GreenSun

Hey guys. So I noticed a leak earlier in the day, tire was flat, pumped it up, brought it to the shop. Had a leak pretty damn close to the sidewall but still in the tread. I took it to a smaller shop who told me it'll hold but may not last forever. What do you guys think? Currently it's holding air fine but I'm wondering how dangerous would it be to keep driving on it? The shitty part is the tires are fairly new and have 95% tread on them. I bought the car not long ago and have no more contact with the old owner so I wouldn't know if they had any warranty left or where they were purchased. I don't drive hard but I do a lot of freeway driving, max I go is about 105-110kms/hr.

It's the orange patch in the picture.




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toyomatt84

iTrader: (1)

That's pretty dangerous. Its on the cusp of the sidewall, where the majority of your car's load is being put down on. I would get a new tire.

0AJ@tirerack.com

I hope that is a temporary fix until you can source a new tire. As toyomatt84 said, that is one of the most critical parts of a tire, internally.

Lord Helmet

Ditto

deerman2701

Nice long burnout and replace!

Red EM1

That plug is dangerous for car road use and is generally not even performed on road vehicles at most tire service stations such as NTB, Kelly, or Discount tire. Those plugs are meant for small tires like on a lawn mowers, or tiny tractors.

According to the Rubber Manufacturer Association (RMA) repairs can only be performed on the tread area.

The hard thing to predict is when that plug will fail, it could fail in the next hour, or in the week, or the next month. But what is predictable, is that it WILL fail, and when it fails, it will fail catastrophically.

Proper RMA repairs from places like Discount tire will have a patch that's repaired from the inside, patched, etc, done properly.



What you have is NOT a safe repair and WILL FAIL.

Was the tire ever removed and INSPECTED?

Did this SHOP you went to see if there was further damage done inside the tire where it is not seen? Does the tire have HEAT RING damage? Was the tire driven on VERY low pressure because that will shred your tire inside sidewall where you cannot see. You might even see it on the outside sidewall but its not always a given.

That shop should KNOW better and not have even performed such a repair on a street vehicle. You would be safer driving with your spare on.

You might hear stories from some hill billy claiming,
"I dem done dat dare repeer on my dar truck, plugged them good ole tyre, been good for last dirty dowsand miles it has been."

Well that person isn't going to be liable and doesn't accept responsibility for when that plug fails, and you go sailing off the road into a barrier, killing yourself, other people on the road, and everyone else in the car. Potentially.

Properly patched and repaired tires by RMA standards will last for the life of the tire itself, no matter it scorching hot outside, or freezing cold.

I've repaired hundreds if not thousands of tires at my old job following RMA standards for repairs, yes there is a process that involves a lot more than sticking some rubber plug in a hole. We take it seriously because your life, the lives of the people in your car, and the people on the road is at stake. Because if something happens, we are at fault. Our company accepts liability and we can be sued.

If that plug does fail while you're driving and you end up getting hurt or in a accident, you should sue that shop of knowingly put you back on the road with some mickey mouse repair like that.

Red EM1

On a personal note, I've actually done one of those hill billy plug repairs on my car back when I was in high school many moons ago. The plug ending up lasting about 6 months.

It eventually failed with no warning, the tire went out and I almost spun out on the highway. The plug was place in the middle of the tread package. Not even on the sidewall, making your repair all that more dangerous.