I'm pushing 60 now, but was a rally driver in my 20s :)

John