Ok Ill make this short. One of my azenis was sacrificed to the I-84 gods a while back. Ironically, a week before the car was stolen.

Anyway, the puncture was in the tread. The best way to describe it is it looks as if someone shanked it with a knife.

Im cheap and i dont want to buy two new tires, so im hoping it would be safe to tubeit and call it a day.

NOTE: i searched and found the thread on plugs/patches, but nothing on tubing, although i swear ive seen this topic before.

On a side note, the side walls never flatened under the cars weight even when it was completely flat. That wasnt so short after all.


Mike

 

they still make tubes?

 

I just read a tech response in the back or Road and Track April 04 Pg 120 that may shed a bit of light:

"Local tire stores may plug-repair very low performance tires on something like a farm utility trailer, but an interior patch is all that's commonly used for auto tires.

The official word is that high-performance tirres can be patch repaired, but are considered a standard performance tire from then on. Many shops won't repair such tires due to liability concerns, and if they are repaired, they have lost their high speed rating."

On that note years back I have plugged a passenger car tire, standard touring tire rating if I remember correctly. It lived out another 30,000 miles of useful life. But, this was Not on a track car or anything that could be labeled near the high performance limit. I've also had a balloon patch done, again on a passenger car but this was just to get me home since I didn't have a spare.

Short of my humble opinion is that I wouldn't track a patched tire esecially with the tires you are referring to and them being so cheap brand new.

But, maybe that's just me.

Murphy seems to always demonstrate his laws to me at the most inappropriate moments. I try not go give him a free pass.

 

I would suggest against it. I didn't think anyone was still tubing tires, but with patches I definitely wouldn't take them on track. Working at Discount tire, there were a decent amount of faulty patches (usually poor installation but not always) and we had to repatch them or trash em. This results in a leak on the street, but with the high temps on track, they could blow out easily. With tubes, I still feel they are more trouble than they're worth.

I would just patch it and drive it on the street. You gotta bite the bullet on track.

 

Don't try to tube it. I was in the tire business before the shock business and putting tubes in a tubeless tire is a distinct no-no. Even if you can find a tube that will fit in a performance tire, the problem with the tube is that they will squirm inside the tire and build excess heat and abrasion. Putting a tube in a little trailer tire or non-performance tube type tire is totally different than putting it in a tubeless performance tire

If nothing else, most tube stems require a larger hole through the riim than the hole size that valve stem require in the rim. Unless you want to drill out your valve stem hole in the rim, I doubt a tube will fit.

Bite the bullet, get a new tire and if you must then have the cut tire repaired with a proper internal plug-patch and keep it as a spare.

 

my initial reaction to this is to say you can't run a repaired tire on the track.

BUT....

i punctured a tire driving through the paddock after the race yesterday, and asked a VERY credible shop owner (40+ years of building race cars and racing) if my Hankook could be repaired. not a problem he said.

i haven't decided what i will do, but this is pretty good evidence that you can.

anybody care to refute my sources input?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tnord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">anybody care to refute my sources input? </TD></TR></TABLE>

I used a patched falken on the track before.

I have one sitting in the garage that I can patch and use as back up if i need to.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">anybody care to refute my sources input?</TD></TR></TABLE>

You'll probably be fine. "Probably" in the same sense as you probably will be OK with a harness and no rollbar.

 

ok sounds like ill repair it and use it as a spare.

Do you guys think it would be an issue if i only bought one new azenis? The thing is that i always rotated front to back. The one tire damaged was one of the two that had more tread. Not sure if a new tire would create any unwanted pull.

Thanks.


Mike

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by GSpeedR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I would suggest against it. I didn't think anyone was still tubing tires, but with patches I definitely wouldn't take them on track. Working at Discount tire, there were a decent amount of faulty patches (usually poor installation but not always) and we had to repatch them or trash em. This results in a leak on the street, but with the high temps on track, they could blow out easily. With tubes, I still feel they are more trouble than they're worth.

I would just patch it and drive it on the street. You gotta bite the bullet on track. </TD></TR></TABLE>

My dad has an old car that ran tubed rims, getting tires installed properly on it 2 years ago was impossible.
He ultimately had the rims redone to handle tubeless radials.

 

I've run patched tires on the track. In fact, I've got a patch azenis on my car right now. I always run it in the inside rear position (since they're not directional) to minimize the load on it. I'm too scared to run it up front. This is just for HPDE, not racing, but no problems so far.

 

I plugged one of my RA1's and road raced it. It picked up a wrist pin when a Wabbit exploded in front of me at the Glen. I also had one of my wheels repaired this winter when a BMW turned it into a pretzel.

Now you guys got me all scared!