Fix a flat in a can

[GSV]

Plugs work pretty well and most auto parts stores carry lots of tire repair kits.

You may want to contact Kumho and describe the location of the puncture. See what they say re: the viability of plugging the tire.

A lot depends on the construction of the tire and its radial belts. There are a bunch of ways the sidewall and tread belts interact and are connected. It may be OK to plug these based on their construction and / or the location of the puncture.

It sounds like Canadian Tire is using a blanket CYA policy.

Good Luck!

 

[manicrodder]

I read about a product in a car mag 5 or so years ago and purchased a can for each vehicle. Intially, I could not find the product and contacted the maanufacturer. The prodct was available by another name in AZ(Repair Safe) and was available at Wally World. I cant remember the original name in the mag but it is made by IQ Products out of Houston. I have not had to use the product. The advantage of this product is no acids and more importnant, no water which leads to internal corrosion. Permanent repair is stated on the can. The magazine(upon testing) and rep both both attested to "seal it and forget it" quality. The disclaimer is present on the can to have the tire checked for,obvious reasons as you now find on everything. It was competively priced with other products. You could place the tire on the rear upon treatment if you want to be safe. My wife's Dad used a case of the early flat repair in the 70's. Each appliction would last a while Then the leak would appear again. Once the tire was removed the interior was a mass of soap and incredible rust. He kept the rim and repaired the tire for 7.00, about 1/3 the price of his sealers which indicated temporary repair.

 

[Robbie Alexander]

quote:

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Originally posted by Patman:
I ended up ordering a new tire from the same online store I got them from last time. I think it's the safest way to go since it's my wife's car and she takes my 2yr old son in it all the time.

---

Yup, it is better to replace.

Fix-it-flat can throw the balanc of the tire off too, could make things bad in an EE situation. IT doesn't work in most applications.

Although there are products on the market that will work in most cases, thy are designed for OFF ROAD only.

As far as the plugs and patches, yes, Liability issues. It can be fixed as long as the tread does not come apart.

I have had this happen about a dozen times. And it ALWAYS happens when you don't have the road hazard. Well, almost always. I wish I had more money, I'd self-insure, 'cause those warranties usually never pay for their self.... always better to self insure if you can.

 

[Gary Allan]

Wow! You guys have vastly different perceptions and experiences north of the border (and some of you in the States here, as well).

Tire plugging has been around for over 30 years ...what has occured to make it a CYA item of late?? I can still get a tire plugged for $7 down at the local Sunoco garage when we get the ocasional nail in the tread ...and we're not in some provincial one watering hole hamlet either.


I've used fix-a-flat and have had decent experience with it for the limited times that I've used it. Once it worked so well we couldn't find the leak when I went to get it repaired.

I've also "tubed" a tubeless tire a few times. Perfectly legit technique.

I don't know where your thoughts are with this ...but if you can't plug a tire (as some of you seem to be leaning toward) ..and you can't use a "fix-a-flat" type thing ....what in the hell are you supposed to do? Replace a tire EVERYTIME you get a nail in it???? This is a "non" option in my realm of economic reality.

 

[ALS]

It is suppose to be a temporary fix. These fix a flat products are meant for short term used. You get a flat on the road it will get you to where your going. You should get the tire repaired correctly as soon as possible. I keep a can in my car just in case. The mini spare in my car is suppose to be good for only 50 miles.

 

[Steve S]

Put an innertube in the tire.

 

[Rick in PA]

I suspect that the concern about repairing the tire is related to the potential for catastrophic failure. If you think about the way a radial tire is made, there are lots of plies of reinforcing material in the tread area, on the other hand, the sidewall is simply strands of cords running from the tread to the bead. The tread area is very robust, the sidewall is very, um, delicate. (It helps if you've seen a radial tire run flat for several miles, the sidewalls look like fringe from "a surrey with the fringe on top".) Anyway, these radial cords are under tremendous stress due to the air pressure in the tire. There's not a lot holding one sidewall cord on to it's neighbor except the molded rubber. If a radial cord is damaged, or broken, there's a real potential for the sidewall of the tire to suddenly fail (by ripping open). If this happens, it's probably going to happen when the tire is nice and warmed-up, running at maximum stress (speed), a bad time to have a blow-out.

I use to repair tires a long time ago. For small holes in the tread area, nothing beats a patch. For bigger holes, we use to have something called a plug-patch. As the name implies, it was a patch with a stem of rubber in the center. These were nice for bigger holes as the plug part of the patch filled the hole nicely. I never liked fix-a-flat. It made doing the repair job messy and added time to the work.

 

[tadaima]

I wouldnt mess with the fixaflat stuff either, heard many tire places just dont like dealing with tires with all the gunk inside.

I personally don't like to go cheap on tires, especially with my motorcycles.

I have had blown outs in the past and would like to avoid them at all cost.

IF you really need some sort of repair, I would suggest a full patch.

 

[Gary Allan]

Rick,

I agree for sidewall repairs. That's an "ify" thing that I'd shy away from.

..but the rhetoric that I'm reading above indicates that plugging has become taboo for ANY repair (or have I mis-interpretted the above posts?).

I can't quite see this ..since I would think that a failure of the repair would be no more catostophic than the original damage. Let alone that the gum rubber that they tend to use in the plug technique (which varies from an actual "cylindrical arrow" to a strip of gummy rubber folded in half and applied with a modified screw driver) is vulcanized to the surrounding material.

