Renault Clio - Punctures

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Mon 10 Jun 2024 14:58
Renault Clio - Punctures - BBC1

Should you pull the nail out of a punctured tyre before using an aerosol tyre sealant. Some manufacturers advise this. Personally I cannot see the advantage if it is plugging the hole. Also any preferences for water based sealants/foams against rubber based ?

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Mon 10 Jun 2024 16:37
Renault Clio - Punctures - gordonbennet

The problem with not removing any object in the tyre is you don't know how far its penetrated nor the angle its taken once in the carcass.

A nail screw or bolt which goes through far enough to have access to the sidewall can gradually rip the inner sidewall to shreds over each flexing of the tyre, unnoticed until at possibly high speed the weakened sidewall finally fails in an instant.

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Mon 10 Jun 2024 18:07
Renault Clio - Punctures - galileo

The problem with not removing any object in the tyre is you don't know how far its penetrated nor the angle its taken once in the carcass.

A nail screw or bolt which goes through far enough to have access to the sidewall can gradually rip the inner sidewall to shreds over each flexing of the tyre, unnoticed until at possibly high speed the weakened sidewall finally fails in an instant.

Personally I would be reluctant to drive a car any great distance without a spare wheel, even if only a space saver.

Brother in law tried to use the can of foam and merely decorated the tarmac of the hard shoulder as the tyre (low profile) had a large split through hitting a n object.

I think such failures are not uncommon, and if successful may make it hard if not impossible to have the tyre properly repaired.

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Mon 10 Jun 2024 18:37
Renault Clio - Punctures - BBC1

Latest figures show that over 95% of new cars including mine are manufactured without a spare wheel. If you're lucky you get a can of foam !

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Mon 10 Jun 2024 23:22
Renault Clio - Punctures - Andrew-T

I haven't had anything resembling a puncture since 2008, when I drove our current car from the Pug garage 30 miles away and the next day found a screw in one of the tyres, which was repaired with a simple plug. I can't see the point of leaving one in the tyre as it will only cause further gradual damage.

OTOH I can see the argument for doing without a spare wheel if punctures only occur every 10 years or so.

Edited by Andrew-T on 10/06/2024 at 23:23

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Tue 11 Jun 2024 12:56
Renault Clio - Punctures - galileo

I haven't had anything resembling a puncture since 2008, when I drove our current car from the Pug garage 30 miles away and the next day found a screw in one of the tyres, which was repaired with a simple plug. I can't see the point of leaving one in the tyre as it will only cause further gradual damage.

OTOH I can see the argument for doing without a spare wheel if punctures only occur every 10 years or so.

It's the classic "|do you feel lucky?" question. Local roads tend to have screws lying around where builders have been working, motorways have all kinds of debris, if you have the low profile tyres which seem to be fashionable damaging potholes are also only too common.

A lot depends if you are happy to wait for hours for a rescue truck, the urgency or time-critical nature of your journeys is also s consideration. (Whether you are capable of changing a wheel is also a key factor)

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Tue 11 Jun 2024 13:07
Renault Clio - Punctures - catsdad

Last week I had a slow puncture repaired. It had lost about 2psi in a month. It turned out to be a nail in the centre, so repairable. £33 quid (no new valve, no balancing) seemed a bit steep but it had good tread and a new one would be £100 or so.

I would never leave a nail in a tyre but it’s not necessarily an MoT failure. I know people who’ve had an advisory and left it in. In an Audi TT no less.

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Tue 11 Jun 2024 14:06
Renault Clio - Punctures - Andrew-T

Last week I had a slow puncture repaired. It had lost about 2psi in a month. It turned out to be a nail in the centre, so repairable. £33 quid (no new valve, no balancing) seemed a bit steep but it had good tread and a new one would be £100 or so.

That sounds a lot more than my local ATS charges to fix a standard puncture ! Surprising there was no balancing unless they fixed it without taking the tyre off ? If so, even more expensive !

