Screw in the tire

As a young man many moons ago, I worked in the tire industry. Once while at a Michelin Tire training event, the Michelin trainer made it Very clear that you could install a tire plug in the tire from sidewall to sidewall. I have personally never deviated from that training & have installed many plugs over the years in the sidewall of tires that I've owned, never any issues with this.


Rob43

 

It may not be a legal requirement, but the shops don't want the liability.

 

Yeah, I also think it's more of a liability issue. I suspect that once you get outside of that approved patch/plug area, the repair is a little less reliable. Doesn't mean it will fail, but they don't want the extra risk.

 

I did plug repairs on a couple tires on our Prius so far. In both cases they were less than one inch from edge-of tread. Maybe three-quarter inch clear at most. This was old-school plug repair, not the kind the pros typically do now, with a disc on the inside of the tire. The disc style of plug is bulkier, does become problematic near the tread edge, but the old school plug repair just has a skinny cord loop on the inside.

With the first repair, I first took the wheel/tire to the dealership, and they deemed it unrepairable. This got me researching plug repairs, I got a Black Jack kit, did the deed.

Both repairs I've done were about 6~7 years back now. One was an OEM tire, that I finally retired this spring. The other was on one of the snow tires, and it's on the car right now.

I would look for yourself, see where that screw is, exactly how close to the edge. If you can, post a picture.

 

It all comes down to profit...

What makes more money, a $5 dollar plug or a ~$100 to ~$150 tire sale ?


Rob43

 

I've been plugging tires that got nails, screws, etc. using those sticky strings on many vehicles like cars, trucks, motorcycles, ATVs, farm tractors (except airplane tires) for 30+ years and NEVER had any problem regardless of what tire shops and dealers have told me against about it. One time I even had to use 2 of those sticky strings because the puncture (ATV tire got hit by sharp edge of a rock) was too big in the middle of nowhere in Paiute in the Utah mountain. Lots of time removing/reinstalling the wheel on the vehicle takes more time than plugging on the side of the road. I always carry a patch kit and electric air pump especially on long road trips.

 

One of the MANY bad things that you have to deal with in a post-hurricane world is lots and lots and lots of nails and screws on the roads from debris removal and reconstruction - and so I've had the opportunity to patch and plug tires on just about every vehicle I've owned.
As a matter of fact, my 06 still has a patch on one of its $220 Michelin tires.

Fortunately.....I live in a small town and personally know someone who owns a local tire shop, so I have access to a shop that will apply patches pretty much from sidewall to sidewall.
Failing this, I would not never hesitate to plug a tire that a tire shop was uncomfortable patching or plugging.
I've never had one fail, but even if a plug or patch DID fail then I would simply be left with what I started with......a tire with a hole in it.
As stated above....
This is a lawyer/profit thing rather than a safety thing.

Many people think that if a patch or a plug fails catastrophically than the tire will explode and you will die screaming in a fiery car crash.
I'm thinking that the air will simply seep out of the same hole and you will have another flat tire....which is why I drive cars with a proper spare.
Even cars that are not thusly equipped usually have a can of goop and a Harbor Freight quality tire pump, which would allow you to limp to a place that can repair/replace the tire.

Fortunately....
One of the many ways Priuses save money is that they have small tires....which are cheaper if the owners choose to replace rather than repair them.

YMMV

 

Yes.
Possible negative impact on:
Tread wear.
Suspension wear.
Ride quality.
Handling.

Not worth the theoretical tiny improvement in gas mileage, IMHO.

Put them back where the sticker says and see what you think.

 

The bulk of the hypermiling community found improved tread life and handling. Ride quality was clearly a negative. And suspension wear was a very open, unanswered question.

MPG improvement just tiny? While certainly not large, whether it is tiny or merely small is a matter of opinion.

 

At 42/40 my tires are wearing almost perfectly evenly.

 

Yeah, it sucks.
I recently got a screw in my tire.
Big Roofing Screw.

I'm months from replacing the tires anyway, but wanted to wait until this Spring or Summer, I felt I safely had one winter left.

I guess I was lucky because the screw was in the surface area of the tire, and the damage was repairable. So I get the few months without having to replace the tire or tires ASAP. So far the patch has held fine.

But if you get a screw in the sidewall? Yeah it sucks. All legitimate tire shops won't repair it, or even try to repair it.

 

On a couple of our previous cars, boosted pressures very significantly improved the tread wear patterns. Though those cars were of the same era and had the same 26 psi recommendation label as the infamous and deadly Ford Explorer / Firestone fiasco, where too-low manufacturer recommendations were later determined to be one of multiple faults. I haven't taken the manufacturer pressure label as gospel ever since that fiasco was exposed.

Boosted pressures also cured the premature hydroplaning problems in those cars.

I haven't done a treadwear vs pressure comparison on any subsequent cars, instead uniformly choosing higher pressures than labeled. But I have noticed that the gloom-and-doom treadwear warnings of the naysayers have fallen completely flat. At least for my vehicles. I get significantly more uniform and even wear nowadays than back in the old days.

 

I had a problem with really fast wear on my front two snow tires last year. The wear was even, but the problem was the front wheels would just break loose and spin if I tried to accelerate too quickly. I don't have any record of what pressure I kept them at, but it wouldn't be any lower than the door sticker recommendation. I've noticed that if the pressure is too high the front wheels will spin. So I think that was the problem with the snow tires, I think I had them at around 40 or maybe higher. This season I've kept them at 37-38, and I've had almost no front wheel spin. It's also possible that my acceleration style has changed, but I don't think it has much.

Apparently, this article says that a string plug alone is an improper repair. They say only a plug and patch combo should be used. Unsafe Tire Repair Methods Persist Despite Strong Evidence of Dangers

Michelin seems to agree.
Car Tire Repair | Michelin | Michelin

The owner's manual from Bridgestone says the same thing.

 

Sure that is possible. But it depends on the brand and type of tire.
Results for different tires might be exactly the opposite.

 

Yes, they might be exactly opposite. But so far here and back at other forum where I used to hang out, negative treadwear examples with increased pressure have been very sparse compared to the positive treadwear findings.

 

Some gen2 owners were seeing excess wear of the side tread when using the recommended pressures.

Snow tires use a softer rubber that doesn't like warmer temperatures.

I've had some tire spin from a stop when on an incline, but can't say if it was because of pressure, the tire's wear, or the tire model. Had some poor snow traction last year, but the all seasons were down to 3/32 inch back then.

 

The implication here is that the pressure is the CAUSE of that........and I think that is a BIG stretch.
I think alignment is a MUCH more likely (major) cause.