Hmph! First puncture!

Well I’ve had thousands of punctures in mountain bike tyres. I’m an expert at repairing them now. Just glue a patch on and off you go.

But last night I got my first auto puncture. I set off home from work and soon noticed a d d d d d d d d sound. Decided to find somewhere to stop to see what the hell it was.

I stopped at an empty car park, got out and had a look. There was a nail the size of a giant redwood stuck all the way in.

(Ok so I exxagerated. It was a standard sized short nail about a milimetre thick, but one likes to exxagerate for effect)

First mistake: I took the nail out… HISSSSSSSSSSS. It had been keeping the air in.

Second almost mistake: For a moment I thought about leaving the car and walking home. It’s not free parking so I’d almost guarantee a ticket.

Third mistake: I decided to just continue driving home. Didn’t even occur to me to use the spare wheel in the back of the car and just change it. Well I’ve rode bikes all my life… how many cyclists carry a spare wheel around with them?!

I got away with the mistake as the air wasn’t coming out too fast and I didn’t live far away.
The thing that makes this pit-worthy to me is the fact that it’s nearly christmas, and having splurged on a new PC already I am trying to be careful with my budget. I need to replace the tyre because the car’s booked on the boat and I’m going across to that place England for christmas.

And I thought from the title that this would be about Lobsang doing his first lumbar puncture.

“Lucy, hold still! Lessee…according to this diagram on page 8, the fluid shouldn’t be green…”

Punctures suck! That simple. There is never a good time to change a tyre.

Moving thread from the Pit to MPSIMS.

Are you sure you have to replace the tire? Unless the puncture was in the sidewall (and maybe even then) any tire shop should be able to take it off and patch it up for $10.

Auto mobile patch kits generally cost $4.
Atuopatch kits generally cost much, much more.

Where’s the puncture on the tire? If it’s through the sidewall then, yep, it’s gotta be replaced. But if it’s a clean hole through the radial you can plug it with a kit that only costs a couple of bucks at your local auto parts store. I wouldn’t drive around with a plug in my tire forever, mind you, but you could get by for a couple of months easily.

Also, how big is your spare? Is it a real tire, or is it one of those 35 mph donut things?

It’s a real tyre. It’s not an alloy though so it will look ugly. And I need a spare always so the right thing to do will be to get it sorted.

It’s in the surface that makes contact with the road (is that the radial?) And it stayed more or less inflated while I drove home (about 3 minutte drive) but when I looked in the morning it was completely flat.

You may be right that I could get it plugged for cheap (how does the plug work) but I would feel safer if it was a proper repair.

Are you saying you can buy a kit that you can use yourself? Or can the tyre center use a kit? Will they try to tell me I do need a new tyre? I will take it to ATS which is a well known name in the UK (has a manx garage, obviously)

Once I got a nail in a tire. I took it to the local Sears Auto Center and they ended up fixing it for free because I had Sears tires (otherwise it would have cost me five or ten bucks). The tire was fine afterward, and I got quite a few more years/miles out of it.

So, it’s likely you can get a “proper repair” that won’t cost you very much.

Often driving on a flat tire will damage it irreparably. However, if there was enough air in the tire, it could be OK. Getting the hole plugged is very inexpensive and relatively easy to DIY. I would have it done (typically $10-15 USD here) if you don’t know how.

The replies are making me feel better.

Another question… Does leaving the tyre on the car flat for aprox 36 hours do any damage to it? I didn’t have time to take it off this morning so I will get my chance either tonight or tomorrow around 2pm. Then I’ll drive to ATS on the spare.

A plug is the proper repair for this situation.

Silly cyclists.

I guess I meant ‘replacement’

My mum had a flat and her tyre was replaced…
… But in hindsight she’d drove home 30 miles on the rims! :smiley:
I drove home about 2 or 3 miles on a tyre probably around 80 or 90 percent inflated.

I repair my own tires with plugs because I watched a garage repair my tire with a plug. No arcane knowledge or special skills are required.
1 remove offending puncturer and swear heartily
2 make hole larger and rough with the abrading tool
3 attach plug (think orange jelly worm) to the evil fork tool and goop liberally with rubber cement
4 employing evil fork tool, insert plug halfway into tire and trim off excess
5 return kit and remaining three plugs to glove box for future good samaritan activities involving Helsinki Bikini Team

Th only plugof mine that failed as in a side wall on a truck tire that was carrying much of a 100 year old pecan down highway. My old Datsun has two plugged tires.

Cool! But my cyclist-brain is shouting at me: It’s asking “Won’t the plug just push the innertube away from the inside of the tyre?”

And my motorist brain is asking “Does the plug make the d d d d d d d d sound when driving?” I’m guessing no, but I have to ask because I’m curious.

I still think you are good to go for a plug in the tire.

As to the ‘how it works part’. The plug is just a strip of rubber material like the tire. The kit comes with a reamer, a plug tool, some of the rubber strips and a tube of cement. The procedure is to ream out the puncture with the reamer ( The hole will be harder to find now that you’ve removed the nail.) Then install a plug strip on the tool, coat it with cement, and insert it into the hole. A twist of the tool releases it from the plug and then removed. Then you just snip off the excess plug protruding from the hole. Easy peasy and takes about a minute. Next time just remember to leave the nail in place.

Silly cyclist. Car tires don’t have inner tubes. The tire itself is what holds in the air.

As to the “d d d d d sound”, no, but some people believe that a plug can warp the radial (that’s the steel belt that runs under the tread) and thus cause the tire to ride differently. This is the argument for patches rather than plugs. I’m not sure either way on that one, but I thought I’d throw it out anyway.

My local tire shop told me that a glue-in plug is no longer considered adequate for repairs. They use an inside-the-tire patch which requires the tire to be removed from the rim. Still, it was like $10 or !5 bucks so much cheaper than a new tire.

If driving it semi-inflated didn’t harm it (which sounds likely) than a repair should be possible.

Thanks for all the advice so far peeps. I’ve put the spare on now (in the dark. I do things like that)
I’ll drive to ATS tomorrow and see what they say. When I took the punctured one off it retained it’s flattened shape exactly! :eek:

I guess it’s the cold weather.
I’ll keep the thread posted.

You might want to take your bicycle pump and reinflate the tire, so as to restore its normal shape, now that you’ve got all that car weight off of it.