|
Just wondering if anyone has experience of using the tyre inflation kits supplied with many new cars. I have had a few cars myself with these but never had to use one. On one occasion I used a can of the Holts stuff and it worked OK but then the tyre fitter refused to repair the puncture because the tyre was full of the sticky liquid. Is there the same problem with the car manufacturers stuff?
My current car uses Conty self sealing tyres and I have no idea if they work or not, just never had a flat tyre so there could be a nail in one and I don’t know about it and that in its self is scary. I have used external plugs in motorbike tyres as a get you home solution and they work well. There is no substitute for a full sized spare but that does not seem possible with most new cars.
|
Jjust never had a flat tyre so there could be a nail in one and I don’t know about it and that in its self is scary. I have used external plugs in motorbike tyres as a get you home solution and they work well.
Nail literally on head.
I started my working life in a tyre repair workshops, not a tyre fitting bay, a place where everything from car to earthmover tyres were repaired by vulcanisation.
The damage a foreign object entering the tyre near a shoulder, then staying in place whilst the tyre flexes ripping the inner sidewall unseen has to be seen to be believed, fortunately by the time severe damage is done the tyre will usually have deflated anyway.
I would not want to be driving along with some goo constantly refilling the leakage point around said object whilst it finally cut through enough sidewall cords to cause a blow out, much rather the nuisance of a flat tyre, slip the spare on, then someone can remove the tyre to inspect the damage...also i do not agree with plugging tyres as such (different on a bike tyre as much more likely the damage and object which caused it is more obvious), unless they have been removed and inspected first, the outside might look fine but the inner carcass can be a different story altogether.
Spare tyre for me all the way.
|
I started my working life in a tyre repair workshops, not a tyre fitting bay, a place where everything from car to earthmover tyres were repaired by vulcanisation.
I did a bit of that myself after abandoning a scientific career due to crap pay and wife expecting our first child, I had to do something. Ended up as a production supervisor with a major tyre company. I was in the final inspection and repairs section where tyres are inspected, tested, balanced, repaired and categorised before going to the warehouse. Every couple of weeks we had a returns meeting looking at tyres customers said were defective, you can imagine the sort of stuff we had to look at. Under inflation and impact on sidewall were the main culprits. We still made some criossply tyres and its amazing how extensive repairs on them could be.
|
Every couple of weeks we had a returns meeting looking at tyres customers said were defective, you can imagine the sort of stuff we had to look at. Under inflation and impact on sidewall were the main culprits. We still made some criossply tyres and its amazing how extensive repairs on them could be.
As i recall tyres returned for claims used to be sent to the grand title of Tyre Manufacturer's Conference, presumably that was you at one point then.
Yes you had to laugh when a tyre gets sent for claim and the entire inner lining is just the nylon carcass and the rubber inner lining is but a pile of peeled and shredded rubber lying in the bottom of the thing...''no it's never been run flat mate'' :-)
We custom made our own repair patches in those days, both radial and cross ply, it annoys me these days when i hear of people having to scrap perfectly good tyres that are not even run in because of a nail in the shoulder, which some youth tyre fitter has told them, erroneously can't be repaired...no he can't repair it, but it most likely can be repaired as good as new at one of the very good workshops still specialising in the work.
|
|
|
|
|
I get something like one puncture a year, and when my VW Up arrived with a tyre inflation kit, I bought a spare wheel online. Glad I did, as I got a puncture soon after.
My current VW Polo has a spare wheel. I don't trust those kits, and what if the tyre is ripped to pieces? When I get punctures I manage to get to work, albeit 30 minutes late.
|
|
Leif, do you drive huge mileages, or on very litter-prone roads or swarf-littered workshop areas? I haven't had a flat since my current car came with a nail 10 years ago.
|
|
Those tyre inflation kits come with a best before date. What chance of it being far past its best when you come to need it?
|
|
As soon as we purchased our Nissan we brought a space saver wheel and Jack ect for it. I'd rather put that on that rely on some gunk in a can
|
|
i bough a spare wheel off E-thingy but the squirty kit did come in useful when my wheelbarrow got a puncture.
|
|
|
|
Leif, do you drive huge mileages, or on very litter-prone roads or swarf-littered workshop areas? I haven't had a flat since my current car came with a nail 10 years ago.
It's probably a combination of time on the road, the amount of road sweeping and repairs done by the local council (less than it used to be), location and often pure luck. That and the type of tyre and wheel combo.
|
I get something like one puncture a year, and when my VW Up arrived with a tyre inflation kit, I bought a spare wheel online. Glad I did, as I got a puncture soon after.
My current VW Polo has a spare wheel. I don't trust those kits, and what if the tyre is ripped to pieces? When I get punctures I manage to get to work, albeit 30 minutes late.
I am also staggered by this figure, surely way more than normal?. I know this is very much tempting fate, but in the last 20 years i have suffered no punctures in the cars we have had, and 2 in the vans i use for work. One of those was manoeuvring at the end of a road with deep kerbs and a deep covering of snow and one front wheel just happened to drop down from one kerb against another at a right angle to it (so entirely my fault, but annoying as the tyre was 2 weeks old!). The most recent was about 4 years ago and was what i suppose you'd call a 'normal' puncture from a nail or something.
|
|
|
|
SWMBO does a lower mileage than me and covers many of the same roads. She has picked up more simple punctures than me. Her car had my one and only experience of a blow out and tyre shredding moment on the A1(M). Not enough tyre was left to find the cause of deflation. But she also makes a habit of ramming kerbs -shall we say.
|
|
|
|
Leif, do you drive huge mileages, or on very litter-prone roads or swarf-littered workshop areas? I haven't had a flat since my current car came with a nail 10 years ago.
