I've probably only put 15-20 plugs in tires myself over the years, mostly in the comfort of my driveway. I've always used the sticky/gummy plugs with the rope.

The only "failure" that I've ever had was that one started leaking REALLY slowly. I couldn't find the leak and had a guy I knew check it. He spend a bunch of time looking for the leak, and never really "found" the leak, but he replaced the rope plug, and the leak stopped. I'm a bit embarrassed to say that the one time I took my old '88 911 up to redline in 5th gear, I probably had at least one of those style plugs in the rear tires.

I have a lot more confidence in the "patch-plugs" that most tire places use these days.

In my WRX, one of my winter tires had a slow leak last winter. It was a leak at the plug. Since fixing the flat previously, I bought a tire machine.

I removed the tire, pulled out the old plug, and redid it. The tire is fine and didn’t leak down over the summer and is now back on the car and showing no signs of leak... there was no need to remove the tire or take the wheel off the car. I felt dumb when I saw that the plug was the source of my leak. That was however the first time I used my tire machine...

Was I terrified to drive it today at over 75 MPH?

Nope.

Call me crazy, but I would never leave a high performance tire with a plug in it on the car long term. I would use it to get home and maybe until the new tires arrived. We get crazy hot weather here in the summers. I've had a LOT of tires blow out. Probably 6 or so on the 1-ton and 2 on the 911. None yet on the Cayman or Macan....

I've never had a blow-out, ever, and the last 25 years of my driving has been in Houston while the 7 years before that was in FL.

I've had lots of punctures, but I've never had one go from inflated to deflated in seconds or had one fall apart.

I had this on the Cobra. I was a mile from home when it started to vibrate pretty bad at 60mph. Limped home and a few minutes later I had this. Granted, this tire has seen the north side of 150 a few times and it is not rated for near that. Could have been worse, it could have come apart on the off ramp 10 miles earlier.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1605648034.jpg

Just re-posting this for the picture ^^^^....

All these tall tales of heroic roadside tire plugs don't even make any sense.

I just plugged my tire after a few weeks of a slow air leak from a nail. Once I noticed the nail, I then installed a plug, in my garage. In my case, a nail was a slow leak that took several days to even notice.

Who exactly is plugging tires on the side of the highway (in 60 seconds no less) ?

Did your tire go flat? If so, why didn't you just install the spare tire? Or no spare, yet you carry a tire inflator, pliers, and a plug kit?

Or was the tire just low? If so, why not just inflate it and drive home? A nail is a slow leak that does not need to be fixed at the side of a highway.

Because sometimes it is easier to put the plug in on the way home than unload all the luggage to get to the speed limited spare and try to limp home on it the remaining 180 miles.

Just because you can't fathom it doesn't mean it can't be.

Why not? As I'm sure you have noticed, quite a few of us have affected this repair on the side of the road. Many of us more than once. It's a very common procedure.

I've picked up many nails, screws, and other such that rendered a tire flat out on the road. No slow leak or anything wrong with the tire before embarking upon the trip, often verified by checking pressures before I leave.

60 seconds? I'm not sure anyone has made that claim. It's never taken me more than five or ten minutes, though.

No spare tire on a motorcycle. Like I said earlier, that's where I learned to do it.

I don't have anywhere to carry a spare tire in my 911. It has a 100 liter tank, and oil cooler lines cross over from the right to the left cooler right above and behind it. So I carry a plug kit instead.

On other cars, I just don't like the mini spare tire. If it's pluggable, I would rather plug the full sized tire. It's a lot faster and easier than changing to the spare. I would only use the spare if the full size tire could not be plugged, like if it had a big gash in it. It really is that much easier just to plug the one already on the car. Really.

And yes, all of my vehicles are equipped with tool kits, plug kits, and some means to inflate a tire. I wouldn't leave the house without any of that.

As stated earlier, a nail, screw, or other puncture can definitely cause a fast enough leak to require roadside repair. It's not always a slow enough leak to be able to reinflate and go. Besides, leaving the nail or screw in the tire can cause further damage if you continue to drive on it. It's always best to remove it and repair the tire before driving on.

I have to say, I find it a bit odd that such a simple, common procedure appears to have you so completely out of sorts. You appear to be at such a level of disbelief (that other folks commonly employ this method with no trouble whatsoever), that you have actually gone so far as to accuse us of "lying" about it. Weird.

I have plugged many a tire. It gets you home and the kit is easily kept in the trunk just in case. But....for the 911 I would probably replace the tire afterwards, along with its twin.

In the olden days, my method was even better. Go to the junkyard and get a wheel with an inflated tire already on it. Get a flat? Remove it and roll it into the ditch, put the other one on and go. Then visit the junk yard again.

I’ve heard tales of these car races in some of the southern states where the cars go round and round and round, always turning left. Eventually, they wear the grips right off their tires. Sometimes (and this is going to sound unbelievable) they have to change tires before the race is over. Those guys can change 4 tires, wash the windshield and dump in 20 gallons of gas in under 20 seconds...

Don’t believe me? Watch these guys dump in 10 gallons of gas and change 2 tires in 8 seconds... then go back to round and round and round...

https://youtu.be/qj-BLx922OI

I live on a small island, so I'm never really far from home. I've plugged many tires with the rope and glue plugs and none have failed. Ironically, I had a plug leak on a car that I bought. I replaced the plug and it didn't leak afterwards.

I have been told once you plug a speed rated tire, you drop down one level on the speed rating. Not sure how true that is, but a tire guy told me that.

Tire Rack has a page on Tire Manufacturer's Puncture Repair Recommendations on patches and it's effect on speed ratings.

TIRE TECH: FLAT TIRE REPAIRS' EFFECT ON SPEED RATING

After having a flat and the tire store said was unrepairable due to the puncture being outside of the crown. I did a little research. Tire sellers appear to be looking for profits and to reduce liabilities. Tire patch/repair manufactures have a completely different view on tire repairs outside of the crown area.

31 Inc. Xtra Seal Catalog page 125.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1605752774.png

Western Weld Catalog page 7.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1605752543.png

These are just two tire repair manufactures that endorse repairs outside of the crown area.

Each person needs to make there own decision on tire repairs.

is that rethread? contact patch coming off like that??! I would not expect that on a factory tire.. usually the contact patch is one piece with the sidewall, so it should not come off like that


https://www.hogantire.com/portals/43...nstruction.gif

The tread is a separate extrusion from the sidewall on a radial tire.

Don't ever patch a leak that is beyond the shoulder of the tread. You would be in the high flex area that lacks belts/overlay. Replace the tire.

Factory tire. Had 8000 miles on it.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1605799669.jpg

So can I plug this? :eek::eek:

Cripes, I thought that was a bicycle helmet on top of that tire first blush.

I worked my way through school in a independent tire shop. We worked on many high performance cars. What was taught to me was never use a plug in a belted tire only use an inside patch and then only within the tread area never on the side wall. In emergencies people would plug the tire and come in for a proper repair we would remove the plug and patch the tire. Never had an issue with an inside patch that was installed properly. Additionally run flats should be replaced and never patched or plugged.