Is $30 fair for a tire patch?

[fdcg27]

Sounds high to me but may be the norm in your area.
You could always go to Wally or China Freight and buy a plug kit for a few bucks and DIY it.
A plug will either work or it won't in my experience. If it does it'll be fine for the remaining life of the tire. If it doesn't, you can always have a pull-through mushroom installed from the inside.
I've plugged tires myself and have also had shops do so. While the proper repair is a pull-through mushroom, a plug will typically work just fine through the remaining life of any tubeless tire.

 

[meborder]

Originally Posted By: exranger06
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: exranger06
I couldn't find any shop near me willing to do an inside patch. They all wanted to do a plug. I did find a few shops that would do the plug for free, though. Which is what I ended up doing.

The proper/recommended way to do it is plug AND patch, IIRC.

I know. But no shop wanted to do the proper repair, only the plug.


I've put thousands of miles on plugs. Many of them in the outer 20% of the tread. Narry a problem.

Newer tires I try to have them patched properly. But if they are toward the end of their life, ill plug them in a heartbeat and never look back.

Plugged one for a friend this summer. WalMart wouldn't touch it because it was right at the edge of the tread. They tried to do him a solid and sell him a BFG All Terrain KO2 for about $280. The plug was free. Still driving on it, even though they are about as bald as slicks.

Patching from the inside is the correct way ... But plugs work pretty darn good too.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
The $30 is a ripoff number to scare people into buying road hazard.



This is probably the truth. Although I do think $30 is not far from a fair number for the actual work done: jack car up, pull wheel, unmount, patch, mount, balance. Usually $20 to unmount/mount/balance is a good price; this repair is just slightly more work than that, so maybe $22 to do a "proper" job?

 

[The Critic]

Seems reasonable to me.

 

[thrace]

Originally Posted By: George7941
I buy tires from Costco and they have free flat repairs for tires bought from them. I don't have an issue with that because you are paying for that service in the original tire purchase price.
FYI, Costco will refuse to go anything if tire over 60 months old.

 

[thrace]

Originally Posted By: CourierDriver
Lets do so math,,,,,car cost 30k bucks, flat repair 30 bucks,,,,way cheap, don't you think...do the math. .001%
You must be joking.

 

[stephen9666]

$30 isn't excessive for a properly done patch/plug. Taking off the tire, repairing, remounting and balancing do take some time.

Having said that, I now get them done for free at Discount Tire.

 

[sw99]

$10-15 max around here.

 

[Bighorn2500]

Belle Tire and Discount Tire will fix them free near me as well. I've bought from both before, it's just good customer service so I return I guess when I need new tires.

 

[demarpaint]

I paid last year $25 for an inside repair and tire re-balance. I thought it was fair considering they had to remove the tire from the wheel to make the repair and then speed balance it. A lot of places charge $10-$15 for just a plug.