I’d agree (though I’m no tire professional) that 300 feet doesn’t seem like a lot, but it only takes a few miles.
A few months ago I had a tire suddenly lose about half it’s pressure. I drove about a mile to somewhere that I could refill it, brought it back up to the correct pressure and then about 2 miles (leaking the entire time) to my mechanic. I drove, 3 or 4 miles, tops, with a tire that was that was low enough that I could hear it starting to make that signature low tire flopping sound, but not 100% flat (I wasn’t driving in the rim yet). The mechanic took it off the rim and it was filled with all those little rubber shavings.
Since it’s a RAV4, OP might be getting 4 new tires if AWD. Though depending on how new, the new tire could be shaved to match the old tires.
The original tyre plugs were literally a cone shaped plug pushed in from the outside as a temporary repair, once they become illegal the sting type was released and are much more reliable, offroaders routinely use them and I’ve never seen a failure. Not sure how legal they are now but the string type are certainly widely available
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Sometimes the spare is on a steel wheel rather than the nice alloy wheel on each corner. I know my pickup is like that.
Yep. I’ve plugged motorcycle tires from the outside with this:
And then ridden hundreds or even a thousand and more miles on the plugged tire.
Yes, I know it’s not as good as a permanent, tire-off examination and repair. Or a new tire. But when you’re 2,000 miles from home and hundreds of miles from a bike shop, these things work.
So, once again, I can’t just use the spare because while full size, it’s a different brand and model then the other tires and this is an AWD vehicle.
I took it back to where I bought the tires yesterday, Discount Tire. They fixed the flat for free, and said the tire was fine, after I asked them three different times while telling them what had happened. Since I didn’t buy the warranty and would have had to pay full price for a new tire there was nothing stopping them from telling me I needed a replacement and they did not.
Many, many, many years ago, my father made a distinction between ‘recaps’ – same sidewall, but new tread rubber – and ‘retreads’ – cutting deeper into the tire to make more tread. Evidently, that was a thing – perhaps during WWII rubber shortages.
If the actual tyre is the same just swop the rims 