Free Tire Patch @ Tesla Service

[JetFalcon]

You can absolutely patch a runflat as long as you haven't driven on it with no air pressure in it. If you have a nail embedded and have a slow leak, its perfectly fine to repair it. The sidewalls get damaged if you lose all pressure and then it's irreparable. A lot of shops just refuse to repair them because they don't know if you drove on it without air in it. It's a liability thing.

My tire were slow leaks. Like if I fill it back up to 45-50 psi, it will slowly leak to something like 20-30 psi in one day. When I had to do a trip from Orange County to San Ysidro (San Diego / Mexico border) rount trip about 180-200 miles, I put air in my tire before going on the freeway and starting my trip because it was low. But it lasted the entire day just fine.

And some days I just kept driving even when it got low to 20 psi, but that's why I decided it was time to take it in after 1-2 weeks of low tire. I never felt the tire become wobbly, just an annoying warning sign.

 

[r1200gs4ok]

They use runflats on all their OEM sets and claim that they're not allowed to patch/plug runflat tires. Not sure if that’s true or not though. Never actually researched it.

Another trick they use is they will tell you that with an AWD car if you replace one tire you have to replace all 4. Again not sure if this is true, but sounds like BS to me.

replace all 4 tires....that’s pure bull *sugar*....maybe 2.....put the new ones on the front if you have RWD or in back if you have AWD....

 

[RayK]

A puncture repair back in early Nov. 2018 cost me $42 at the Santa Clara SC. Lasted until a week ago when a 1/4" diameter bolt managed to impale itself into the same tire. Ended up getting two new tires in the back but next time I'm going with Wheel Works.

 

[Dan203]

replace all 4 tires....that’s pure bull *sugar*....maybe 2.....put the new ones on the front if you have RWD or in back if you have AWD....

That's what I figured. This happened to my wife, in her Audi, and they sold her all 4 tires. I wasn't there when she went so by the time she told me it was already done.

 

[jmaddr]

Regarding all wheel drive scenario, what i was told and based on some googling, it makes sense, if you lose a tire and the tread depth of existing tires would be more than 2/32nd lower than a new tire, it's best to replace all 4 else the all wheel drive system has to work extra hard to compensate for the difference in the distance each tire covers every rotation and it could cause you transmission issues down the line. so it's best to lose a tire early on than later in tire life!

For AWD, the replace all 4 mantra really was started due to a single "source of power" from a single engine crankshaft. With two motors, we have two sources of power so really only a single axle is necessary as the two are not connected other than by electronics. Both the differentials and the stability control systems expect distance traveled to tire rotations to be within a few percentages of each other. Exceeding those parameters can cause excessive tire or equipment wear.

When I had an Audi Quattro and blew a tire about mid-way through the life of the other tires, I ordered a tire from tire rack and had it "shaved" to a certain depth. It's an old track junkie trick to prevent tread chunking but it works to replace a single tire too.

 

[jrh007]

As I recall BMW has a policy to not patch any tire, so you're right, the dealer will soak you. Nice they did it for free. For future reference, Discount Tire will also patch for free.

Just went to them yesterday. Great service and very knowledgeable about Teslas.