On 08/30/08 11:20 pm Andy Asberry wrote:

My tire is punctured by a small screw. I bought a tire plug repair kit, but
it seems like I have to first make the puncture hole *bigger* before I stick
in the plug.

Of the hundreds type of sealant/adhesive sold in home stores, is there one
that I can inject into the puncture (this won't make the hole bigger) and
would cure to the consistency of tire rubber?

My experience of 42 years in the tire business: 22% of the flats we
repaired were because of leaking plugs. Generally because the plug was
inserted at 90 degrees to the tread and most of the time the object
that penetrated the tire went in at some other angle. In effect, the
"repairer" created a second hole. This style of "repair" was a MAJOR
cause of ply separations.

Method of patching aside, you want to remove the tire and inspect the
inside. Maybe the nail that punctured the tread also chewed up the
sidewall when the tire went down. You plug the hole, air it up and
head down the road. That is when the weak spot on the sidewall gives
out.

So if you have the tire dismounted for inspection, why not use the
recommended procedure which is to plug the puncture to exclude
moisture from the steel cords and place a patch over the plug to seal
the air chamber?

No outside plug repair is considered permanent; even by the
manufacturer. Most tire manufacturers will not warranty a tire
separation caused by an improper repair unless you have bought one of
their warranty certificates; which, like all insurance, is prepaid
repair/replacement.

I'm sure I had heard that steel-belted radials (which I suppose is what
all tires are these days) were not to be (in fact perhaps not even
*allowed* to be) plugged, so I was surprised that a tire repair place
was planning to plug a punctured tire. They insisted that plugging was
the standard method, and the tire did in fact last another 50K miles or
so before the whole set was replaced.

Perce