Tire Patched- any effect on performance?
 

I just had a nail removed from my tire and had it patched. They put in this orange stem into the hole. Does anyone know the impact this will have on Temperature stability, etc? Will it negatively impact the effective speed rating? Not that I drive that fast anyhow, but just curious.

The police dept's., CHP do not drive on patched tires! Nail in the tire, the tire is replaced! Something to think about!:tiphat:

I would consider that the speed rating would be compromised. I've driven just fine on patched tires and even raced them at auto-cross (< 70m/h), but I wont drive them at high speed on the track. A high speed blowout is a rather major event, so even if the chance is less than 1% you don't want to take that chance. If you're just driving it on the road at fairly normal speeds you should do fine.

:iagree:

I asked my dad - who worked at B.F.Goodrich. If they use the correct patch and procedure - the speed rating is not compromised. The biggest problem is water infiltration of the steel inside the tire belts.

He also mentioned that an under-inflated a tire has a compromised speed rating.

Actually even a properly inflated tire can have a compromised speed rating. Typically the inflation requirements increase with speed as well as load to reduce the amount of sidewall flex and hence heat. But that's for sustained speeds above 120 mph.

Here's a decent article on tirerack.
Tire Tech Information - Air Pressure/Load Adjustment for High Speed Driving

Great- thanks guys.

Well i just walked down stairs to my car to find a screw in the side of my tyre!!! Ahh always my luck!!! not even 2500km on the tyre!!!!
Sent it in now to see if it can be patched.... :shakes head:

Driving small distances at speeds under 45 is okay in my opinion. But any highway driving is not reasonable. You should just change all 4 tires. Or buy 4 and change that one nailed tire.

WTF how does a screw get into the side of a tire? And btw, a hole in the sidewall sounds dangerous, imo.

IMO, I would think it safe for highway driving and below. I would take it easy and monitor your tire pressure.

Most blowouts occur due to underinflation...but in this case, now the tire itself is SLIGHTLY out of balance - to the point where you more than likely won't feel the vibration caused by it, but it's not completely balanced before.

I'd take it easy. I'd also replace the tire as soon as your able. If it's your DD, then with the colder temps coming around you'll probably be fine until spring.

Sidewall = replace. No question.

Is it an OEM tire or a replacement set? I ask becuase my local tire dealer always gives a prorated discount for replacements, depending on the mileage.

From what I understand, a puncture to the sidewall should not be repaired. Its not that it can't be done, it's just not advisable for safety reasons. The edges of the tires take a lot of load in turns and its right near where the edges of the belts are.

Hey Eric, that's a nice red Z...planning an an Eclipse upgrade? :tup:

Yes, I do plan on up grading my Spyder, hopefully by next year. I'm in no rush but hanging out around here does make it very difficult to wait. :driving:

Cool, save them pennies, bro. Hell, I'm picking one up next week, and hanging here makes it tough. :icon17:

I don't even have it yet, and the OG is already asking for pics.

as mentioned before, monitor tire pressure you will be fine. If you routinely travel at extreme speeds at that point the probability will have it where something else will play a larger factor in creating an incident than a patched tire.

Its a replacement, but the same make and model of the OEM. I actually had a blowout in the sidewall about 2 mos ago and had to replace that tire. This time they were able to patch it.

Which dealer do you go to Steve? thanks.

I drove my 350 with 3 patches, they were actually plugs.... two in one rear tire and one in the other, never had any issues, but this was daily driving and NO track. As long as you are not tracking the car, I think you would be fine.

John

Town Fair Tire, but I dunno if they are in Cali..........

zero impact whatsoever, you will be fine

I've even done track days on a patched tire before, in my Z, and had no issues. So long as the procedure was done properly, you're good to go

Ridiculous. Do you own an oil field? If I bought 4 new tires for every time I got a nail in a tire, I'd need a second mortgage on my home. I just did a track day with nails in both of my rear tires. I found the nails when I swapped to my winter tires later that week. Guess what...everything was fine.

If you get a nail, get it patched and stop worrying unless you're Michael Schumacher and planning a 24hr Le Mans with your Z.

