XPost: alt.home.repair   
   From: max@max.is.invalid   
      
   On Sun, 30 Apr 2023 06:33:25 -0700 (PDT), trader_4 wrote:   
      
   > I suggest looking for a local small shop on the cheaper side of town that   
   does   
   > tires.  I think you're more likely to have them be willing to do a repair   
   versus the   
   > large chain shops, etc. that are going to be overly cautious and wanting to   
   sell   
   > new tires.   
      
   What I mostly hated was all the waiting, and driving, and traffic, and   
   disappointment being told in the end that they mainly wanted to sell new   
   tires. Worse, they didn't have the same tread pattern but that didn't   
   bother them. I don't know if it matters but I know it "could" matter   
   sometimes if the tread pattern makes a difference (which you won't know   
   until it's too late).   
      
   If I had the tire press, I would just do it my self and take the risk of my   
   efforts, which is why I'm asking here on a repair & automotive tech group.   
      
   > I haven't had a lot of tires that had problems over the years, but I'd   
   > guess that it was about 25% could not be plugged, 75% could.  It also   
   depends on   
   > what you're going to use the tire for.  If it's going to be the spare, only   
   get used   
   > temporarily or never, I would be less concerned about the repair.  All the   
   ones   
   > that I plugged lasted the life of the tire.   
      
   Thank you for answering the question as faithfully as you could.   
   Nobody else even tried to answer the question before saying what they'd do.   
      
   It seems reasonable that 1/4 of the tires that are flat "shouldn't" be   
   repaired if people follow the rules rigidly (which tires shops will do).   
      
   For one, I would think most tires are "driven on" for some distance after   
   they're flat, either because it's a slow leak or the driver needs to get   
   off the road to a safe place before changing over to the spare tire.   
      
   It would be good to know how long a flat tire can be driven on before it's   
   ruined. Is it 100 feet? 1 mile? More? Less? I don't know. Any idea?   
      
   Also we've all had nails/screws that are close to the edge, where I don't   
   know exactly where 'too close' might be, but I'm sure a shop will be more   
   conservative on that than I am for my own car (although for my wife & kids'   
   cars, I'd tend to be more conservative than I am on my own vehicles).   
      
   Along the same vein, glass and metal shards are problematic due to their   
   shape, where the question would be at what point is the slice too big.   
      
   There is also the case of multiple repairs in a tire, or a repair that is   
   too close to a pre-existing repair, which tire shops must have rules on.   
      
   And of course, there might be age-of-tire restrictions (anything over 3   
   years, for example) or wear-bar restrictions or cracks in the sidewall.   
      
   Given that a flat tire is already, by definition, a "used tire", I'm sure   
   some of these factors can easily weight in on a portion of tires out there.   
      
   If that portion is 1/4 of all the tires will fail, that sounds reasonable.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)