In your experience, what percentage of your flat tires have to have the tire replaced versus just having the flat repaired?
I realize everything is up to chance, but in the last couple of years, my household has had three flat tires, all due to nails or screws (there is always some construction going on nearby) where I took the tires to GoodYear and all three had to be replaced.
One, as I recall, was too close to the shoulder, the other had been driven on (they said) when they removed the carcass, and just yesterday, the third they said was worn to a wear bar (as it had uneven wear) but it seemed to me to be barely above the wear bar at the one wear bar he pointed to as most of the tread was about two or three mm above the wear bars so he picked the lowest one at about a millimeter or less above the wear bar).
After waiting two hours in the waiting room, the guy came back and said he can't repair a dangerous tire, so again, for the third time, I had to buy a new tire, where it took another hour for them to have the car ready for me.
Given I had to remove the tire anyway to put on the spare, the whole ordeal took about five hours or so in elapsed time just to fix a basic flat.
Could I have more easily just repaired the tire at home?
I realize everything is up to chance but has it been your experience that almost all the tires you want to repair, they say can't be repaired?
Then there's the added cost of sales tax of around ten dollars, mounting and balancing at around fifteen dollars, and the tire valve of five dollars and the disposal fee of about another five dollars. It all adds up.
I'm wondering if it's worth it to buy a "tire press" or whatever it takes to change a tire (I have a small portable compressor already) at home.
Anyone repair your own tires at home when you get a flat? Is it worth the money if you can save a few tires?
In recent years I've only had two flats. One was plugged and lasted 4 years until it, like the others, was worn. The last one was bout 6 months ago. Patched inside, re-balanced. Total was $28 and a half hour.
I've heard they no longer plug tires as they don't always hold up as well as a patch inside.
Good luck with your choice but I cannot justify buying equipment, especially since the time the tire was plugged I was 600 miles from home.
I don't normally get flats myself, but I was counting the whole family. It average to something like one flat a year, which, at $28 would be fine but it's more than four times that when they talk you into a new tire.
I don't think your half hour is even close to the time unless you were able to drive on the flat tire, as I'd say it takes at least a half hour just to remove all the crap in the trunk, remove the spare, figure out where the jack is, put it together, remove the old tire, and throw it back in the trunk.
Then there's the wait at the tire shop where just waiting on the line could be half of that half hour. So unless you live across the street from the GoodYear tire shop, it's almost impossible for it to be a half hour where I live. The commute alone is an hour.
The guy showed me a "t-shaped" round patch with a wire in the middle what was blue on the inside end and black on the outside end. He called it a patchplug as I recall and he definitely removed the tire because he showed me the inside of the tire.
If I can save a hundred dollars a year, maybe the "tire press" will be less than something like five years or five hundred dollars I'm hoping.
Do they sell a "tire press" for around five or six hundred dollars?
For minor leaks due to nails, mesquite thorns, etc, I carry a plug kit in my car and plug my own. Typical 30 plugs for $10. I also carry two cans of plug / inflate stuff, but that cannot be used on tires with sensors. Plugs done by me are 100% successful repairs. For the tires that get shredded, half the tire missing, etc...
In the first case, the tire was flat at the hotel we stayed at. My car came with 5 years roadside assistance so I called. Half hour wait. Trunk was loaded. Rather that change it, I had him pump up the tire and I drove it a mile to a shop and it was plugged.
The other was leaking. Stopped at the tire shop 2 miles from me and made an appointment for the next morning. Few pounds low, but driveable.
From your description, glad I don't live where you live. Never had much of a wait at a tire shop over the years.
With Harbor Freight, YMMV. Obviously he has it lagged to the floor. One problem you may encounter is getting the beads to seat. You may need more volume than a small compressor can provide.
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That's the third world approach. Using a ratchet strap around the circumference to spread the beads sometimes works. Others use a bicycle tube to fill the gap. Then there is the bead blaster:
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That's an excellent video because that's how it usually goes as the sun sinks into the west. Breaking the bead isn't always like the first video either. When cars had bumper jacks, the scheme was to put the floor plate on the tire and jack away. The only time I tried that method I jacked up a '51 Chevy; the bead didn't go anywhere.
I have a bike with tube tires that I change and that can be a royal pain in the ass to get the bead to seat even with a tube. I don't do tubeless. Life is too short.
As others have said I've used plugs in car and motorcycle tires with no problem. One bike tire had an ugly gash and I was hoping for the plug to hold long enough to get home. It seemed to be holding so I continued to ride. It did start leaking a little when the tread was almost gone and I replaced the tire.
