What should I do about this nail?

[rationull]

I rotated my tires this morning and found this in one of them.

Looks to me like a really small nail. I really wanted to pull it out and see how long it is but given the tire shops around here are closed today and it may be too close to the sidewall for a repair, I figured if there was a leak after pulling it out I'd be up the creek a little, so I didn't.

Given the location I'm guessing that when it comes out I'll be replacing the tire, which means replacing all 4 tires since this is an AWD vehicle and the tires have some miles on them. I think I'm only going to get another 10k miles or so out of these tires anyway so I won't be too heartbroken if I have to replace them over this. Pressures are normal and there's no detectable leak now.

I'm tempted to leave this for a while and monitor pressures but I'm not sure how much risk there is of the thing getting pulled out on its own. What would you do?

 

[Nick1994]

It might be in a repairable area. If the shop won't replace it, go to a corner tire shop and have them patch it.

 

[fdcg27]

It's been in there for a while, since it's ben worn down even with the tread.
This is probably a repairable spot as well.
It may not actually be all the way through either, although the only way to find this out would be to pull it.
I'd wait until next week, take it to a shop, and then let them pull the piece and see what happens.

 

[silverrat]

That seems more like a small shard of metal rather than a nail. There's no way to really know how deep it goes until you pull it.

I had this honker a couple of months ago and was fully expecting it to be an unrepairable puncture. I was ready to spend $800 on summer sport tires in an obsolete size, but I got lucky and prolonged it for another season.

 

[camrydriver111]

I would pull it out. I've pulled two from my tires. They did not go through the tread.

 

[Panzerman]

Id pull it and plug it, if it leaks at all, which I ma betting it doesn't. Seriously tire plugs are under rated. If you used them, they work, they are cheap and anyone can do it in minutes without removing the tire. The tire shops put out that proganda about tire plugs being dangerous. I have plugged many holes in everything from cars to work trucks without incident. They work.

 

[spasm3]

I would pull it out before it works all the way through. I think you could plug that if it leaks.

 

[Panzerman]

Leave it in there and it will eventually get pushed into the tire. Its in the meat of the rubber, I am betting it wont leak.

 

[53' Stude]

At my work, we don't ever patch or plug anything that's in that area as not much material near the sidewall or that area to begin with. My boss always says "better safe than sorry!"

 

[clinebarger]

Spray some soapy water on it, That will tell if it is leaking/punctured the tire. If it is not leaking...Pull it out with some dykes.

 

[Eddie]

A tire shop will not repair this tire because the nail is in the tread area. If it leaks, I'd plug it. An inside patch is better than a plug but, more costly. Ed

 

[donnyj08]

Get a plug kit and pull it out.

 

[gathermewool]

Originally Posted By: Eddie
A tire shop will not repair this tire because the nail is in the tread area. If it leaks, I'd plug it. An inside patch is better than a plug but, more costly. Ed


I somehow picked up three nails, two of which didn't deflate the tire in my old STI. I noticed this while inspecting them while swapping in winter tires/wheels. The two that were longest were through-punctures and were patched. I believe the cost was no more than $10.

If they had refused to patch them, I would have double-plugged both myself and carried on.

 

[Kuato]

I'd pull it, it looks plenty far away from the edge for a repair if necessary.

 

[stephen9666]

I can't tell exactly how far from the edge it is in the pic. It might be into the "non-repairable" section according to the RMA guidelines.

Pull out the piece of metal and use soapy water to see if it's leaking. I'm going to guess it didn't go all the way through, or you probably would have noticed the leak by now.

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: clinebarger
Spray some soapy water on it, That will tell if it is leaking/punctured the tire. If it is not leaking...Pull it out with some dykes.


Yup this. You can also scalpel down from the groove immediately above it and work it out that way. It could be a pebble, too! Try holding a hard drive magnet near it to see if it's even made of steel.

I vote for letting sleeping dogs lie.

 

[Brybo86]

Originally Posted By: donnyj08
Get a plug kit and pull it out.


This is your answer

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: clinebarger
Spray some soapy water on it, That will tell if it is leaking/punctured the tire. If it is not leaking...Pull it out with some dykes.


+1

 

[rationull]

I have tested it with my favorite soapy water substitute (spit) and it's not leaking now. Also there's been no detectable pressure loss relative to the other tires. Is the fact that it's not leaking now actually a pretty good sign that it's not all the way through? I just assumed that maybe the nail itself would be acting as a seal. I'm pretty sure it's not a pebble as it looks metallic under the light. I've been fooled that way before.

I've never actually used one of the plug kits before and that makes me a bit nervous, especially since this thing is so small and I think I'd have to rough out the hole quite a bit.

I think I'll get a tire shop opinion this week and if they think it's probably repairable then I'll go ahead and pull it and see if it leaks.

 

[ryanschillinger]

Tire shop will tell you not repairable because they want to sell you some tires. So I would pull it out myself and see if it leaks. If so, I would just plug it. Or find a mom n pop tire shop to patch it.