"bm" wrote in message
web.com...
You missed 3 -
(3) Take to fixer to be told it's irrepairable put your hand in your
pocket.

Must be 50 years since I heard "yes mate no prob, that'll be a quid".
Almost invariably it's a new tyre IME.

I was expecting this with the slow puncture (screw embedded in tyre tread)
that I had, and was resigned to writing off a tyre that still had plenty of
tread life left (only done 10,000 miles from new). So I was very surprised
to be told that it could be repaired, so there was just the charge for
removing tyre, repairing it, refitting it and balancing wheel. Forget how
much it was, but a *lot* less than the cost of a new tyre.

The only tyre that I've had that was irrepairable was when I had a blowout
and the wheel rim ran over the bulging part of the tyre wall before I could
stop. That tyre was well and truly mangled :-( I was stranded for ages
because when I came to get the spare wheel out from the cage underneath the
boot, the thread that releases the cage had seized up. If they'd put a
proper hexagonal head on the bolt, same size as the wheel nuts so you can
use the wheelbrace, I could have applied some leverage, but it was a very
broad u-shaped flat groove in the bolt head into which you inserted the
flattened end of the wheelbrace as a crude screwdriver. Crappy design,
Peugeot :-( If you tried to apply any force, the end of the wheelbrace
"screwdriver" came out of the "screw head", even when I pressed my chest on
the wheelbrace while turning it to force it into the notch.

Eventually I had to call out RAC simply for help with getting spare wheel
out. It took the RAC man a while, with blowtorch to heat the nut that had
seized onto the thread and then liberally spraying with water (to cool it)
and then WD40. He was on the point of filing two flats on the bolt head so
he could fit a spanner, when he finally managed to get it moving.

Changing wheel was a doddle. After that I made sure I kept the thread
lubricated with 3-in-1 oil every month or so, and loosened/tightened it
periodically as well.