tyre puncture repair

Many people seem to sell rims with tyres, on the basis that it protects them in transit. I have no idea if that's true, or just laziness.

Theo

Taping a couple of layers of cardboard around would provide just as much protection, and be one heck of a lot cheaper and easier to ship.

So what is the group's opinion on vulcanising repairs near the edge of a tyre? Is a new tyre always preferable? Can the repairs ever fail? Is that the worry? I'm thinking radials flex as they go around corners, which might put stress on a repair?

I think a new tyre will be 90gbp + 15gbp to fit a valve and balance it, so about 105 for a new tyre compared to 70gbp to repair the existing one.

For a set of four a courier only costs around £30 for with-tyres and £2

0 without so there's not much in it. Perhaps I'll leave the tyres on and le t the buyer deal with 'em!

Mathew

you would be better buying a new cheapo tyre rather than spend 70 quid plus time to get a damaged used one, repaired.

you would be better buying a new cheapo tyre rather than spend 70 quid plus time to get a damaged used one, repaired.

Better yet, put a dollop of silicone sealer over the hole, push it into the hole, and a bit more on top to form a plug on the inside. Lasted for years when I did it. OK, I wouldn't do it on a high performance vehicle.

Steve

I've had motorcycle wheels sent to me both ways and I think a combination of (the old) tyre (to protect the outer edges of the rims (especially with ally) if the wheel is dropped on it's edge etc)) and cardboard (to protect the hub / bearings) is best.

I have had 'just cardboard' protection and it was very obvious various parts had simply cut through the cardboard and any outer wrapping, a sharp ally edge makes for a very good shear. ;-(

That said, I'm sure if you use 'enough' cardboard it could be sufficient.

My Mrs was sent a china plate though the post, just in a paper (non padded) envelope ... and it survived. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

I often get asked to repair blow up toys such as space hoppers, and that is basically the way I fix them, I use a mastic gun with frame sealant and apply it through the inflation hole directly to the back of the puncture, leave it an hour or so and inflate lightly, leave it overnight and blow it up fully, really successful repair method.

I can see it could work on a tyre, but I would not trust it too much, mainly because of the silicone that tyres are internally coated with, coupled with more silicone on that, you would not get good adhesion and would be relying on the 'plug' staying in place.

Thank you for all the advice. There were two nails in the tyre: one central and one on the edge, so the 70GBP charge was £20 ish to patch the central one and £40 ish to send it away for a "major repair" to the edge + VAT.

I showed the tyre to four garages:

1st offered me a major repair 2nd and 4th said the nail was too near the side and I needed a new tyre. Neither mentioned about sending away for a major repair. I'm not sure whether that's because they don't recommend them or whether it's because they would make more money selling me a new tyre! 3rd garage said they thought they could fix it as a minor repair, which concerned me since everyone else had said no. He said it depended what it looked like inside, once the tyre was off.

To be fair to garages 1 and 4, I did see them measure it with a ruler that showed the limits of where repairs could be. Garage 4 showed me close up and that was kwick fit!

That wasn't a problem as all four garages were close together and I happened to be driving by, but as you said, I've spent enough time worrying about it already, so I will just order a new tyre.

It's frustrating as they are winter tyres and the punctured one was on the back and had 7mm left. The front ones have 5mm left which probably means that by the time winter comes the depth will be too small to grip! But I haven't got the space or money to keep a summer and winter set.

I notice the space saver spare is new but only has about 4mm tread. Don't they make them any deeper because they don't expect them to get much use?

I was told I could only drive up to 50mph and for 50 miles. The 50mph I understand as it will have three fat tyres and one thin one which could affect handling, but why only 50 mile journey limit?

Thanks, Stephen.

[...]

Heat build up, or the manufacturers trying to limit their liability if/ when a space-saver causes a serious accident?

Chris

True, but I have read before that tyre centres don't like these repair sprays, so I wondered if there was any truth that some makes were easier to clean up than others? Do some makes ruin the tyre or is it just that the garages are too lazy or it is too time consuming to clean the tyres out after they have been used?

I've always wondered that.

I once drove about with one on the back end of a Jag for the thick end of a week - I was working away and wanted to go to my local tyre place, so it was only the Friday there was a long single journey involved. A hilly/twisty cross country bit followed by 40 miles of D/C doing 60. I stopped a couple of times to see if it was getting hot and it wasn't in the slightest.

I expect it could be quite a different temperature if used on the front.

[...]

Some Honda Civics can only have the space-saver fitted to the rear; it fouls the discs on the front.

If I *had* to go any distance with a space-saver, I'd fit it to the rear.

Chris

Did you visit a DIY centre recently?

I once noticd a nail in my tyre, I then measured the daily pressure loss over one day and could estiamte the number of days since the pressure was correct. Sure enough, that day I was shopping in B&Q. High probability that sundries were lying around on the forecourt as many builders shop there. And this has happened more than once to me, so now I always look at the ground when driving in the area and park as early as I can find space.

When they first came along I understood the idea was that they went on the non-driven end, swapping tyres around if necessary, hence going on the live end of a RWD car seemed to be naughty to me.

Do you mean that it's meant to be heat coming off the brake disc and the space saver offering less heat sinking capability? Which I can sort of see, except that the system would reach equilibrium long before 50 miles and should therefore carry on happily.

(And the Jag was biased to the rear for light braking too apparently so should have netted me something.)

The more I think about it, the more I reckon it's to keep people from using them full time and getting blase about them being on there (the 1 steel wheel with 3 alloys configuration!)

Generally the front of a car is significantly heavier than the rear and has most of the braking effort and more cornering forces, so I would expect that a spacesaver on the front would heat up more if overused and offer significantly less braking and cornering stability/safety.

A recent cop show had a severely crashed vauxhall carlton that had a spacesaver on the rear, it was surmised that the spacesaver had been partially to blame for the crash, which was a young driver with passengers, over doing it on a country lane.

So not so much the spacesaver being to blame, but the driver forgetting that a large, heavy RWD saloon with a bike tyre on one rear corner _might_ handle a bit funny if he drives it like normal...?

He was very inexperienced, but a regular spare would probably have gripped better.