:iagree:

The tire stores have become masters of quoting "we can't patch that, it will reduce the speed rating", as well as "the nail is too close to the sidewall, we are not allowed to patch it" ................ translation....... "now fork out $350 for a new high performance tire, we're happy to sell you one at our price, forget Tirerack, you have a flat here and now". I had that game played on me about a month ago..... too close to the sidewall? Damn nail was almost 2 inches in from the side of the tire. It's a racket to sell more tires. Then, if the tire is leaking air fast enough and they have you over a barrel, they will suggest "and you might want to spend another $75 for the "road hazzard insurance", so next time this happens you'll get a new tire. But guess what, if down the road the new tire happens to pick up a nail, suddenly you hear: "oh, it's ok, this is one we can safely patch" :eek:

as an experiment ive plugged my own tire in the past using those off-the-shelf plugs
you push into the hole with a tool and pull out and cut.

even after a year or so and more than 10K miles through both summer and winter,
no issue. for street even those do fine. if you had it plugged from the inside out
at a tire store, im sure they will hold up even better. my previous car running
GSD3's had a 1/4" sized huge plug in there done professionally and was able
to run it the remaining life of the tire with no issue.

:iagree:

After my incident mentioned above, I did a lot of internet research and came to your same conclusion, then went to Pep Boys and bought one of those kits...... it's now in the rear hatch of the Z.

John

for those who drove fast on patched tires and got no blowout, it simply means that has not happened yet. Not necessarily mean it is safe and you are risk-free.

Important. you run on the patched or you run on the new and get nailed... The result could be the same... it costs your life..it costs you a new tire or/and rim.

Drive safe.

Here is the right answer. As an ex-tire designer, your biggest issue will be long term reliability. The biggest problem with patching is the time period before it happened. What causes a failure in the tread of a patched tire is the breakdown of the belts, by rusting - all it takes is some water that got in the hole at any time. The water travels down the belts, (and probably won't be noticed initially at all), but what happens is the belts start to rust and separate from the rubber, get weak, and then the real problem happens (break). I will patch a tire just to get somewhere or until I have the time to replace. I never run a tire that has been patched longterm. After designing tires (for one of the best tire companies), and working for a car company and being able to visit other tire manufactureres and diagnose tire failures, I would never keep and drive on a patched tire - just not worth the risk.

How is water getting into the tread? If the nail goes in and there isn't a leak, then the seal (now including the nail) is water tight. If there IS a leak but the tire has not gone flat, any water would be expelled from the defect. The only way I could see water infiltrating is if the tire is allowed to go flat.

Doesn't take much, you assume you have a perfect seal while the nail is in there, which will never be the case, with the pressure build up and how much the treads/belts shift during every rotation into the contact patch. Again it is usually never noticeable until it fails later on. Usually when you get a nail, there is a slow leak, even if it is very slow (not noticeable over days), there is some leak, hence an opportunity to get water in. It could just be condensation over night, from a warm/cold/warm condition. Now if you never drive through the rain or in any puddles, etc, and your weather is stable, then you have a better chance. It is like car insurance, you gamble with something happening - with tires, it isn't worth it to me, I drive this car like it should be driven, and a failed tire on an on/off ramp/back road, would be not be a good situation (over $200) - and I have seen this happen to tires many, many times.

^^^^ best tire compaine? was it michelin. By the way I agree with every thing you said. Firestone learnd this lesson twice. I was a classpector for Michelin for meny years and Father was head of QA/QC at the Bridgewater plant.

^^^ Yes it was. I used to design the OEM tires for BMW, Honda, Porsche, Acura, etc - I was in the High Performance division at MARC. After the Explorer/Firestone debacle, I went to Ford to help them out, and was able to work with/view all of the tire companies.

^^^ i got a tonne of over time for that issue. ONly did a little time in the Granton plant on the HP tires. they would however send excess tires to us to run on the ris as they had proplems with high spots in the KM. Man if I had a $ for the amount of tires we scraped they were only a visual defect i'd have alot of money.