Well, the plugs and kits are still available, but a lot of service stations don’t like to use them because of “insurance reasons,” opting instead to use an internal patch costing about $20. Maybe they just weren’t economical. Was there some event that scared service stations away from the cheaper plugs and toward internal patches?
I got one a year or so ago. Maybe they don’t use them any more because it’s not that hard to take the tire off, patch it, put the tire back on, then charge you more. I can’t imagine that it takes much longer to put a patch on and it’s supposed to be better.
I had to have a tire repaired last summer when I was traveling in Maine. The guys at the tire shop told me that they weren’t allowed to use the plugs anymore due to state law, so they fixed the tire with an internal patch. Didn’t cost me any more than the old-fashioned plug, though.
And service stations down here in Connecticut are still using plugs.
I asked a mechanic friend about this a few months ago when someone brought this up on another board, and he made vague reference to “someone got sued for $100B” but admitted it was just an urban legend as far as he knew. His personal speculation is that his specific shop just wanted to get more money, since putting in a plug is so cheap it’s hardly worthwhile to do. Many people, when faced with a patch cost, decide to go ahead and get a new tire. And then you have the mounting cost, balancing cost, new valve stems, stem lube, muffler bearings…you know how it goes.
In more than 20 years of putting them on every day he never once heard of a plug failing. I’ve not either, but I’m sure they must, like any other repair.
Each State has its own safety and inspection laws. Maine for one has the following bill which would fix the plug ban:
http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills_119th/billtexts/LD243801-1.asp
which would modify this:
http://janus.state.me.us/legis/statutes/29-a/title29-Asec1756.html
the plug ban being based, apparently, on the following:
http://janus.state.me.us/legis/statutes/29-a/title29-Asec1751.html
and
http://janus.state.me.us/legis/statutes/29-a/title29-Asec1757.html
…which gives the police the power to “rejected for violation of the inspection standard for equipment if any equipment described in section 1751, subsection 2 does not function sufficiently for the safety of the general public or is loose and not securely attached to the vehicle.”
Plugs have a higher failure rate than patches. A tire is nothing more than sealed layers of rubber and steel belts. A puncture damages the inner seal. A patch or patch/plug combo requires that the tire be dismounted and the inner deal inspected, smoothed and covered. This keeps the air where it’s supposed to be. A plug can, while sealing the external leak, allow air to get past the inner rubber layer and in between the “structural” layers. This could result in tire separation - a blow out.
Cites:
http://www.i-car.com/html_pages/about_icar/current_events_news/advantage/advantage_online_archives/2003/040703.html
http://experts.about.com/q/2359/3753093.htm
All that said, the risk of catastrophic tire failure is remote. Insurance companies, however, are not willing to take that risk. They tell shops “We won’t cover you for any damages resulting from a plugged tire”. The shops won’t take the risk because one lawsuit could ruin them. I, personally, have never had a problem and will continue to plug tires on my personal vehicles.
Plugged tires that are done right should prove very safe, as the rubber is essentially vulcaninzed together. There is no ‘seam’.
Plugs and patches should be used on true ‘punctures’, and not irregular ‘slices’ or damaged sidewalls. Additionally, the tire should be taken off the car as soon as pressure is lost so the tire is not damaged before repair.
The failure rate of patches and plugs increased (anecdotal evidence from mechanics) because more people ‘nowadays’ have no clue as to how to switch to a spare …aka ‘change a tire’…so they drive on flats.
With more people driving on flats, more women and younger driver not sure of how to change a tire, service stations are fixing tires that shouldn’t be fixed, since they’ve been beaten by being driven while deflated.
Additionally, considering the cost of modern tires (technology costs money), a higher % of folks opt for a repair rather than simply buying a new tire.
I’ve been told that they do NOT work on radial tires. And with radials getting more popular, perhaps the use for plugs is in decline.
Whoever told this was entirely wrong. They’ve been used on radials for decades and they work very well on them.
Radials aren’t just “getting more popular” - even when I was growing up in the 80’s you had to look hard to find non-radial tires for passenger cars. I’ll wager not a single mass-produced passenger car in the last decade has come with bias-ply tires.
It is not the cost of the patch/plug but the labor of removing/replaceing tire and rim.
Una,
You’re right in the 1st world. However, in India, Hindustan Motors was making their Ambassador model available with Radials as a value-added option. Base tires were in fact bias-ply a few months back, per their web site (from a few months back, which means I don’t really have a cite.)
