Forum menu
Some EV tyres you will knacker with sealant, the foam doesn't like it. Mostly it's just a ball ache to clean.As a slight aside, is there any evidence that sealants permanently damage tyres, or simply a ruse by the industry because they don’t like cleaning up the mess?
As a slight aside, is there any evidence that sealants permanently damage tyres, or simply a ruse by the industry because they don’t like cleaning up the mess?
Probably the latter is what I'm betting
It's 10 years since I had a puncture
Whereas I've had two in past year, all caused by potholes. .
First one was near home, so just drove back.
Second involved being towed to Kendal and waiting for several hours on a Sunday.
The sealant didn't work at all when I tried it.
In seriously considering buying a spare wheel
My son's been victim of potholes at least twice this year, ruining brand new all seasons ! Touch wood, I've been lucky and the ones we've had have been screws or nails, and the tyre went flat at home.
I’d suggest your son needs to drive more carefully!
There’s nothing much you can do really.
I my experience run flats get you about 5 miles before falling apart.
Ture sealent stuff is supposed to be a bit shit too
I fixed mine with an MTB tubeless repair plug a while back.
Came here to say exactly the same thing.... My wife had a nail in her tire that was letting air out. I put two or three plugs together and jammed them in the hole. Inflated the tire back up what it should be and the next day checked it. It seemed to be holding air so I drove carefully down to the garage and got it changed
Interestingly, in other countries they sell essentially a big mountain bike repair kit with ginormous wiggly worms for exactly this purpose. In the USA apparently people drive around for years with wiggly worms in their tires. I still prefer a property glued mushroom plug 🙂
I’d suggest your son needs to drive more carefully!
There’s nothing much you can do really.
I my experience run flats get you about 5 miles before falling apart.
Ture sealent stuff is supposed to be a bit shit too
Many years ago I had a ford galaxy that had run flats. I once got a puncture on the way to Ireland and managed to drive from the m6 toll road booth all the way to Dublin on the run flat. In the manual it said I could drive 200 miles so long as I kept the speed under 50 mph.
We got to Dublin and got the tire changed but the man at the tire change place even wheeled the tire in to show us that it was delaminating badly
I noticed in a later car that the instructions around run flats have changed dramatically to reduce the amount of distance that you could drive to essentially "okay to drive to the next garage"
I would never fit run flats to a car again, every time I got a puncture I ended up having to change both tires on the same axle due to tire wear and it ended up getting very expensive. I think I managed to spend over 1k on rubber n about a year and a half - every time I got a flat it was either early in the morning or somewhere very inconvenient so there was no way of being able to shop around
Q
(The galaxy had aluminum valve stems and an aluminum rim so galvanic corrosion with set in relatively easily and cause the valve stems to shear off. It happened three times to me in the space of about a year and a half - twice of the m6 toll)
I just peeked under my combo.
Dirty great space to hold a wheel. Can one retrofit a wheel holding... Thing... under a car legally?
My wife's current car didn't come with a spare wheel but definitely have the space for it so I just went on eBay and for £70 had one delivered in a few days. The boot even had all the mounting kit for the tire but it just didn't ship with one it just shipped with this little polystyrene circular plug which contains tire sealant
I think a lot of modern cars don't ship with them as it makes the car cheaper, a lot of people don't use them anyway and it makes the car lighter for emissions (that's my theory )
I got caught with a puncture while out on my motorbike (and no way of repairing). That was a pain, meant lots of stops on the way home at various garages to put in more air.
I have since bought a battery powered inflator so at least I can limp home. I might buy a tyre repair kit also. Carrying a spare wheel might be problematic 🤣
If the puncture was terminal I'd have to call the breakdown service I guess.
I honestly can't remember the last time I had a puncture.. but something more more important maybe - arsehole garages that put wheels back on with one of those air gun things for the bolts.
There's a special place in hell for those people, pure laziness and you don't stand a chance of getting the wheel off, especially if its cold and wet.
