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I've driven on plugged tires for years. But if that TPMS light comes on, that plug is the first thing on my mind. Depends on how old the tire is if I want to plug it. I like the security of a new tire. Years back I worked at a facility that serviced company vehicles. Then we had a tool that we used a patch/plug to fix a flat. Instead of just using a rubber plug to fill the hole, like the DIY kits. The rubber patch/plug looked like a little rubber mushroom. The top about 3/4" around with a stem. You cleaned the hole to repair, loaded the rubber patch/plug in a gun, inserted the tip into the hole, pulled the trigger a little to push out the patch/plug, opening the patch, and pulled out. Leaving a round patch on the inside and a plug in the hole to trim off. I havent seen these tools in years. Do they still use these. They seemed to work pretty well.
YOU can use larger plugs though. I saw a friend plug a pretty large hole in a trailer tire using a 'DIY plug' it was basically a strip of thick rubber, about twice as thick as regular tire plugs, same process, he coated with rubber cement before inserting, it worked for quite awhile.
Sure that sort of thing is done successfully on all the time, but it's not something I'd recommend to people. Remember... the general public often can't do much beyond filling the gas tank. But your typical tire plug isn't too bad. Most shade-tree mechanics can make it work.
A few years ago I ran over a BOLT which put a hole the size of an ink pen in the tire. The tire was still in ok condition and I really didn't want to bother with going to buy another tire. So I plugged the hole with three or four of those little kit plugs... and then kinda forgot about it. That thing held for nearly two years
It never did blow out. Just started leaking at some point. And by then I was ready for a new set of tires anyway.
But I've done all kinds of repairs that I'd never recommend for a normal person.
I have 4 plugs in the tires of my Land Cruiser right now. All field repairs that I did very simply myself. Never had an issue after many thousands of miles.
Two cases for me:
1. Street tires, like my Toyota Tacoma: yes, I've plugged them, or had others do this. I cannot recall any trouble from that. Flats are rare, fortunately, and I'd remember.
2. High performance: NOPE. I won't plug my 911's tires, if it comes to it, because what I don't need is catastrophic deflation at high speed or on a track.
2a Ditto motorcycle tires: I did have one work it's way out on a big tour, once, though fortunately within a day's ride of home, last day of the tour. We plugged it again in central British Columbia, a sketchy fix, and I took it easy back to Seattle. Every gas stop, I reinflated the tire, on we went. Replaced it after, it served me well, but I don't trust them on motorcycles. I knew the tire was sketchy anyway before the tour, which was a bit dumb of me though it did last three or four days before it went.
If I owned a shop? Patch would be the only way. Liability thing.
Odds are, it'd be fine with a plug.. but.. If the plug failed, i'd be the one getting sued.. So, no, I'm not going to do the $5 fix. Going to do the $30 patch that won't* fail.
If I owned a shop? Patch would be the only way. Liability thing.
Odds are, it'd be fine with a plug.. but.. If the plug failed, i'd be the one getting sued.. So, no, I'm not going to do the $5 fix. Going to do the $30 patch that won't* fail.
And this is the reason that it's harder and harder to find a place that will do a plug.
I totally understand it. As I said, I wouldn't put myself in that situation if I owned a shop.
Ever since the Firestone thing 20 years or so ago.. That's where I first started noticing the reluctance to do plugs.
I'm also probably a little low on the estimate of a patch. There's a fair amount of work involved in doing that. Doing it right, at least. I mean, you have to dismount the tire, prep the area, apply the cement and patch, let it cure.. It's a good 30 minutes of work most of the time.
I suppose it could re-leak later in, but it takes a pretty staggering imagination to picture one as still another of those myriad "safety issues"' that stalk the nightmares of viral Youtube users.
My first exposure to them came in a '69 Corolla that I rented in Belgrade to drive across Romania, where I quickly picked up a nail from a wooden oxcart, the most popular vehicle in the road. Tire shops just stared in wonder at tubeless tires, and put progressively larger nails in the expanding hole, until I got to Bucharest, and a proper shop put in a real store-bought plug to replace what had by then become a bolt. It held fine until I returned the car.
I have been driving around on tires with plugs since the late 70s. I am sure I have put hundreds of thousands of miles on such tires. On occasion I have had them start leaking again. Other than that, no issues whatsoever.
I don't do the job myself (though I have a couple times, just to learn) because it's kind of a pain, but I could and I certainly wouldn't be afraid to.
But, I am an old fart. I know how to change a tire, jumpstart a car, unclog a toilet, do long division, write a proper letter, paint a house, shift a standard transmission (though I have never driven one of those jillion-speed-with-two-speed-rear-axle truck jobs), and all the things that any male and many women who are now over 50 used to learn as a matter of course as part of growing up and developing the ability to take care of oneself.
Plugging a tire takes some skill. It needs to be done in the right way. Ask someone who's experienced to show you, if you don't know how to do it properly.
Plugging a tire takes some skill. It needs to be done in the right way. Ask someone who's experienced to show you, if you don't know how to do it properly.
I clearly wrote that I have plugged tires before with success; I just prefer not to do the job since it's cheap to have someone else do it and it's a pain to do it yourself. I wrote this very clearly.
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