This weekend when going to the meet in carlsbad to meet the socalstangs guys I must have at some point driven over a piece of wood in the freeway.

I think I know when it happened too and this morning I noticed a nail in my front left tire and my left rear tire.

I'm wondering if I should ;

-leave them in as I was told by my dad long ago and drive till they leak or get worn out

-Have them pulled and plugged and drive them till they wear out

-give my wife this as an excuse to go buy new rims/tires

any ideas...

i'ts kinda frustrating really... not an excuse for new rims/tires but maybe... i just cant justify it right now, i was going to wait.

any suggestions....

 

Unless you like to get stranded and/or change tires on the side of the road, I would recommend you go have them pulled and PATCHED.

 

Not a good idea. They could start to leak, build heat and blow out... If they are steel belts this could cause them to go bad. They will leak eventually.

If you are doing highway driving and it is done properly this is ok. The only problem with this is that the repaired tire should never be used for high speed or hard driving as this can cause the patch to fail.

 

x2

 

Having the tire removed from the rim and patched from the inside out using a tire patch plug, which is Z rated, is completely acceptable and the tire can be run at its rated speed.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=77


Michelin wouldn't tell you to use a patch if they felt it was unsafe and they could sell you new tires.
http://www.michelinman.com/care/buy_when.html

 

some tire places will patch up a tire for free. My old camaro had a leak in one of it's tires (found out it was punctured by a nail of some sort) while I was trying to get rid of the car. I took it to Discount Tire, they fixed it for free, no questions asked. They did tell me though, that if there would have been something puncturing the side wall, they wouldn't patch it. (either couldn't, or wouldn't do it for free, not sure which).

I'm not sure how true this is, but they told me (when I asked how long the patch would last) that it should last for the life of the tire.

 

i wouldn't drive around with two tires with screws in them
dunno how lucky you are, but i sure as heck wouldn't want them both failing on me at the same time.

i say patch them.. if it's a clean cut, they will be back good as new

 

I just found a 3 inch long big ole' fat construction nail in my new Nitto, too!! Plug & patch is the only way to go- it will start to leak if you don't.

 

Sidewalls cannot be patched for 2 reasons. The lack of reinforcement and the way in which a sidewall flexes.

 

Hadn't heard that before, thanks!

 

The patch and plug route will work just fine. If it's done right you won't have any problems at all.

 

I've plugged tires my whole life and never had a problem( I do it myself)

 

Hah, been there done that.
Had my snows on for a few weeks then I got screwed.

 

One time I picked up a bolt and washer in my '86 'stang tire. Car was bouncing like a gal with a bad boob job on a pogo stick..

 

thanks for the input...

I'll toss around the idea of getting the new rims/tires this week over waiting till january... I was pulling the trigger last month in a post, but opted to wait till january at th erequest of my wife.. but now it looks as good a time as any to upgrade.

Nittos' are by far the cheapest tires so far.... for the big wide ones anyway.

 

I'd check and see if a tire place around you will patch it for free, it only takes 15 minutes for them do to :-) Then you can put off your tire/wheel upgrade till later and not be in a rush :-)

 

This is what I'm considering.

I don't feel good about taking a patched tire out on the track, so an upgrade is a definate. Just didn't want it now.

Anyone ever take a plug/patched (inside the tire of coarse) onto the track?

Worries me about doing 130-150mph down the front stretch hoping the tire doesn't fail..