Just had a slow leak on my rear driver side tire. Bought the plug kit at wallmart be found out I had a nail and a screw in the tire treads that made air leak. I have no time to go to the garage before having to go work in a country hospital 600 miles away in 2 days. Has someone ever drove that far on a plugged tire? First time I plug a tire myself at 9PM and I want to know if tire replacement can wait 2 weeks or it’s a bad idea to drive 1000 miles on a plugged tire? Thanks
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Plugged tire
- Thread starter OrthoSurg
- Start date
stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
If the hole is on the thread (not near sidewalls) and isn't too big to plug, theoretically you can drive the full life of the tire as long as the plug holds. On my old car I've driven way longer than that on a plugged tire. However, that old car did not have a TPMS, so when I got lazy on checking on the tire before driving, eventually the plug failed, tire leaked again without me knowing and I had a blowout.
Now with a car with TPMS, it's much easier to monitor the leak so you can reapply the plug as necessary. I presume you also have a portable tire compressor (and extra plugs) also so you can top up if necessary on the road.
If you are not confident however, here in the US if you just visit a tire shop (Discount Tire is popular here as sometimes they do it for free if you are a frequent customer), they usually can do a proper patch (from the inside) very quickly.
ATPMSD
Active Member
So long as the leak is slow you can just refill the tire, as needed, with a compressor. As to plugging a tire:
- It is difficult to do
- If done incorrectly you will just make a bigger hole and then have to tow the car, or remove the tire to have it fixed
- Requires an air compressor to refill the tire
- Plugged tires require a patch before most tire shop will touch them, so you will need a proper repair sooner or later
Well I plugged both whole yesterday PM, inflates the tires to 45 PSI and they were still 45 PSI this morning. They used to lose 5 PSI per day with the nail and the screw in. Did a small drive to the office this morning and it seems to hold. The think I am worried about is the plug to go off while driving for extended hours and needing to plug it again in the dark on the side of the highway during night time. That’s why I am wondering why the plug manufacturers say they can last up to 25,000 miles but on the other hand once a plug fails you lose air faster than the original nail or screw I guess.
I know you said you have no time to go to a garage…, but can you not drop it off and pick it up from a tire shop. I agree w @stopcrazypp that it is much better to have a patch than a plug. If you have the Tesla inflator kit or an equivalent, I would check it before you leave to make sure it still works. I discovered mine wasn’t working one day when I was trying to help our son inflate a tire. Since then, I bought another plus a Ryobi 18v inflator (looks like a power drill). Both have come in handy multiple times to let me get to a tire shop. FWIW, I have had multiple tires patched by a tire shop. Usually takes 30 mins and it cost $30.
Good luck!
You will be fine, if you plug it right.
Takes a little practice though.
Get it done now so you have some time to test it. Watch some YouTube.
I’ve been plugging for as long as long as there have been plugs and they have all held for life of tire. Or car.
Takes a little practice though.
Get it done now so you have some time to test it. Watch some YouTube.
I’ve been plugging for as long as long as there have been plugs and they have all held for life of tire. Or car.
I always have my Lezyne bike pump with me because I always have my road bicycle in my trunk so it looks funny to see someone pumping a tire manually but for 100 pumps you get 7 PSI. I always have that as a backup. I will check the Ryobi seems like an interesting option. I need something small because I don’t have a lot of place with all the luggage when I travel
swaltner
Active Member
I plugged tires on both my 2013 Leaf and 2018 Model 3. In both cases, I picked up a screw very early in the ownership process (first couple months) of ownership. For the Leaf, the plug held until I replaced the tires 53,000 miles later. In the case of the Model 3, it was “only” 48,000 miles before I replaced the tires. In both cases, I eventually lost track of which tire had the plug because of tire rotations and their being NO DIFFERENCE in the air pressure between the “good” tires and the “plugged” tire.
I know we are all just people on the Internet giving free advice, but since you said the plug is holding air, I would go on the trip.