Yeah, I worked in a garage when I was young. Procedure was to loosely spin the nuts on with a rattle gun, then check them by hand to make sure they weren't overtightened. I always carried a proper cross type wheel brace in my car - if you need to loosen an overtightened wheel nut, you can prop one end on a rock or something and then jump on it to loosen the nut.
But I haven't had a puncture in 30 years, honestly no idea whether my car even has a spare tyre. Had to top up the screen washer bottle last month, took 10 minutes to figure out how to get the bonnet open (safety latch was well hidden), then another five to find the washer bottle. Realized it's the first time I've opened a bonnet in about 20 years.
Just FYI: those worms won't work if your sidewall is slashed. Not sure about sealant either so neither are a "proper" solution like a full sized spare wheel.
They won't fix a blown head gasket or malfunctioning fuel pump either. At some point you're prepared enough though.
I carry a spare belt for the MG because it they fail and it's a quick fix.
I carry sealant and worms because punctures happen.
I don't smash it into kerbs or wind up people into slashing the tyres though so sacrificing half the boot space and being prepared for that is a step beyond practicable 😂
I did once hit a pothole that wrote the whole wheel off, turned out the monkey metal spanner in the kit was deformed so had to call out the AA anyway 😂went for a walk and had a decent meal in a pub while we waited.
My son has managed with a 'worm' to fix a car tire before getting it properly repaired. They aren't a legal permanent fix, but in a situation, they have to be better than the sealant - at least the tyre can be fixed
I've left them in for the life of the tyre. Actually it turned out to be the life of the car but that wasn't because of the tyre.
Big screw in the tyre. Probably would have been repairable but the other half drove a few miles to work in it and trashed the sidewall. Rim wasn't damaged. The return journey home was completed by inflating the tyre using the compressor that came with the Corsa. I didn't add the foam as the screw was holding the air in long enough to get home.
Only £60 for a new tyre.
Anyone got experience with Air Stop tyres fitted to VWs. They claim to have a fancy slime layer that allegedly stops punctures up to 5mm but for anything bigger than that I think I'm scuppered anyway as I doubt sealant or worms would help and there's no spare.
I put tractor sealant in my scooter tyres. Usually lasts for the lifetime of the tyre or until I get a significant puncture.
My last puncture ? Christmas eve. Total PITA. Didn't even waste my time with a foam can as it wouldnt have worked. Couldn't get it fixed (replaced as the hole was in the side) for 3 days and meant the travel plans over Christmas were ****ed. The car had a space-waster tyre, but still ****all good as its only rated to 50mph and 50 miles (and still probably not healthy for the AWD, bit of a liability etc). Couldn't be driving on that for several hundred miles.
And when the tyre shops were open, of course I couldn't get a replacement Cross-Climate right away either, so had to be something half good (= half-shit) to get back to being able to drive to family, then cough up another wedge of ££ a couple of weeks later to get the Cross Climate.
Went and bought a new spare rim + TPMS sensor, and got the new Cross Climate put on it. The half-shit full size tyre on the original rim is now in a tyre/wheel bag, and gets taken with me in the rear foot well, if we're going anywhere remote, far away, or over holiday periods where garages will be closed (eg France !!!).
Oh and I always have a proper breaker bar + 6 sided socket that fits the wheel nuts, as you know garage monkeys with air guns will have over-tightened them to a point the nut wrench that came with the car is way too short.
Having a spare (at least a space waster) is a deal breaker for me on the next car. No spare (or at least space for one) no sale.
Berlingo, nothing, no jack, wheel spanner just a towing eye
How old is your Berlingo? If B2, the wheel is underneath the boot, jack and tools sit underneath front passenger wheel (if my memory is right).
Oh and I always have a proper breaker bar + 6 sided socket that fits the wheel nuts, as you know garage monkeys with air guns will have over-tightened them to a point the nut wrench that came with the car is way too short.
The studs on MG's are notoriously skinny (same studs on a lot of old Austin's and Minis), the torque spec really does feel like finger tight.
The garage not only managed to stretch them, but collapsed the 'blister' on the rostyles that the nut sit in. I was not a happy bunny when I figured it out.