38special

:angry: Yesterday was April Fools Day, and my beloved, took a large screw just outside of the outer tread indentation. :angry:

Got it plugged at my dealer early this morning.

My question is: How does a plug effect the speed rating of the tire?

The fastest that I have taken her is @ 120mph. The tires are rated for 149mph

stock01gt

Did they plug it, or remove the tire from the rim and patch it from the inside?

If they patched it, I don't think it will hurt the speed rating. If they plugged it, then I don't know.

Skorch52

Patches or plugs, doesn't matter. Are you willing to bet your life on a damaged tire? There's no way that either patches or plugs will restore the tire to the same integrity as before the damage.

Keep it below the speed limit or buy a new tire.

stock01gt

Yeah you're probably right. I don't know what I was thinking...

38special

What makes a tire better or worse?

I would think that the tire would be good up to 2/3 of the rating reguardless.

The structural integrity of the tire, sidewalls and such are still good.

Some one explain why this would not be so?

Else, I will have to buy two tires. to keep it right with the world.

hdwrench

I wouldnt recommend high speed on any kind of patch... maybe that is why most shops wont even patch a motorcycle tire... too much liabilty. yes i guess you only have 2 tires and if one goes u could be screwed. but by shops not patching mc tires that tells me that no matter what the patch is not gauaranteed to bring the tire back it's orignal capability.

ford1

It won't hurt anything

DanS.02GT

How reliable a tire repair will be depends on a few different things.

Method of repair: Patches are better than rope plugs, and patch-plugs are better than either.

Location of punture: The farther away from the sidewall, the better. Anything in the outer tread block is iffy. Any repair to the actual sidewall is a no-no.

Size of puncture: Anything over 1/4" is bad. The bigger the hole, the more belts were likely damaged, and the less structural integrity remains.

Number of repairs: no more than 3 per tire. If this gets to be an issue, you should stop driving by the nail farm.

The reason the tire companies void the speed rating on a repaired tire, is that they have no control over the repair. If you have a 1/8" nail in the middle of the tread, a patch-plug will make it pretty much good as new. If you have a railroad spike in the sidewall, it won't. In between, you kinda take your chances.

If your tire had a big screw in it near the shoulder, and you tend to drive agressively, It would probably be a good idea to replace it. It probably will be fine, but do you want to take the chance?


Edit: You said plugged. Plugs are OK for temporary repairs or lawnmower tires, but a proper repair requires that the tire be removed from the wheel, inspected for run-flat damage, and repaired from the inside. About the only time that I'll use a plug is if the tire can't be patched and the customer is coming back as soon as we can order a new tire.

38special

I guess my thought was that since it is hard to drive fast around where I live, that the tire should be good as a daily driver.

The tire never lost air/ was not flat from the puncture. The head of the screw never broke off. In fact, there was a washer on the screw as well. It did puncture all of the way through though, according to the shop guy who fixed it.

It just sucks to have to think about this. Next question. I rotate my tires every 5000 miles and have another 2000 to go until this tire is put on the back of my car on that side. Is it more likely to have problems on the drive wheel or the front?
I would think that the front is worse.

GrayBeardGT

I asked your question about repaired performance tires to the experts at the Tire Rack. Here's their reply. Some good info here:

Thank you for your inquiry.
Please refer to the below link for a full explanation on this issue.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete.../punctures.jsp

Goodyear's official policy is that as long as the tire is repaired according to Goodyear's official procedure. Essentially, the procedure involves removing the tire, cleaning properly and applying a "mushroom" patch. Goodyear releases this official procedure to:

Goodyear Company Owned Outlets
Goodyear Contract Dealers
Kelly-Springfield Dealers
Dunlop Dealers

So any of these shops can repair the tire properly.

Cy@tirerack.com
Performance Specialist

Skorch52

For someone who has a daily driver, and doesn't push the car, most repairs done properly will allow the tire to be used for the remainder of it's tread life. Here's an excerpt from the article on the Tirerack website:

"While indoor laboratory tests have shown that freshly punctured and properly repaired speed rated tires can still achieve high speeds, we don't recommend that repaired street tires, or punctured DOT legal competition tires and racing slicks be used for track events."

Again, my opinion, but if you are going to push your car and its tires, don't do it on repaired rubber. But for normal everyday driving, as long as the repair is done right, go ahead and drive on em and save the money until you need a new set of four.

38special

I just came back to Virginia from Pennsylvania and my average speed through most of it was 75mph. With a couple of stints approaching 100. The tire seems good. I was passed a couple times by State troopers in Frostburg MD when I was going 10 or 15 miles over the speed limit. But everyone seemed to be going over the speed limit. I saw two speeding tickets being given on my way through MD and I wonder how fast the two pickup drivers were going in order to be stopped.