I'm all for safety. Don't get me wrong...but I refer to my original post. People have been doing plug repairs for over three decades that I've personally know of (was in the trade in 1973) and I have yet to hear of any warning ...ban ...service bulletin ...recall ...class action law suit in regard to tire plugging.

What I'm saying is that this "paranoia" is just that, preemptive preventive policy ...having very little to do with actual events ..but merely "potential" events ..even to the point of obscure events.

[soap box warning!!!!]

I may sound a bit obsessive on this ..but I've encountered it far too many times ... some j-o who won't do something that I want simply because it's out of his realm of commonality. He then begins to turn his brain over and over in an earnest effort to find reasons "why not" to do it. This impedence is the wet cement in the way of progress.

This type of thinking is just the next evolution of that individual. That is, the standard school of thought is to dive to the center of the "envelope" at all costs.

 

[Patman]

I bought 4 new Kumho KW17 snow tires for my wife's Civic just a couple of weeks ago and now she's got a screw in the first section of tread next to the sidewall. Canadian Tire refuses to fix it as they say it's too close to the sidewall and if they tried to fix it then it wouldn't hold. (they could be saying this just out of liability though)

So my only real alternative is to buy one more new tire, which is a pain since I can only get these tires online from British Columbia, and it'll take at least a week to arrive. The leak is slow enough (only a couple of psi per day) that I can leave it for now, but I was just wondering if those fix a flat things actually work as a permanent fix, and if I could simply remove the screw and then use one of these products. One can I looked at today claimed to be able to fix 10 nail punctures! So would one of those products actually work permanently or are they really only temporary fixes?

 

[Chris142]

It's a liability thing. They are not supposed to patch a tire when the hole is near the side.

I have patched many of my own tires that had a hole near the side and never had a problem. I even patched a bullet hole about 2 inches above the bead once but that truck never saw a paved road or went over 20 mph.

I dunno if I would drive that tire on the street.

Personally I would not mess with fix-a-flat.

I don't know what your laws are concerning plugs but I would look into that option. Plugs rock! But might not be legal where you live.

I have a plug kit and have not had a tire profesionally fixed in about 8 years. I just plug my own. The plugs I use are a red rope lookin thing about 3 inches long and Pep Boy's has them (here anyway).

 

[buster]

Same thing happended to me. I bought Michellin tires back in Sept. and last week I got a flat. The screw was borderline sidewall/tread. They plugged it. I had to get a new tire though. You can't keep a tire that was punctured on the side wall area or even near the side wall at the top of the tire. I should have bought the road hazzard plan for the extra money and the tire would have been free.

 

[cryptokid]

whats wrong with patching the sidewalls? i have done that many times before from getting cuts when off roading. i drove that same car with the same patched tires on the interstate at 70mph daily. never had a problem.

 

[Patman]

I ended up ordering a new tire from the same online store I got them from last time. I think it's the safest way to go since it's my wife's car and she takes my 2yr old son in it all the time. It sucks though since it cost me $107 (Canadian) for just one tire (it costs $27 to ship one tire but when I ordered all four the last time it was only $10 per tire)

 

[Bob Woods]

FixAFlat has acid in it that eats your rims, plus if you take it to a tire place they aren't going to be willing to brake it down for you. Some places ever refuse to work on rims/tires that have fixaflat in 'em. I used to carry fixaflat until a guy at a tire store informed me, now I carry the plugs for emergency use. But most tire places refuse to repair tires that have plugs in them.

 

[SHOZ]

Plugging is OK as long as it is confined to the tread area. No way in the sidewall. I was at WalMart tire shop the other day and they have a chart that shows the areas they will repair with plugs.

I have used the fix a flat before and now confine it's use to non-automotive equipment due to balancing problems.

 

[eljefino]

The best way to repair a tire is a patch from the inside out. With a plug from outside, centrifugal force is always working on it. Plus you don't know if a belt will shift guillotining your plug and losing air again.

Plugs are illegal in Maine. Not that every square inch of every tire is inspected every time but if you lost a plug and got in an accident, odds are you'll be found at fault.

Plugs are handy for the middle of nowhere. But it's human nature that if it holds, one would forget about it.

 

[cousincletus]

I have plugged several tires with no issues. I use the type that looks like gummy rope and they always hold well throughout the life of the tire. I think that Canadian tire is just covering their butts because not everybody drives or maintains their tires the same. However, I

check my tire pressure regularly and never drive at high speeds (over 65-70 mph).

 

[Brett Miller]

Good decision on buying a new tire. I used to work in a garage right out of college and you wouldn't believe the mess fix-a-flat will make of the rim! Plugs in the tread do work fine. I have had a plug in my one truck tire for over 40,000 miles now.

 

[Ed]

While the guys at the tire shops don't recommend it, I have had sidewall repairs done several times and never had a problem. (Patch from the inside) In each case it was a very small almost pinhole size puncture and I'm not about to throw away a perfectly good tire with that small a hole in it. One shop insisted on putting a disclaimer on the repair order and told me to keep an eye on the tire.
As far as putting tubes in tubless tires DON'T EVER DO IT WITH A VEHICLE THAT IS TO BE DRIVEN AT NORMAL HIGHWAY SPEEDS. They get so hot that the rubber will actually melt and could possibly explode. The internal surface of a tubless tire in contact with a tube causes excessive heating due to friction.
Ed