Took 3 nails to one of my ecopias during

[badtlc]

a 500 mi (1000 mi total) trip this week. 1 nail in another one. Anything to worry about as far as long term damage with patched tires? never really had to deal with it before.

 

[badtlc]

I should add I have the firestone complete auto care road hazard warranty but I was in the middle of nowhere when I picked up the nails so I had a local shop patch the tires. Firestone says they'll reimburse me the costs of the repairs. The firestone car care places around here seem to do good business around here and good work, too.

 

[tdpark]

Never had a problem with a patch- especially if the patch was done from the inside of the tire.

 

[badtlc]

Originally Posted By: tdpark

Never had a problem with a patch- especially if the patch was done from the inside of the tire.

I'm pretty sure they did it from the inside. The tires were marked with a white arrow at the valve stem. I assume they did that so they remounted the tires in the same orientation for proper balancing w/out having to check the balancing. I didn't know if there was any sort of structural integrity that was lost when holes through the tread happen. I know a sidewall is a big deal but wasn't sure about the tread.

 

[tdpark]

Patch is fine if it was in the tread- you cannot patch if it was in the sidewall.

 

[kwooten31]

I wouldn't think you would have any problems at all, I've plugged several nail holes in the past without issue...

 

[leeharvey418]

Originally Posted By: badtlc

The tires were marked with a white arrow at the valve stem. I assume they did that so they remounted the tires in the same orientation for proper balancing w/out having to check the balancing.

If they did, I wouldn't trust their plug/patch job.

 

[badtlc]

Originally Posted By: leeharvey418

Originally Posted By: badtlc

The tires were marked with a white arrow at the valve stem. I assume they did that so they remounted the tires in the same orientation for proper balancing w/out having to check the balancing.

If they did, I wouldn't trust their plug/patch job.

If they did what?

 

[leeharvey418]

If they tried to put the wheel back in service without re-balancing. That's just lazy, shoddy practice, and it would be indicative that they really didn't care about doing a good job.

 

[badtlc]

Originally Posted By: leeharvey418

If they tried to put the wheel back in service without re-balancing. That's just lazy, shoddy practice, and it would be indicative that they really didn't care about doing a good job.

So marking the valve stem location on the tire isn't standard practice? Seems to me it would indicate a smarter, well run shop.

 

[leeharvey418]

Marking the valve stem location is just fine... I never said anything about that. What I said was that if the shop tries to put the wheel back in service without re-balancing, it's a poor practice. In fairness, I should have said 'checking balance' instead of 're-balancing' but the idea is still the same.

 

[threeputtpar]

Originally Posted By: leeharvey418

Marking the valve stem location is just fine... I never said anything about that. What I said was that if the shop tries to put the wheel back in service without re-balancing, it's a poor practice. In fairness, I should have said 'checking balance' instead of 're-balancing' but the idea is still the same.

Yes, you're right about checking the balance after remounting in the same position. At the shop I worked at in high school, it was SOP to mark the valve stem and the wheel weight locations on the sidewall and put them all back in the same spot and then at least check the balance when patching a tire. I agree that it's something a well run shop would do instead of trying to charge the customer for balancing on top of the charge for patching.

 

[berniedd]

Originally Posted By: threeputtpar

Originally Posted By: leeharvey418

Marking the valve stem location is just fine... I never said anything about that. What I said was that if the shop tries to put the wheel back in service without re-balancing, it's a poor practice. In fairness, I should have said 'checking balance' instead of 're-balancing' but the idea is still the same.

Yes, you're right about checking the balance after remounting in the same position. At the shop I worked at in high school, it was SOP to mark the valve stem and the wheel weight locations on the sidewall and put them all back in the same spot and then at least check the balance when patching a tire. I agree that it's something a well run shop would do instead of trying to charge the customer for balancing on top of the charge for patching.

I'm curious, did you find any significant deviations from the original tire balance condition after you had remounted the tire and then rechecked the balance afterwards?