URLs:
Hindustan Motors:
http://www.hmambassador.com/ Note the slogan, “You will be talked about. Mostly behind your back.”
I hope that means something different in Indian English than US English.
I have to take exception to this statement, Philster. While the vast majority of tires today are vulcanized, that doe snot make them one piece. There are seams. I have had the tread on a newish virgin (non-recapped) radial tire separate under normal driving conditions. Tire separation is a common occurance on semi trailers - just note the tread carcasses on any interstate highway.
The inner liner on a tire is one piece and acts very much like an inner tube. If the tire is punctured and then sealed from the outside, the pressurized air inside be forced around the inner liner and force the other layers apart.
From the first link in my prior post:
Heh…does not, doe snot, must be like a cow-orker. I’m blaming the hampsters for that one. I had to type that reply twice to appease their hunger.
You are correct on that; since we were talking about the US I thought US-centric.
Heh. Looks like I could get one for about $8000US if I remember the conversion rate right…it’s not a terrible looking car.
At the Ballys Park Place garage where I work, when a customer has a flat tire due to a puncture with a nail or screw, We take the tire to a reputable filling station with which we have some rapport.
They use plugs.
No customer has yet written us back with dissatisfaction of their repaired tire.
I don’t think your comparison is a fair one. A tire plug and the surrounding hole are much less a ‘seam’ than the parts such as treads and seams. You’re talking about entire sections being joined, and the seperation that is noted is as indication of a failed technique. The technique required to get a plug to vulcanize and become an integral part of the tire is entirely different. Additionally, bajillions os tires never fail at any seams because of effective vulcanization.
I had to plug the tire on my SUV about two weeks ago when I got a screw in it at night, and all the service centers were closed. I bought a kit from Western Auto for $ 10.00 that had the plug material, a “reamer” and the “needle” and did it myself. Worked like a charm. I was going to go into the tire center and get a “real” patch, but this seemed to be holding up fine so I put it off. What Dr. Jackson said about air geting into the tire layers does worry me though.
Can you even buy bias-ply tires anymore? I don’t think they’ve been available on new cars since the 60s. My '75 Cordoba came with radials…still have the original Goodyear spare in the trunk.
A friend has a '66 Chrysler Newport that had the original bias tires on it when he bought the car 15 years ago. When one of them went bad, he had to replace all of them due to not being able to mix bias and radial tires. He wanted to put a new bias tire on there but he couldn’t find them anywhere.
For at least the last 10 years, I have watched the local guys use plugs. I’ve never had a leak re-appear, nor have I had a tire blow out a high speed due to plug failure, causing my tragic death and a 100B lawsuit to ensue. :eek:
I’ve seen those kids too, just recently. Damned tempting, I tell ya- but only for clearcut nails and screws and stuff that is the same size or smaller than the plug strip.
Philster sez:
Agreed, and (what’s an order of magnitude less than a bajillion? A jillion?) a jillion plugged tires will never fail due to tire separation. It’s that one-in-a-jillion-and one failure that the “powers that be” are scared of. Not one tire manufacturer supports the use of plugs, therefore insurance companies write business liability policies that exclude plugged tires, therefore auto repair shops quit plugging tires and turn to patches because they’re covered if something goes wrong.
The bottom line to the OP’s question is that plugs still exist, but many shops don’t use them because their insurance won’t cover them if they do. We live in a litigious society and everyone up the chain is playing CYA.
Checking in from California, home of the personal injury lawsuit…
Not all that long ago, one of my tires decided to go goth and get a piercing. So, I put the spare on and take the flat to Big O, which is where I got the tire initially. They did a plug and patch. First, they removed the screw, then they filled the hole with a plug. Shaved it smooth on both sides, then put a patch on the indside. Remounted, balanced and I was on my way in about 45 minutes, quite happy for having bought the road hazard protection.
As someone mentioned, only tread puncture damage is plug-and-patchable. Slices or sidewall damage is generally fatal. Years ago, someone went on a slashing spree in my neighborhood and every street-facing tire on every car was stabbed in the sidewall. Car’s got two flats, but just one spare. I was able to patch the rear tire with a lot of cobbler’s rubber cement for long enough to carefully drive to the tire shop, figuring if the goop blew out, I could just slowly drag it the rest of the way. Tire shop guy looked at me like I was crazy for doing it, but I already had the glue and couldn’t afford towing on top of two new tires.