Is this tire toast?

[atgcpaul]

Coming home from work the other day with my window open and I hear an all too familiar click-click-click as I'm driving down the road. Sure enough, another screw has found my tire. My tires are total screw magnets! This one is in the right rear tire. I checked my other tires and there's one in the middle of the left rear tire, too, but it's a different style of screw. (And while on vacation last week, the rental also got a screw in the front right tire!) The TPMS hasn't gone off so they aren't leaking bad at all.

In the past I take the tire in and my mechanic patches it. Good as new. You think this one is too close to the sidewall? Shame because there's still a lot of tread on it. The front tires have less tread but they'll be good for a while. They all have 30K miles. I was thinking about rotating those to the back, probably need one new tire to replace this one, and do you think I'll need another new tire to balance out the new tire?

I'm staring down the barrel of an upcoming car insurance bill as well as taxes I'll owe on April 15 so that's why I'm being stingy. However, if replacing just one tire is going to cause a wreck, then I'll get 2 tires (and hopefully that's all I need).

[cwsmith]

Paul,

I'd take it in to your favorite tire service and have them take a look at it. In most cases the tire can be permanently repaired from the inside at a pretty low cost. (If you're a regular customer, they might even just do a 'courtesy fix' for it.

Up here, I use Monroe. Last year I bought four new tires and about two months later I ran into something similar, only in my case the tire was flat the next morning. So I took it to my regular Monroe dealer (my wife and I are on a first-name basis with them, including a couple of the mechanics). They pulled the tire, found a nail, did the repair and I was good to go.) I'm overly safety conscience and questioned the safety of a 'repaired' tire (I drive fairly fast) and was assured it would never be a failure. So, about 10,000 miles later and I haven't had a problem at all (no pressure loss, etc.).

I guess it's not like the old days when such a puncture meant a new tire or two, and/or you continually lost pressure on the repair.

Hope this helps,

CWS

[dbhost]

Paul,

I spent a LOT of years out of high school, through college and it took me a while because I had to work my ex and then myself through college, working doing automotive tire and suspension work.

You are solid in assuming that the screw is too close to the sidewall. There is no way I would patch that screw hole and want my family riding around on it.

Having said that, if you have a plug kit handy, you might take the screw out yourself. That looks like it MIGHT be a short self tapping screw and it might not have actually penetrated the carcass of the tire. HOWEVER, you MUST have a plug kit ready just in case. If it does leak, plug it, and get into a tire shop and have the tire replaced.

[tfischer]

My local tire shop had a diagram up (designed to sell you road hazard insurance) that basically showed that anything outside of that center tread area was considered "sidewall" and "not repairable". Since yours is well outside of that center area I'd assume the tire is indeed "toast" unfortunately.

[Black wallnut]

That is not a sidewall puncture and is an easy fix for a tire shop.

[All Thumbs]

That is awful close to the side wall, I predict they won't want to repair that.

[cwsmith]

Yes, but it's still within the tread area and we don't know the angle of the penetration or how deep is may be. The whole point is to have it examined by a professional, and then a determination can be properly made. While a new tire may be in order, replacing the tire without a proper inspection is a bit premature.

CWS

[tfischer]

Right, you wouldn't replace it before having it checked. But I thought the question was "do you guys think this is toast"? And to that, I said "yes" (and still believe that to be true)

[atgcpaul]

For simplicity sake, let's say this tire does need to be replaced. But what about the other tire in the rear?

There will be more tread on the brand new tire than on the other rear tire. Is that going to cause an issue for alignment or future wear if they both aren't replaced?


Thanks,
Paul

[TB Roye]

I worked the CHP for many years as a Auto Tech to patch a tire the hole had to be at least in on the other side of the Channel next to where your screw is. I would never patch a CHP tire due to the high speed they are required to. Most reputable tire shops wouldn't touch your time to close to the side wall. I don't even patch my personal vehicle tires unless it is a very small hole, like finishing nail size. A screw/bolt no the threads could dame the cord. Never use a plug alway from the inside. Do a search on Face Book for an iPhone passcode cracker they are there in the UK

Tom

[cwsmith]

It seems the expert opinions are that your tire is going to need replacement. Sorry to hear that! As I said earlier, I'm pretty safety conscious when it comes to my tires, and therefore think you're going to have to "bite the bullet". Still, get it checked by a reputable tire service!

Now, I never replace one tire. As you mentioned, there's wear/tread differences. My experience as a driver is simply that having one new tire with full thread is going to throw the dynamics of motion out of line. Nothing technical or scientific here that I base that conclusion on, it just doesn't seem like something I'd be comfortable with hurtling down the road at 70-plus.

I'm interested to read how the other participants feel about it though,

CWS

[Black wallnut]

I was wrong..... https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...DfW3ug&cad=rja

[LCHIEN]

bye, bye, tire.

[capncarl]

You are doing the right thing by replacing this tire to protect your family. A bad thing about tires that are damaged this way is they still have a way of finding their way into the used tire market when used tires with good tread are snapped up by used tire resellers and foreign market. Unless there are some serious cuts on the bead it will be patched and sold. Who knows, someone that buys this tire could have a sidewall failure and still hurt someone. Maybe the way to retire a sidewall damaged tire is by taking a box knife to the sidewall!
capncarl

[dbhost]

You are doing the right thing by replacing this tire to protect your family. A bad thing about tires that are damaged this way is they still have a way of finding their way into the used tire market when used tires with good tread are snapped up by used tire resellers and foreign market. Unless there are some serious cuts on the bead it will be patched and sold. Who knows, someone that buys this tire could have a sidewall failure and still hurt someone. Maybe the way to retire a sidewall damaged tire is by taking a box knife to the sidewall!
capncarl

When I worked for the tire dealer, we used a hole saw on bad tires to keep them from hitting the used market and causing a liability for us.