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Tue 11 Jun 2024 16:23
Renault Clio - Punctures - catsdad

I had to pass ATS to get the indie place I used. The trouble with our ATS is the queuing. Even with a pre-booked appointment I’ve had to wait up to two hours while they deal with walk-ins who flutter their eyelashes better than me. I now use an on the drive outfit for new tyres.

No balancing for the puncture as they marked the tyre and refitted it spot on. They road-tested it after. No vibration since. Still dear though. My last repair was 10 years ago in Spain. It was a Sunday but still only 5 euros.

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Tue 11 Jun 2024 17:17
Renault Clio - Punctures - Andrew-T

No balancing for the puncture as they marked the tyre and refitted it spot on. They road-tested it after.

If they road-test after every puncture repair, that may account for the extra cost. ATS certainly don't do that - not mine anyway. But they do put each wheel on the balancer, which should do the same job ?

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Wed 12 Jun 2024 11:39
Renault Clio - Punctures - John F

The trouble with sealant gunge is that it makes a hell of a mess inside the wheel, and if it distributed unevenly will affect the balance. It's a pain to clean it all out when the tyre is eventually changed. Some years ago I got a nail in a front tyre, so I bought a repair kit for less than a tenner and plugged it. It lasted till the tyre eventually needed renewal, thus saving the expense, and more importantly the hassle, of getting a professional repair. (I swapped it for the rear wheel - less stress and safer if sudden deflation). And yes, our cars all have spare wheels - I'd never go without one..

Edited by John F on 12/06/2024 at 11:42

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Thu 13 Jun 2024 02:08
Renault Clio - Punctures - edlithgow

Sticky string kits here cost under a fiver equivalent and would do, IIRC 6 tyres, double if you cut the strings in half, and you get a crummy pair of pliers to pull the nail out with, which you have to do to plug the hole. Used them a lot without any problem on my Sierra, never needed to on the Skywing.

Believe the "official" story on sudden deflation is its worse on the back. This is a bit counterintuitive, like the "best tyres on the back" story, though not the same thing.

tiredefects.com/should-better-tires-be-installed-f.../

"...a front tire blowout will still be better and easier to manage than a back tire blowout."

However, that site also includes the line "Newer or better tires should almost always go in their back of the car or truck in order to minimize the risk of a front tire blowout." which doesn't appear to make sense (as well as being actually illiterate) but then they are lawyers.

Possibly they mean "minimise the adverse consequences of a front tyre blowout" since best-tyres-on-the-back couldn't reasonably be held to minimise the risk of a front blowout actually happening.

M'lud

Edited by edlithgow on 13/06/2024 at 02:22

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Tue 18 Jun 2024 01:13
Renault Clio - Punctures - edlithgow

Last week I had a slow puncture repaired. It had lost about 2psi in a month. It turned out to be a nail in the centre, so repairable. £33 quid (no new valve, no balancing) seemed a bit steep but it had good tread and a new one would be £100 or so.

I would never leave a nail in a tyre but it’s not necessarily an MoT failure. I know people who’ve had an advisory and left it in. In an Audi TT no less.

Going over my extensively-welded-by-me Marina pre-MOT I found a nail in one of the tyres. I assumed this was an automatic fail and elected to leave it in as a sacrifice to the MOT centres Profit God, hoping that selling me a tyre might deflect them from another more expensive failure.

Unfortunately the tester was too busy belting my welds with a BFH (Rules, what Rules?) to notice it, but it seemed to be getting longer, and was pointing at the back of his head, so I felt obliged to point it out. He was getting tired by then anyway.

Was right in the middle of the tread, and emminently repairable, but of course this was not offered. IIRC I insisted on a remould, which they didn't like, but fitted.

This was before I knew about sticky strings. If they were available in the UK by that time, they weren't easy to find.

Edited by edlithgow on 18/06/2024 at 01:17

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