I just had a single falken azenis repaired at a shop this morning that had a puncture happen this past weekend.

The puncture wasn't a nail but was a piece of a plastic/metal that's usually attached to a table leg (it's a little plastic circle piece that has a metal screw portion that screws into a table leg and is used to adjust the table sides up and down, if that helps with a visual of what it was). The hole was about the size of a straw, so a little bigger then a regular nail/screw.

So it was patched and fixed but sadly this shop doesn't use a hybrid patch/plug, so after the repair the hole puncture is still there from the outside. I know it's sealed and fixed on the inside but I'm worried about water or other things getting into that hole and damaging the different layers/metal fibers of the tire that's still exposed. (if that's even possible)

I know it'll hold air fine and I don't track the car, and RARELY do i ever drive in the rain if ever...but that exposed hole still bothers me. Should I do anything to fill it or is pretty much...leaving alone ok. Wanted to see if experts at tirerack or anyone else here with experience could give some insight.

 

The puncture area must be sealed for a proper repair -- no open hole thru the tire. Find a proper tire repair shop.

-- Chuck

 

Tried, most big shops and even more specialized ones seem to only use patches. I haven't come across one that uses a hybrid patch/plug yet.

Edit: I actually did find a place that did it, but sadly the owner said he wasn't really comfortable removing the patch that's already on there, to put a new patch plug. He said he wasn't sure if they'd be able to remove the patch and all the glue cleanly to attached the new plug and patch. He said there might be a chance the new patch/plug might come off or wont fully adhere if there was any residual glue and anything else.

He said that if he couldn't remove the old patch cleanly and couldn't get the new patch to stick...that I'd have to buy a new tire at that point. He told that if the new patch i got installed wasn't leaking that I'd just keep it the way it is.

Any thoughts?

 

If your puncture is round, not like someone stick a blade in the tread, this is what you want. Right now you have an open hole in the tire and just the little patch on the inside. Any shop that doesn't use these is just being lazy.


-- Chuck

 

Its not glue, its vulcanizing compound. It 'melts' the rubber, acting more like a weld than an adhesive. That's why shop 2 is apprehensive about a do over. They're right about that.

The issue with a hole like that is air can get between the tire plys, and you can get ply separation. Very dangerous.

Next time stick to your guns and don't let an incompetent shop pressure you into a sketchy repair.

For now, either live with it, and monitor tire closely (ply separation will manifest as a bump in tread, you should feel vibes at highway speeds), or bite bullet on a new tire.

If its a rear tire, you'll probably needapair of new tires. Otherwise old vs newwill have too much difference in diameter, which will cause weird handling issues due to torsen diff sensitivity to unequal tires.

 

It's a front tire thankfully.

I rarely ever drive the car but that doesn't mean i wouldn't worry about it when i DO drive it so yes the hole does bother me. The tires are basically brand new...only about 1k-2k non track miles. I have no idea why it was SO hard to find a shop that had the Hybrid Patch/plug. Most only had patches, and when they saw my wheel, they honestly didn't want to mount and dismount the tire because they were to worried they might scratch it. Only reason this shop did the patch up work was because they had a touchless machine doing the work....more surprised they didn't have a patch plug type considering how expensive their touchless hunter machine was.

 

To put it into perspective though, shops repaired tires like that for years. I had countless tires growing up repaired with a regular old patch. Never had one fail. Not racing on them, but just general driving. I also repaired a number myself back in the day using the old rope style patches when money was short :P

But, the patch plugs are pretty much commonplace now, cheap and they are much better.and reliable. No reason for a shop not to use them.

 

Me too. Used to work in tire shop decades ago while in school. Back then patch was considered best practice. Not many shops did them. More common was the silly rope plug. I repaired many tires using patch. Never had one come back. Some were big holes. One memorable one was a .44 shell casing. So you know how big a hole that was.

Patch plug became common only after I was in the biz. Its way better, but back in the day regular patch was good enough.