I've plugged tires many times and never had a problem for the remaining tread life. I think the keys to being successful are finding the actual leak path, using a rasp to clean up the frayed steel belt strands, and making sure the plug is thoroughly wetted with vulcanizing cement before inserting.
DIY Tire Plug
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Just a update on the plug. So far I put on nearly 3000 km and still air tight.looks like plug had molded into tire fairly well. Thank for all advise!
Originally Posted By: alreadygone
When we have customer come in with slow leak the first thing we do is look for fuzzy end of plug sticking out of tire,,,9 out of 10 if we find a plug, we've found the leak.
Bob
Sounds familiar. As I was leaving this morning I happened to look at my front tires. The left driver's side tire looked low. Pulled out my trusty digital gauge, it said 18 lbs. 2 days ago when I checked it there was 35 lbs.
Pulled the wheel off looking for a nail in the tire. No nails, but found a plug. The area around the plug is starting to crack and I suspect that is where the leak is coming from. I checked the whole tire for leaks and couldn't find any - also checked the bead (both sides) and the valve stem.
I used to use those plugs when I drove old vehicles and mainly went to/from work. Anymore I take the tire to a shop to see if it can be repaired properly.
In this case, the tire is about 4 years old, so I am just going to replace both front tires. I bought this car used last Feb.
Going on a 3,000 mile trip for Thanksgiving, and I'd rather be safe than sorry. My life and that of my family's is worth FAR more than the cost of 2 new tires!
When we have customer come in with slow leak the first thing we do is look for fuzzy end of plug sticking out of tire,,,9 out of 10 if we find a plug, we've found the leak.
Bob
Sounds familiar. As I was leaving this morning I happened to look at my front tires. The left driver's side tire looked low. Pulled out my trusty digital gauge, it said 18 lbs. 2 days ago when I checked it there was 35 lbs.
Pulled the wheel off looking for a nail in the tire. No nails, but found a plug. The area around the plug is starting to crack and I suspect that is where the leak is coming from. I checked the whole tire for leaks and couldn't find any - also checked the bead (both sides) and the valve stem.
I used to use those plugs when I drove old vehicles and mainly went to/from work. Anymore I take the tire to a shop to see if it can be repaired properly.
In this case, the tire is about 4 years old, so I am just going to replace both front tires. I bought this car used last Feb.
Going on a 3,000 mile trip for Thanksgiving, and I'd rather be safe than sorry. My life and that of my family's is worth FAR more than the cost of 2 new tires!
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Originally Posted By: Tosh
I've plugged tires many times and never had a problem for the remaining tread life. I think the keys to being successful are finding the actual leak path, using a rasp to clean up the frayed steel belt strands, and making sure the plug is thoroughly wetted with vulcanizing cement before inserting.
Same here..never had any problems if you go by the instructions.
I've plugged tires many times and never had a problem for the remaining tread life. I think the keys to being successful are finding the actual leak path, using a rasp to clean up the frayed steel belt strands, and making sure the plug is thoroughly wetted with vulcanizing cement before inserting.
Same here..never had any problems if you go by the instructions.
Never had a problem plugging. If you do it right the first time, you never have to do it again and it shouldn't leak.
FWIW trying to find a used tire around here that doesn't have four or five plugs in it is impossible. When I ran a cab service we went through tires almost daily. The drivers would put in fix a flat and go to one of the used tire shops to get it plugged. These places around here won't touch a tire that's been fix-a-flatted or slimed, so they would demand that the drivers bought a new (used) tire. The tires they would buy would have five or six plugs in it, and upon inspection these tires too had been fix-a-flatted at one point. Finally I just told the drivers to use some tire sealer and bring the tire to me to plug with the five-dollar plug kit. I saved a lot of money and headaches doing it this way.
BTW I noticed the OP said that CT charges 30 dollars to plug a tire!? That's almost the cost of a new cheap tire on some vehicles.
FWIW trying to find a used tire around here that doesn't have four or five plugs in it is impossible. When I ran a cab service we went through tires almost daily. The drivers would put in fix a flat and go to one of the used tire shops to get it plugged. These places around here won't touch a tire that's been fix-a-flatted or slimed, so they would demand that the drivers bought a new (used) tire. The tires they would buy would have five or six plugs in it, and upon inspection these tires too had been fix-a-flatted at one point. Finally I just told the drivers to use some tire sealer and bring the tire to me to plug with the five-dollar plug kit. I saved a lot of money and headaches doing it this way.
BTW I noticed the OP said that CT charges 30 dollars to plug a tire!? That's almost the cost of a new cheap tire on some vehicles.
Originally Posted By: Greaser
Originally Posted By: Tosh
I've plugged tires many times and never had a problem for the remaining tread life. I think the keys to being successful are finding the actual leak path, using a rasp to clean up the frayed steel belt strands, and making sure the plug is thoroughly wetted with vulcanizing cement before inserting.
Same here..never had any problems if you go by the instructions.
I have also had good luck with all of my plugs. Never a leak or failure after properly following instructions, by which I mean a good rasp cleaning of the hole, followed by a liberal application of the cement to both the hole and plug before inserting.
