"Into each Life some rain must fall." That's according to Henry W. Longfellow
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| Not what you want to discover. photo source: Tirerack |
Or, "Into everyone's tire, a screw or nail must find a home." That's according to this fellow!
Lately I've had a run of screws embedded in my treads. I went almost fifteen years without a flat tire, or a nail or screw stuck in my tread.
The last time I was in Pismo Beach I got a screw stuck in the tread of my Navigator.
This time it was a screw in the front tire of my '06 Mustang. I noticed it while I was in Cambria, not far from Pismo Beach. I had just backed into a parking spot. After exiting the car I checked to see how closely it was positioned to the curb. That's when I saw it!
That definitely put a bummer on the day.
It used to be that tire shops would not patch a tire over ten years old. Now that age has been reduced to six years.
At least both of these vehicles had a good spare.
The last time, I found a neighborhood garage willing to plug the tire, this time I bought a plug kit at an Autozone.
The tire wasn't losing any air, yet. I checked it with some soapy water. I really don't know when I picked the screw up, but I think that it was during my Carmageddon experience in Livermore. I had made a U turn through a wide painted median divider. Driving off the main travel path of traffic or cutting through painted gore points is a good way to pick up something pointy.
It's not hard to use these kits, but you do need immediate access to a source of compressed air. You are bound to lose some air during the process. I found a gas station with a working air machine and a spacious area to do the job.
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| The soft rubber plug is forced into the tire below the tread. photo source; Walmart |
I prepped the plug installation tool, loading a plug then coating it with sealant and laid that aside. Then I unscrewed the offending screw using a screwdriver, and air immediately started to escape. It was a pretty thin, small screw. I inserted the reamer and worked it back and forth a few times then inserted the installation tool. It was harder to push it in than I had anticipated, but I twisted it back and forth a bit and crouched next to the wheel, and used both hands to force it in.
I trimmed the ends, then used some soapy water to check for leaks. There were none.
I had considered doing this in the parking lot of the motel where I was staying. It's a good thing that I didn't, the air pressure went down to about fifteen pounds. Without an air pump it wouldn't have been easy to drive to a gas station afterwards.
The last time I used a plug, I did a lot of internet research afterwards to see what the common thinking was about this type of repair.
The proper method to do a repair like this is to dismount the wheel, break the bead, and apply a patch to the inside of the tire casing. The patch is similar to those we used to patch up our bike's inner tubes when we were kids. I'd done these repairs when I worked at a gas station when I was in high school. This is not something that you can do on your own, on the side of the road, and as I mentioned, tire shops won't fix a tire that is now considered "too" old.
After quite a bit of reading I surmised that most people felt that this was a permanent repair. Some articles insisted that it would be good for 10,000 miles, or the life of the remaining tread. I know that I've put over 2,000 miles on the repaired tire on the Navigator. Could this affect the balance of the wheel? Maybe, if you are driving at a high speed. Conventional wisdom says that a repaired tire is downgraded one speed rating. For example a Z rated tire is now considered to be H rated.
A lot depends on where the tire was punctured. If it's within the main tread, that's in the strongest part of the tire, and using a plug or patch is okay. If it's near the sidewall, forget it. Except in an emergency.
The tires on the Navigator had a lot more tread on them than the tires on the Mustang. They also look a little weathered and you can see they are almost down to the wear bars. I knew that they were due for replacement pretty soon. The tread was shallow enough that I wouldn't have wanted to do a lot of rainy weather driving on them.
In reality tires with shallow tread are more likely to suffer from screw and nail punctures. The offending object is more likely to bury itself deep enough into the casing to cause a leak. A tire with more tread might prevent the object from penetrating that deeply, or the deeper tread might hold the object further away from the base of the tread, with more of a chance of it being spun off. It's been my experience that when tires are thin on tread, the possibility of picking up a screw increases.
On the back of the plug repair kit, besides the instructions, there is a disclaimer that states that this is an emergency temporary repair and the tire should be repaired or replaced promptly. I don't disagree with this. If I punctured a sidewall and was far from help, with a bad (or no) spare, I'd stick a plug in it and proceed carefully.
In this case, it was a very short, (but obviously long enough!) thin screw that penetrated the tread. A larger screw or a jagged piece of metal makes a hole that can't, and shouldn't be repaired. Either way, it makes sense that you refrain from top speed runs with a repaired tire. Just drive the car at legal speeds and it should last long enough to save up the money for a new set of tires.
My Mustang has a low tire pressure monitoring system that would alert me if the tire started to lose air. It is very unlikely that the plug would be spit out, causing a rapid loss of air, chances are that it would lose air gradually. In reality, many people drive their cars unaware that there is anything stuck in the tire for many thousands of miles. A small flat headed screw could be driven enough that the head would be worn completely off and never be noticed or repaired until the tires were replaced.
I'm thinking that I'll start carrying a plug repair kit in my cars for insurance. It's an easy repair. I also will carry a small tool kit, that's also good insurance. I have a battery jumper box that includes an air pump that will accompany me on longer trips.
A new set of tires would just be a bit more insurance.
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