Years ago I used to get quite a few flats. Maybe because I lived in a city with glass and nails on the street (although not every flat was in the city.)
I fixed quite a few flats myself, first with plugs and later with "strings" They sell them at any auto parts store. They also selll them with a tool to insert the string, but when I'm depressed, I cheer myself up by buying a new tool, so I bought a better insert tool. That seems to be the best way to stop havign flats, spend $3 on the better tool.
On one and only one occasions in the last 50 years, I've been able to inflate a tire with Fix-a-Flat and drive on it without losing much pressure at least until I got home -- without removign whatever made the leak. But other times, the air went out almost as fast as it went in.
Nonetheless, I still carry it. One can is not enough because if you need it and use it, you have no more for the next flat. Two cans is not enough, because if you use one can, you only have one can left and I just determined that one can is not enough. So I usually have 3 cans. That also prevents having flats in the first place.
Now I carry an ectric tire pump but when I didn't, afte4r I patched it myself, one can of Fix-a-Flat would put in enough air to drive to somewhere there was an air pump.
Once someoen even repaired a hole in a sidewall for me. I don't think they are lying when they say y ou can't do this, but somehow he did.
At a shop I expect them to take the tire off the rim and patch it on the inside, and he did that to a sidewall. AIUI, removing the tire and using a patch is better, but it's so much extra work and couldn't be much better since strings work fine except in sidewalls.
But I saw shops where all they do is put in strings, which btw doesn't require taking off the tire, and if they're going to just do that, I can do that as well as they can. Once the tire is off the car and the leak is found, inserting a string takes 5 minutes or less.
In one case, I removed the nail and patched the tire without even taking the tire off the car.
I thought so, not just the cost of the tire but the time and effort like you say.
I doubt you will find a place like Baltimore has, but ... Back in 1970, when someone borrowed my car and wrecked it, he bent the frame and one tire kept wearing out sooner than it should, so I started buying used tires for it. Maybe logically that reason is not a good one. And if you drive 20,000 miles a year maybe it's not worth it
But I continued it and in Baltimore there is one place that always has the size I need, and it takes under 10 minutes start to finish to buy a tire or two. (I've never bought mroe than 2 at one time.)
They have space for two cars inside the shop but if they run out of space, guys some out to the sidewalk and the street. They know why people are there, so they don't need to waste more than a few seconds talking. If you need two, two guys jack up two corners, they take off the wheels and give them to someone else who takes off the tires, Then they go in the back to find the tires, give them to that rim guy who mounts the new tires and igves them to another guy who bubble tests them, then to another one who balances them, dynamically, who gives them back to the two guys (or maybe two other guys) who put the tires back on. While they do all that, I'm going into the office to pay, a middle aged woman.
All this takes under 10 minutes, once only 5, but once it took 13 minutes counting waiting. It's a 20 minute drive from here but I enjoy the drive.
They work on up to 6 cars at once, 12 or 14 guys at busy times. They've all been nice guys. All they sell are used tires. Well it says they sell new tires too, but they assume I'm there for used tires. If they ever didn't have my size, I guess they'd sell me new. it's been 5 years since I bought a tire, but I think prices were 15 to 50 depending on how much tread is left, and the size of the tire. My tires are not especially big and I don't think they've ever asked for more than 35.
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I'm surprised it's only 4.4 stars on 373 reviews. A good friend found them separately from me and never bought tires anywhere else
Many used tires look pretty good, except maybe the 10 dollar tires (which I've never looked at) with more than half the tread left, mmany (most?) from accidents where the car is totalled and the tires might be like new.
It used to be some new-car buyers would have the original tires replaced with better ones and the ones removed were sold as used, but I don't know if that still happens. CAn't imagine it's many.
They don't use plugs anymore aiui. Plugs require rubber cement be applied. Strings dont, plus I think they go better in small holes.
I only use strings. This kit has more than you need, but I have not yet found a smaller kit.
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don't need the patch, or the razor and you probably have a tire gauge. It makes sense to have a tire valve tool and a spare valve but I've never needed one.
This is more like it
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strings, a lifetime supply. I don't konw about those angled tools, but maybe they're better.
I read the description. It is water based, so it can be washed off with water before it hardens. I guess it works like some water-based glue. It will harden to seal the leak but remain liquid inside the tire. It is recommended by the manufacturer to have the tire professionally patched within 3 days (I guess it is the company protecting against lawsuits). I read many customer comments that it stopped their slow leak. That kind of slow leak might be in the rim area, nothing to do with nail puncture.
You don't know what you don't know. I don't either.
