Patching a Leaky Tire

[twiggy]

Noticed one of my tires on my 2000 Sienna had a very slow leak, pulled the tire and found a very small nail between the treads, pulled the nail, now I have a very fast leak. Tire has plenty of life left, so what’s the best way to patch this hole? Is this an easy DIY? Appreciate any advice thanks.

Topic

[pcmdjason]

Discount Tire and Pep Boys will do a plug for you for free.
Most patches though places will charge for.

[twiggy]

I would have plugged it but these are my snow tires as I only use my van to commute to work in bad weather and I didn’t want the remote possibility that I would be doing a tire change on the side of the highway during a snow storm.

[Redeemer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl … q3dDoYRlQg hope it helps

[3SheetsDiesel]

You can get a plug kit from Wal-mart, which should come with a reamer, a plug installer, a little tube of rubber cement and some rope plugs. It has directions printed on the back, or at least it should. If not, here’s how it works.

Use the reamer to open the puncture up a little. Put the plug into the plug installer until the installer is in the center of the plug. Put a small amount of rubber cement on the plug, and then push the plug into the puncture until it’s nearly completely inside, then yank the plug installer out rapidly. If done correctly, the plug will stay in the tire and seal the hole. Use a pair of side-cutters to cut the excess pplug material off.

This should be considered a temporary repair though. I’ve seen a lot of tires come into my shop leaking from the plugs, but on the other side of that coin, when I was working at Saturn that was how we were told to repair tires. Take from that what you will. There is a permanent method of tire repair though, but if you don’t have a tire machine and some patch-plugs you won’t be able to do it yourself. It involves taking the tire off the rim, scuffing the inner liner, putting down some cold vulcanizing compound, pushing a patch-plug through the hole from the inside and the trimming off the excess. the tire will them be reinstalled on the wheel and rebalanced. Most of the places around where I live that service costs roughly $20.

[twiggy]

Thanks 3Sheets for your detailed reply. This isn’t my daily driver so time is on my side. Sounds like the best option would be to pay the 20 bucks to get it fixed properly.

[twiggy]

Update: went to Tire Warehouse on my lunch break had them patch the tire from the inside, they used a patch/plug combo. Exactly $20.

[EricTheCarGuy]

That was a good call, the best fix is always a patch, I’ve plugged plenty of tires but patches are much better and the only recommended repair of many tire manufacturers. Thanks for posting your fix.

[Author]

Replies