Am I being fed a line...?

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crw

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I was too busy, so I had the wife take the Suburban in. We had a nail going through the tread, about 1.5 inches from the sidewall. Tires are not too old, and have good tread.

At first, the guy told her she needed four new tires (for 4x4 usage).

Then came back later on the phone wanting to sell two tires, so at least the two would match.

The crux of the matter is this... they say the nail is too close to the sidewall and they can't repair the tire. Is this [censored]?

Since they're not going to support me at all on this, I think I'll just shop elsewhere, but this is Costco. They have a reputation to uphold.
 
How close to the sidewall is the nail? I've plugged many tires with success that were on the edge of the tread and sidewall. If the tread is still good, I would try to plug it.
 
From our friends at DTD:

From this, it appears that any part of the flat section of the tread is a repairable puncture.

repairArea.gif
 
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Are you able to take the tire to another shop to get a second opinion? Depending where exactly the puncture is, it may or may not be safe to repair.
 
A dangerous repair. a lot of tire flex in this area , a picture would help , I don't think i would attempt a repair.
If you have it plugged have them sand the plug smooth on the inside of the tire and patch over top of it.
 
Originally Posted By: crw

Since they're not going to support me at all on this, I think I'll just shop elsewhere, but this is Costco. They have a reputation to uphold.


They do, which is why I imagine they're going to follow industry practices on whether or not a tire is repairable. As far as the AWD thing, it really depends on the individual car. On cars where the AWD is electronically controlled, there can be a significant difference in size with no problems. The tolerances are a lot less if it's a purely mechanical system, particularly if there's a limited slip differential. My guess is that the blanket recommendation to replace them all has as much or more to do with avoiding trouble than selling tires.
 
Quote:
We had a nail going through the tread, about 1.5 inches from the sidewall. Tires are not too old, and have good tread.

At first, the guy told her she needed four new tires (for 4x4 usage).

Then came back later on the phone wanting to sell two tires, so at least the two would match.

That sounds safe and reasonable. At least the guy is trying to look out for your transfer case.
 
Get a tire plug kit and do it yourself. I think they are under $10 at walmart. Get the ones with the "T" handle. Usually the glue will only work 1 time, then it dries up. The plugs should look like rubber coated heavy string. The caramel colored ones are better than the black ones. I have had 7 plugs in a motorcycle tire, which are not suppose to be plugged, and the tire lasted 15,000 miles. They guy that changed the tire thought it was odd.


0071628122040_300X300.jpg



This is how you do it.

1) Fill tire with air
2) open glue and put some on the shaft of the round reamer/file
3) remove nail or screw
4) put the reamer in the hole and move it out like you are making love to it.
5) leave it in the tire for the next part.
6) put a string plug on the tool and put some rubber glue on the tip and about 1/2 way up each side of the string plug
7) pull out the reamer and jam the plug in fairly quickly, but not hard or you will go to deep. Don't keep your face in line with the hole or you will get a face full of glue. The plug should have about 1/4" of each side of the plug visible.
7) twist the tool 1/4 turn than pull it out.
8) squirt some soap water over the repair and see if it is leaking (bubbles), if it is, use a pliers and pull out the plug and start over.
9) fill the tire to normal air pressure
10) squirt soap water on plug and see if it still holds air.
11) use a pair of diagonal cutters and cut the excess string that is sticking out from the tire
 
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P.S. If you drove with a flat tire for any length of time, the tire is shot. The side walls heat up and start to separate. You can push in the side and hear the rubber crunch if the sidewall has separated internally.

P.P.S Patched/plugged tires on back only. You don't want the front tires to blow out.
 
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They have corp. guidelines they need to follow. An indy tire shop may or may not repair it. Whether you need 1 or 2 tires depends upon the wear of the one on same axle.
 
If the tires are not too old, you might have some sort of included road hazard on them?

Do you have a full size spare? Perhaps you can find a way of using that?
 
Apart from cost the local Costco are the other reason I don't end up with my preferred Michelin tyres.

They have a report from Michelin that states they will only put new tyres on the rear and only want to fit axle sets unless you remove the wheel in full view of the person saying this and hand him the wheel.

They also pulled the need to change all four on an SUV trick aswell, even though there is only really with cars such as Scoob's that are AWD rather than fwd or rwd with the other wheels getting power when the usual wheels slip etc.

Reasoning behind rear wheels for new tyres is to stop drivers overestimating the amount of grip they have when putting new tyres on the front!

Have even seen some respected motoring journals in the UK starring in infomercials to prove it on tyres sites, the fact you can see the slide was provoked.

As far as I am concerned the biggest risk is not being able to stop in the wet due to lack of grip, rather than worry about lift off oversteer.

That caveat is that I would also tend to put the new tyres on the powered wheels most of the times, if you don't have grip you don't drive.

I would have no problem repairing or having repaired a tyre with the hole an inch and a half from the edge.

Tyres shop is just trying to make a scare sale.
 
Because of new laws in NY, we must use a plug/patch assembly to repair a tire. The shape of the assembly will not allow for plugging a tire outside the center 70% of the tire.

Old style patches and plugs are no longer legal for use in NY state.
 
Can they still put an inner tube in? That`s what they used to do back in the day (when there was sidewall damage).
 
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Originally Posted By: Loobed

Get a tire plug kit and do it yourself. I think they are under $10 at walmart. Get the ones with the "T" handle. Usually the glue will only work 1 time, then it dries up. The plugs should look like rubber coated heavy string. The caramel colored ones are better than the black ones. I have had 7 plugs in a motorcycle tire, which are not suppose to be plugged, and the tire lasted 15,000 miles. They guy that changed the tire thought it was odd.


0071628122040_300X300.jpg



This is how you do it.

1) Fill tire with air
2) open glue and put some on the shaft of the round reamer/file
3) remove nail or screw
4) put the reamer in the hole and move it out like you are making love to it.
5) leave it in the tire for the next part.
6) put a string plug on the tool and put some rubber glue on the tip and about 1/2 way up each side of the string plug
7) pull out the reamer and jam the plug in fairly quickly, but not hard or you will go to deep. Don't keep your face in line with the hole or you will get a face full of glue. The plug should have about 1/4" of each side of the plug visible.
7) twist the tool 1/4 turn than pull it out.
8) squirt some soap water over the repair and see if it is leaking (bubbles), if it is, use a pliers and pull out the plug and start over.
9) fill the tire to normal air pressure
10) squirt soap water on plug and see if it still holds air.
11) use a pair of diagonal cutters and cut the excess string that is sticking out from the tire







^^I used to work with a guy who`d do this for any of his co workers there. SUPER nice guy he was!
 
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