Losing a tire at speed is quite an exciting adventure which I hope you never experience and that makes tire repair guys err on the conservative side of evaluation.
Some tires can be safely and effectively plugged. Some cannot. There's judgement involved in that decision based on similar prior experience.
Finally, tires are getting more flat-prone in an attempt to 'Save The Earth' or whatever. Thinner, lighter than twenty years ago.
I buy my tires at Discount Tires. They repair tires for free if bought from there. I think they will repair all your tires if you have one set of tires from there. They also rotate them for free.
It is water based, and it turns to a solid lump on contact with air. So the part that is in contact with the leak solidifies very quickly... and then the rest of it solidifies into crap splattered all over the inside of the tire and rim after a while... which is why they tell you to clean it out and have it patched within a couple days.
But the real reason why tire guys hate the stuff is that the propellant is explosive and can ignite if a spark occurs. So warn them about it so they can be careful about breaking the bead.
I have in my trunk tucked inside the spare tire which is flipped upside down so that the wheel rim forms a round well an emergency flat tire kit.
There are foldable chocks, two blinking multi-color LED lights with the batteries in a ziplock bag outside the device (I gave up on leaving batteries in the device after ruining a half dozen mag lights - remember them?). Also I gave up on flares (they always made a crumbly yellow mess over time) & triangles (which work fine until the wind blows them away), a cigarette lighter air pump, and a tire repair multi-plug fixit kit.
The fixit kit contains an awl and an open-ended insertion tool, glue, a thin sharp knife, which is important for shearing off the ends.
While the kit comes with four or five four inch long plugs, the reality is once it's opened to the air the kit is ruined - so it's a one-time use kit.
I guess the green goopy stuff could be a useful addition, but notice above the things I've discontinued because they don't really work when you need them a few years AFTER you've put them in the temperature cycled trunk.
I suspect that after sitting in a hot trunk for a couple of years, the pressure would be gone from the can of green goopy stuff.
Of course, the answer is replace it every year, but who does that? Most people who say they do that, are lying because most people don't.
Just like many people say they change the oil every 3K miles, they don't. And while many say they rotate tires every 3K miles, most don't.
My reason for bringing that up is few of us will even look into that emergency kit after putting it there - until we need it on the road.
When you're on the side of the road, covered in mud splashed over you on purpose by truckers (yes, I've been there) on a slope, in the rain, at night, and you're patching a tire - that's when you put those flimsy foldable triangles down on the road with those weights, and then you instantly watch them blow across the road when the next trucker splashes you (and yes, I've been there). Same with flares. Same with corroded batteries left inside the device.
If it goes in the trunk, it better be designed to last for years in hot/cold cycles like you can't believe.
I bring this up because the green goop is not likely to have survived. I know the counter is people will "say" they replace it every year.
I won't. I'll leave it in the trunk.
I suspect by the time I really need it, I can't rely on it working.
What I mostly hated was all the waiting, and driving, and traffic, and disappointment being told in the end that they mainly wanted to sell new tires. Worse, they didn't have the same tread pattern but that didn't bother them. I don't know if it matters but I know it "could" matter sometimes if the tread pattern makes a difference (which you won't know until it's too late).
If I had the tire press, I would just do it my self and take the risk of my efforts, which is why I'm asking here on a repair & automotive tech group.
Thank you for answering the question as faithfully as you could. Nobody else even tried to answer the question before saying what they'd do.
It seems reasonable that 1/4 of the tires that are flat "shouldn't" be repaired if people follow the rules rigidly (which tires shops will do).
For one, I would think most tires are "driven on" for some distance after they're flat, either because it's a slow leak or the driver needs to get off the road to a safe place before changing over to the spare tire.
It would be good to know how long a flat tire can be driven on before it's ruined. Is it 100 feet? 1 mile? More? Less? I don't know. Any idea?
Also we've all had nails/screws that are close to the edge, where I don't know exactly where 'too close' might be, but I'm sure a shop will be more conservative on that than I am for my own car (although for my wife & kids' cars, I'd tend to be more conservative than I am on my own vehicles).
Along the same vein, glass and metal shards are problematic due to their shape, where the question would be at what point is the slice too big.
There is also the case of multiple repairs in a tire, or a repair that is too close to a pre-existing repair, which tire shops must have rules on.
And of course, there might be age-of-tire restrictions (anything over 3 years, for example) or wear-bar restrictions or cracks in the sidewall.
Given that a flat tire is already, by definition, a "used tire", I'm sure some of these factors can easily weight in on a portion of tires out there.
If that portion is 1/4 of all the tires will fail, that sounds reasonable.
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