Originally Posted By: Tosh
I've plugged tires many times and never had a problem for the remaining tread life. I think the keys to being successful are finding the actual leak path, using a rasp to clean up the frayed steel belt strands, and making sure the plug is thoroughly wetted with vulcanizing cement before inserting.
Same here..never had any problems if you go by the instructions.
I have also had good luck with all of my plugs. Never a leak or failure after properly following instructions, by which I mean a good rasp cleaning of the hole, followed by a liberal application of the cement to both the hole and plug before inserting.
I hope everyone will bear with me while I do a mental exercise that is appropriate at this point:
Fun with Tire Statistics:
Some folks say they’ve used plugs to repair tires and never had a problem- while others have reported problems. Are these 2 things incompatible? Or are they the result of statistical anomalies?
The best information I have available says that plug type repairs leak about 10% of the time. That means that 90% of the time they don’t.
So if a person does 2 repairs, what are the odds that he will experience 1 leak?
90% X 90% = 81%
or 19% of the time he’ll get 1 leak.
How many repairs does a person have to do before the odds of him getting a leak are 50 / 50?
At 6 repairs, the odds are that a person will NOT experience 1 leak are 53.1% and at 7 repairs it’s 47.8%. (or at 6 repairs a person is 46.9% likely to experience 1 leaky tire and at 7 repairs it’s 52.2% likely).
Let’s extend this to an extreme: What if a person were to do 100 repairs? What are the odds that he would not experience ANY leaks?
90% X 90% ...... (100 times) = 0.0027% - or about 1 in 37,000.
Considering there are about 305 million people in the US, there are going to be lots of people who would experience this!
As an engineer, I find this interesting. It means that people can have widely different experiences – to the point where an argument can erupt over who was right – still both would be wrong.
Fun with Tire Statistics:
Some folks say they’ve used plugs to repair tires and never had a problem- while others have reported problems. Are these 2 things incompatible? Or are they the result of statistical anomalies?
The best information I have available says that plug type repairs leak about 10% of the time. That means that 90% of the time they don’t.
So if a person does 2 repairs, what are the odds that he will experience 1 leak?
90% X 90% = 81%
or 19% of the time he’ll get 1 leak.
How many repairs does a person have to do before the odds of him getting a leak are 50 / 50?
At 6 repairs, the odds are that a person will NOT experience 1 leak are 53.1% and at 7 repairs it’s 47.8%. (or at 6 repairs a person is 46.9% likely to experience 1 leaky tire and at 7 repairs it’s 52.2% likely).
Let’s extend this to an extreme: What if a person were to do 100 repairs? What are the odds that he would not experience ANY leaks?
90% X 90% ...... (100 times) = 0.0027% - or about 1 in 37,000.
Considering there are about 305 million people in the US, there are going to be lots of people who would experience this!
As an engineer, I find this interesting. It means that people can have widely different experiences – to the point where an argument can erupt over who was right – still both would be wrong.
Also, Tuesday had a guy come in with 225-60r-16 from his wife's Bonneville(known him since we were kids, hard working construction crew boss, with several hundred acre cattle farm on the side). Obviously had a large headed roofing shingle nail in the center of the tread. Aired it up, no bulges,wrinkles, rubber on sidewalls didn't show run flat scrubbing. At that point he told me the only reason he didn't plug it on the car at her work was because it was raining.
So far so good.
Broke it down and removed from wheel,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,entire innerliner was in SHREDS!!!! While I'm sure no one here at BITOG would EVER run a tire low, nor their perfect little wifeys, unless you LOOK inside that leaky tire you have no idea whats going on.
Bob
So far so good.
Broke it down and removed from wheel,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,entire innerliner was in SHREDS!!!! While I'm sure no one here at BITOG would EVER run a tire low, nor their perfect little wifeys, unless you LOOK inside that leaky tire you have no idea whats going on.
Bob
Originally Posted By: alreadygone
Broke it down and removed from wheel,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,entire innerliner was in SHREDS!!!! While I'm sure no one here at BITOG would EVER run a tire low, nor their perfect little wifeys, unless you LOOK inside that leaky tire you have no idea whats going on.
Bob
Right on... I picked up a nail in my LR tire on my cutlass ciera... numb car... felt it on a cloverleaf onramp, car was squirrely... exited the next exit, flat... 2-3 miles driven flat, the "scalloping" or whatever you call it inside was worn down by the rim... tire shop said no fix, here's your prorated brand new tire.
Broke it down and removed from wheel,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,entire innerliner was in SHREDS!!!! While I'm sure no one here at BITOG would EVER run a tire low, nor their perfect little wifeys, unless you LOOK inside that leaky tire you have no idea whats going on.
Bob
Right on... I picked up a nail in my LR tire on my cutlass ciera... numb car... felt it on a cloverleaf onramp, car was squirrely... exited the next exit, flat... 2-3 miles driven flat, the "scalloping" or whatever you call it inside was worn down by the rim... tire shop said no fix, here's your prorated brand new tire.
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