Piece of metal in Nanoenergy tire

Follow your dealer's advice. I wouldn't think speeds at or under highway limits would be a problem.

 

I blew out a Nano Energy last week (damn pothole). My solution was to replace the two front tires with Nokian WRg3s so that I would have better snow traction for this winter season. I'll rotate the Nokians to the rear in the spring.

JeffD

 

Did you get a look at the metal piece, how wide is it? And how close to edge of tread? It might be repairable, depending.

 

I have seen cars with 2, 3 or even 4 different brands or models of tyre - I wouldn't be overly concerned. As far as I know, you can still get a roadworthy certificate (MOT etc) without reference to make or model of tyre - have to be the same size and have legal tread depth.

However, it is usually advised that the driving wheels (in this case FRONT) should be similar.

With the old system of rotating 5 tyres, you would often get 2 , maybe same brand, but with different wear amounts on the same tyre. Current 4xtyre rotation shouldn't have that effect.

 

I'm not that knowledgeable about tires, but it sounds a little iffy, replacing a single tire, and a different make/model. I'm assuming it's hard/impossible to the OEM's. How many miles on the odometer? They will charge you for this I'm thinking?

My first flat experience with our Prius, a small finishing nail, a little less than an inch from tread edge, I brought it into dealership. They were adamant the tire was unrepairable, too close to the edge for a kosher repair, where the tire is removed and combo patch/plug applied from the inside.

I took it home, got a plug repair kit, plug repaired it myself. It's still in use, about 5 years later. that strip of metal is more extreme, obviously. Your call, and maybe by now you've pulled the trigger on whatever.

But you might want to try a plug repair. If indeed it's going in on angle it's more of a fight getting the plug through. Keep as much air in the tire as possible, by minimizing the time nothing's in the puncture. Get everything prepped, pull out the metal, immediately put in the reaming tool, and as soon as you pull that out get the plug going in.

The wheel should be off the car for this, you straddle it, and it might help to have an assistant, to steady things and hold the sidewalls if the tire starts to concave on you.

Anyway, you could try, then air it up, see if it holds.

 

Glad you got it patched Jimmy.
Although it's allowed, I would not put a different make of tyre on as a permanent fix.
Different makes and different tyres of the same make have different rubber compounds as well as different tread patterns and grip levels. If you put an odd tyre on the front, you could get the vehicle pulling to one side as if the tracking is out, but a check of the tracking will show it's not. You could go into a spin on heavy braking if the grip levels vary, understeer on cornering as one wheel lets go of its grip and so on. If you have an odd tyre on the rear the pulling to one side is less and the chances of spinning on braking are less due to the fact that most of the braking (70% or so) is done by the front wheels, but you could induce oversteer on cornering as one of the rear wheels lets go. If my dealer doesn't have the tyre I want then I go online and see who does. This is another good reason for having a spare wheel, even if it's a space saver.

 

I think too the nano energy are hard to find in North America. But yeah, repair? Much better.

 

One dealer told me they do not have the factory Toyo OEM tires available. Those are special tires that are only installed on the assembly line. Does that make sense? But he said they have similar Toyo tires for sale.

 

A dealer told me a few years ago that the original tyres on a new car were always a better tyre than "identical" replacements you buy later. He was convinced - I'm not so sure.

Personally I suspect that a worn car with new tyres might have been the difference, not the different tyres.

 

In an ideal world, yes, true - but I had it pointed out that when tyres are past 50% wear, you have the exact same problem with the current 4x tyre rotation pattern. The (in RH Drive (particularly where we have lots of roundabouts)) LH tyres tend to wear faster, and more on their edges than the RH tyres. I presume it would be the opposite on LH Drive cars. Unless you want to spend money flipping them on their rims and putting them on the opposite side (still rotating the same direction), it's just something you live with.

 

I see "GreenX" on our OEM Pilots, but it's not shown on replace same tires.

 

I worked many years in the tire business. Years ago. But at that time the OEM tires were not as high a quality as available replacement tires from tire manufacturers. I still use that as a rule of thumb.

 

I guess it may depend on the tyre source. I remember a RENAULT with Michelin tyres which were French - the replacements weren't French - can't remember where now, but they were quite poor in comparison.

 

I just got some michelin defenders (for another car): they were made in United Kingdom.