I know we are all just people on the Internet giving free advice, but since you said the plug is holding air, I would go on the trip.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Seems to be what is happening since I plugged the tire with 2 plugs for the 2 different wholes. One screw and one nail removed. Didn’t lose one single PSI of pressure in the 100 miles I have done. My road trip for work has been delayed to next Friday so I will have another week to see how the plug hold. The experience with plugs seems to be really positive if they hold in the first days from people sharing their experience.
Thanks a lot
SalisburySam
Active Member
I had a slow leak almost since I got the car four years ago, losing 1-2 pounds a day. I just kept inflating it with this. I did that for 21,000 miles and several 1300-mile trips without incident. I finally got tired of this and took it to my local DIscount Tire for possible repair. Turned out I had a very small finishing nail penetrating the tread in a place that was repairable. They were used to handling Tesla’s OEM tires with the internal foam, so cut it, removed the nail, patched the tire, replaced and resealed the foam, etc., etc. No charge. In the two weeks since, pressure has held. My door jamb sticker states 45lb and I’ve kept all four tires at that pressure.
While I should have gotten this fixed thousands of miles and many months ago, I went a long way with a punctured tire just by reinflating; you should have no risk at all with a properly plugged tire. I do carry a pretty inclusive patch kit with the inflator and since cars no longer come with spare tires I suggest that’s a necessary item, as is knowing how to use it.
Good luck on your trips!
We carry the plug kit and more importantly a small 12V compressor and more important than that are replacement fuses for the small compressor. You will be popping fuses. They are located in the 12V plug.
I know guys that are so confident they plug-and-forget their tires. Never go to the shop and have them properly fixed.
The Spare-Tire-In-A-Can-Product can have gooey stuff in it that if it fails and then you try and plug, the plug won't work because of the gooey stuff.
In off roading vehicles we also use Laundry starch in our tires and it seals punctures. Easily washes out for a proper repair. Yeah, it works really well. Put it in before any issues. The Green Slime product doesn't. Or put it in after the puncture and ya plug then the starch.
Liquidtube is simple laundry starch and comes with a tip to squeeze it into your tire thru the Schrader..
A flat tire, on a Sunday when you're in the nowhere that everything is a million miles from and closed,,, you can be good to go.
I know guys that are so confident they plug-and-forget their tires. Never go to the shop and have them properly fixed.
The Spare-Tire-In-A-Can-Product can have gooey stuff in it that if it fails and then you try and plug, the plug won't work because of the gooey stuff.
In off roading vehicles we also use Laundry starch in our tires and it seals punctures. Easily washes out for a proper repair. Yeah, it works really well. Put it in before any issues. The Green Slime product doesn't. Or put it in after the puncture and ya plug then the starch.
A flat tire, on a Sunday when you're in the nowhere that everything is a million miles from and closed,,, you can be good to go.
Plug repairs may allow air and moisture to penetrate the body of the tire. This could lead to a dangerous blowout over time. That is why glue / rubber cement is typically used with a plug.
Improper repairs may Void Your Tire Warranty, and the tire manufacturer won’t support a tire’s speed rating once it has been repaired.
I'd feel better buying a new tire of the same type, or if you have AWD - preferably a used tire of the same type and tread depth as the other tires, which also must show no signs of damage or repairs. This would be far better than to plug the tire.
Improper repairs may Void Your Tire Warranty, and the tire manufacturer won’t support a tire’s speed rating once it has been repaired.
I'd feel better buying a new tire of the same type, or if you have AWD - preferably a used tire of the same type and tread depth as the other tires, which also must show no signs of damage or repairs. This would be far better than to plug the tire.
You mean air creeps in beside the plug. So you'll have a higher pressure in the tire after a while. Interesting physics. Could be used to automatically pump up the tires.
SalisburySam
Active Member
Admittedly a small sample, but this is not at all my experience over decades of tire warranties and a dozen or so tire plugs. Never had evidence of air/moisture getting INTO a plugged tire, and tire warranties have always, ALWAYS been honored where I needed them, plug or not. Nor have I ever had nor heard of anyone else having a blowout in a plugged tire. Maybe I’ve been lucky, but plugs have been the go-to tire repair procedure since, well, since tires. Perhaps the issues you cite were tires plugged in the sidewalls?
I do agree that the internal glued in patch is the gold standard for a tire repair and SHOULD be done plugged or not.
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