Well today I learned that I have run over a screw sometime last week. I haven't taken it out of the tire because it's still holding air with it in there. However a screw that looks similar to this was found on the driveway not long ago, and I'm assuming I ran over one of them. I'm not sure if it's gone all the way through, it did happen to go through the thickest part of my tread. My question is what do I do now? Could this type of puncture be easily fixed and if so is that recommended? I can't afford to buy a whole new set of tires right now and these have plenty of life left in them.
You will just have to see location, size of the hole. I would guess pretty good chance to plug / patch. Patch is done from the inside and better but more expensive as tire has to be removed, patched, remounted, balanced. Good luck.
If it is towards the center of the tread you should be able to plug it. If it is close to the sidewall, you will have problems getting a plug to seal.
yea, just take it off and take it to any tire shop and ask them about it. Hard to diagnose something like this over the internet, but from the sound of it, it can be plugged or patched.
I carry my own plugs and have plugged about 5 tires still on the car. You can get the kits at autoparts stores for a few bucks. It is pretty easy. You pull out the nail or even unscrew the screw. You load up the tool with the rubber twine. Simply press in the tool into the hole, twist a few times and gently pull the tool back out. the twine should have stayed in the hole. Then you simply cut off the excess twine.
Yeah, plugging is really easy. And contrary to (what seems to be) popular belief, its not a recipe for death. I had plugs in two separate tires on my 08 and with all the hard driving I did they were fine. The one that blew on the hwy on me was one of the two unrepaired ones. :squint: Never buy Generals. BTW, I had the worst luck with tires when I had my subie, so any repair questions you can pretty much ask me. I did it all. lol
yeah, I'm not to worried about how its going to hold up. If it's done fine for the few hundred miles I've driven on it before I found it, then it should be ok when I do take it in. I'll probably take it in early next week. Even though its on the outside edge I think it should still be ok for plugging. It's still holding air so that should be a positive sign.
Woot! Turns out the screw was small and didn't go through the tire. I guess I lucked out both in the size of it and where I ran over it at! Learning that made my day :ddirty: oh, and yes Discount will fix it for free. I'm not sure if you had to have been a previous customer or not, but my invoice was going to be 0 if they had to fix it or not. They did put my tires on a year ago, so that might be why.