I do about 30,000 miles a year, so a fair bit. Since buying my Polo last year, I’ve had one puncture when the wheel hit a deep pothole, deflation took less than a minute. The hole was 6” deep with sharp sides. All previous punctures were due to nails and screws. I did for two years work on an industrial estate, so that is one source for detritus. But it seems that country roads are littered with bits of sharp metal. I didn’t get any when doing short B road journeys, and long motorway ones.
|
Leif, do you drive huge mileages, or on very litter-prone roads or swarf-littered workshop areas? I haven't had a flat since my current car came with a nail 10 years ago.
I do about 30,000 miles a year, so a fair bit. Since buying my Polo last year, I’ve had one puncture when the wheel hit a deep pothole, deflation took less than a minute. The hole was 6” deep with sharp sides. All previous punctures were due to nails and screws. I did for two years work on an industrial estate, so that is one source for detritus. But it seems that country roads are littered with bits of sharp metal. I didn’t get any when doing short B road journeys, and long motorway ones.
Not helped by the large increase in people littering from vehicles and fly tipping, then smaller items and parts blown onto the road. I had a hairy moment the other day when a discarded plastic bottle got caught in my car's front right wheel well and then made the car slide as it eventually drove over it at 70mph. Two other cars look like they had endured similar incidents with detritous on the road and had pulled over at the nearest lay-by to check their cars over for damage.
As soon as the council clears this stuff, new rubbish appears. I've been lucky never to get a full-on puncture (though I did suffer a blowout on my bicycle from debris on the road many years ago) and just a slow puncture (nail in the tyre) on my previous car (Micra) which was repaired with a plug.
Some roads I know that are badly surfaced I now avoid. Some with damaged speed humps (especially the pimple type) can easily rip open a sidewall. I certainly wouldn't ever trust just having a tyre inflation kit. Those makes that offer full size spares for their cars at reasonable prices and at least fit space (weight) savers deserve much credit.
|
|
Three punctures in the past 10 years..
Swarf: totally destroyed tyre - casing cut.
Nail - puncture.
Scrap metal: puncture.
Spare whee;s fitted to both cars 0 Yaris OE, Jazz aftermarket.
Being stranded in Stoneleigh Warwicks last March in snow (swarf) with unrepairable tyre would not have been my idea of fun withouts space saver spare. (but the journey home at 50 mph on M6 was tedious)
|
|
Some tyres tend to be puncture magnets, i haven't had a proper puncture i can recall for years but we had i think a couple on the previous Subaru Outback when fitted with Nokian Z (similar to Nokian Line) summer tyres, one of which needed a proper vulcanised major repair due to being a shoulder nail hole.
Resistance to punctures and sidewall damage in particular is something normal (not bling) 4x4 owners who go offroad take into account when tyre choosing, lots of discussions about such things on the various forums.
When you see how some drivers abuse their tyres, hit every pothole, hard kerbings, park with the sidewalls bulging half on half of sharp kerbs for hours on end, tyres seldom checked not forgetting the people you see driving around at least one at really low pressure, its amazing the roads arn't littered with blown out tyre carcasses.
Edited by gordonbennet on 02/05/2019 at 08:02
|
|
|
|
Leif, do you drive huge mileages, or on very litter-prone roads or swarf-littered workshop areas? I haven't had a flat since my current car came with a nail 10 years ago.
Just back from ATS - said car picked up a screw about a month ago. I noticed a slight drop in pressure, but after a few days it stayed constant so I left it. Had another look yesterday, poked around a bit and started some bubbles, so decided to get it fixed. Had a couple of other wheels off the 205 balanced at the same time - whole job took the fitter 30-40 minutes because the alloys have solid centres, which meant changing the fittings on the balancer.
All done for £34, good value IMHO.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Just wonder if there is any data or history available from AA,RAC or GreenFlag etc on their experiences of "dealing with" gunk cans of tyre repair stuff. I bet they hate the stuff?
|
|
Used to work in a garage I'm my younger days and I hated the stuff.
When you remove the tyre it was a messy job and the policy of the garage was we don't repair tyres that have have been sealed with it. The wheel needed cleaning and so did the floor and you're overalls.
|
Used to work in a garage I'm my younger days and I hated the stuff.
When you remove the tyre it was a messy job and the policy of the garage was we don't repair tyres that have have been sealed with it. The wheel needed cleaning and so did the floor and you're overalls.
You confirm my experience dan86 that if you use one of these emergency inflation kits you say by-by to the tyre because garages are not willing to do a permanent repair on them.
|
Used to work in a garage I'm my younger days and I hated the stuff.
When you remove the tyre it was a messy job and the policy of the garage was we don't repair tyres that have have been sealed with it. The wheel needed cleaning and so did the floor and you're overalls.
You confirm my experience dan86 that if you use one of these emergency inflation kits you say by-by to the tyre because garages are not willing to do a permanent repair on them.
Indeed - too much trouble for something (a plug) that they would normally charge about a tenner for, especially if someone uses the gunk, then drives a reasonable distance on that damaged tyre rather than swapping it out for a the spare immediately, meaning the damage will get worse (assuming it does expire completely on the way to the fitter), never mind what the gunk will do inside and will require the fitter to spend more time and effort to clean it all out.
|
|
|
|
