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The automotive question thread Part 2


hitmanNo2

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Old thread has been closed so time for a new one.

What are people's thoughts on this?  I was swapping my winter wheels over to summers (yeah, I know.  A little late) and I noticed this piece of wire stuck in my tread.  I tried putting some watery Fairy Liquid on it and no bubbles appeared.  The tyre has lost 3 PSI over the 5 or so months it's been stored which is fairly normal I feel.  I'm tempted to just pull it out but I'm reminded of the below.  I'm thinking the best thing to do is take it to my tyre place, have them pull it out and if it is a puncture, they'll be able to plug it straight away.

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The nerd and ex traffic cop in me says replace it. It could go at any time and cause a crash and you will kill many school children and nuns and fluffy bunnies and baby ducklings etc.

It will probably be ok for a while, but should it fail an MOT you'll have to replace it anyway, sol if you can do, do so now. No idea what car it is, but a cheap ditchfinder tyre is better than a potential blowout. 

And if a traffic cop sees it, they will then crawl over your car looking for further defects...

 

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I'm not sure on the current tread depth but I think it's decent so might be able to get away with just one perhaps.  No replacements local to me so I'll need 3 days to get some.  I think I'll wait until I know I won't need to drive for a few days and pull it out and assess the situation.  Thanks for your advice.

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Top tip - plugs that you put in from the outside of the tyre are total emergency only stuff, they're not MOT compliant (if I remember correctly) and I wouldn't use one on my own cars.

'Normal' puncture plugs are put in from the back of the tyre and pulled through to the 'tread' face, after keying the surface inside the tyre and adding vulcanising compound, and then pressure to ensure a good seal.

 

Personally, I can't see how your tyre there would fail an MOT unless it was pissing air out, it's well within the central 75% of tread width so should be easily patched if if needs it.

 

Is it on a wheel or just a lose tyre? If it's just lose, have a look on the inside and see if it's gone all the way through - if it's on a wheel, take it to a tyre place you trust and ask their opinion. Personally I would find it hard to justify over £10 to have somebody plug a puncture though, it's not particularly a difficult job if you've got the tools.

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Thanks guys.  Glad to see you posting Tink.  Haven't seen you on here for a while.

I did wonder about how temporary the plugs are.  I carry Tyre slime in case of a puncture but might get a plug kit for emergencies if the slime doesn't do the trick.

So the normal puncture patch repairs are OK to do from the inside? Or would you still get a new tyre for peace of mind?

It's on a wheel right now so can't look at the other side.  I would have caught this when I took my summers off but my jack failed half way through and had to finish off by torch light in the freezing cold so just bunged them away without looking properly.  So annoying.  I could have sorted it before I actually needed it.  Oh well.

As it's on the wheel I'd need my tyre place to take it off anyway so DIY fix is a no go.

And yeah, it's a rear tyre.

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