what is a radial tyre?

gillian ( snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Yes.

Yes and No. There are steel wire belts reinforcing the tyre, but they're not armour plating.

Radial just means the tyre's construction is made of layers that run radially (around the tyre) rather than across the tyre (cross-ply). There's not really been cross-ply tyres in general car use since the early 70s at latest.

No. It may very well have started to leak air, or got thrown out causing a more rapid deflation. Even if it didn't, it may very well have started to leak water into the steel belts that would rust them through and cause delamination of the tyre's layers. Nasty. At best, it'll ride terribly. At worst, it would blow out.

The message from "gillian" contains these words:

Modern tyres are generally tubeless and generally radial. If you leave a nail in there, even if it hasn't already penetrated the tyre it will do eventually and you'll get a flat tyre. Not all damage of this sort is repairable - if it's too close to the side wall repairs are not permitted.

Count yourself lucky it got found in time and be glad you found a tyre shop which didn't try to sell you a whole new tyre.

As for having metal inside - yes, they have wires running round the tread sufrace and the side walls but this is to provide strength against impact and pressure not to stop penetration by narrow sharp objects.

Sport 300E. I was checking the tyre pressures today and I noticed a nail in one of the rear tyres. It was stuck in between the treads, so it looked as though it was embedded quite deep in the tyre. But no air was escaping.

cost £15.99 for a repair including new valve and wheel balance. I agreed to have the repair done because I was worried that the nail might cause a blowout. When I mentioned this to the repair man, he said that would not happen unless the nail was in the tyre wall. He disappeared in to the workshop with my tyre and I couldn't see what he was doing, but I heard some burring noises and I saw him fetching some pliers at one stage. Now there is a rubber seal in the hole where the nail was.

Yes - definitely, for two reasons; the nail could have come out, and even if you hadn't had a "blowout", the tyre pressure would have gone down, perhaps in a matter of hours, perhaps many days. Unnoticed, this might have resulted in severe damage to the tyre and an adverse effect on the car's handling. Secondly (and this is often ignored by those who argue "just fit an inner tube"), water can then get into the tyre structure, and perhaps degrade it.

the tyre to stop nails penetrating through?

Your tyre is a radial, but any steel in it is in the form of many fine wires running from bead to bead. A nail would just push its way between them.

No.

16 quid, though! More than a new tyre for some cars. The real rip-off is the new valve - if that one needed changing, so did any others the same age as the one in the tyre that punctured. Personally, I wouldn't have had it re-balanced, either. I'd have had the tyre put back in the same position on the rim and ignored the tiny weight of a patch.

Autolycus ( snipped-for-privacy@ntlworld.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Indeed. And the real cheapies tend to fit things like..... Micras...

Kwik-Fit.

Given that it's a Micra, I probably wouldn't bother with balance anyway - it's hardly likely to be regularly at speeds where it's going to become an issue.

If it can do 55mph then worth rebalancing as this is where you will notice the vibration caused by not having it done. Also it is standard practice to replace valves when tyres are removed for safety often the removal of the tyre can effect the integrity of the valve, then the tyre goes down again anyway and you just have to go through the nonsense and cost of having it done again.

Proff ( snipped-for-privacy@btconnect.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I've never had a tyre so unbalanced that it's noticed below about 80.

Do you work for Krap-Fit? I've fitted and removed tyres on a proper tyre- changer plenty of times, and can't see how the valve could be affected, unless the core's removed which isn't strictly necessary.

300E. I was checking the tyre pressures today and I noticed a nail in one of the rear tyres. It was stuck in between the treads, so it looked as though it was embedded quite deep in the tyre. But no air was escaping. £15.99 for a repair including new valve and wheel balance. I agreed to have the repair done because I was worried that the nail might cause a blowout. When I mentioned this to the repair man, he said that would not happen unless the nail was in the tyre wall. He disappeared in to the workshop with my tyre and I couldn't see what he was doing, but I heard some burring noises and I saw him fetching some pliers at one stage. Now there is a rubber seal in the hole where the nail was.

does this mean that there is some metal in the tyre to stop nails penetrating through? If so, then could I have just left that nail embedded there?

The construction of the tyre makes little real difference, even steel cords have gaps between that nails can get through.

Often punctures in the middlish of the tyre are quite repairable.

In your case unless the tyre was very good otherwise then the repair was uneconomic.

A nail or similar in a hole will keep the air in quite well, the problem is that when you park you may have the nail at such a position that it is slightly skewed and lets the air out overnight, or the nail will slowly leak air and the tyre gets dangerously low on pressure over a long period, if this is not noticed then one good run up a motorway and the tyre will overheat and break up with possible tragic consequences.

You have done the correct thing in getting the problem fixed, I consider the cost to be too high though, especially in relation the cost of a new tyre.

About 6 pounds would be a reasonable rate for a puncture repair.

mrcheerful

You've been lucky. On most cars, it starts showing at around 50.

Dave Plowman ( snipped-for-privacy@argonet.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

So it seems.

Thinking back, I excluded one from my previous statement - The only one I've had that was that bad was one that ATS managed to put on a rim completely off-centre. God knows how.

I even managed to completely lose 30g of weights off a rear on the Alfa 75, and that didn't show until naughty speeds.

They would have plugged it, and balancing is essential as the tyre when inflated will now be slightly deformed!

Thanks to all for a tremendous response to my question.

The message from "Fred"

Where the 'ell do you people live? Puncture repairs for £6, tyres for £14. Down here in the SE they wouldn't throw a pint of beer in your face for £6!

I got a tyre repair done at some back street garage in Coventry about 10 years ago. That cost me £13, IIRC, which seemed a fair price I thought (even as a poor stoodent.)

In article , Fred

I am talking about the sarf east. Even the local ford franchise only charge ten pounds for a puncture repair.

Tyres start from only about 20 quid fitted balanced and valved.

They saw you coming :)

mrcheerful

Bradford, my local back-street place reairs a puncture for £4 if it's on the car or £2 ! if you take the wheel off yourself :)

The message from "Tony Bond" contains these words:

Place in Hounslow (Generaly Tyres) used to do the firm's repairs free 'cos we bought all our tyres from 'em. Tyres for 10 badly driven minibuses added up nicely.

Eck you can get a puncture repaired for under a tenner with a rebalance even in Cambridge.