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Tire Puncture After 2 Months
- Thread starter azxken
- Start date
The same thing you would have done with any other tire with a nail in it, in any other vehicle. Either take the car to a tire shop and ask them if they will patch it, or buy a replacement tire.... same as any other car.
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
Should
Thanks for your advice. Should I take it to Tesla SC or just take it to costco or a local repair shop. I’m assuming tesla charges a lot for it compare to other?
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
In that case yes, take the car to literally any tire shop. Not Tesla.
Discount Tire is a great option if available in your area.
Just so we're clear: A puncture like this on the body of the tread is absolutely, positively repairable.
Back in the day, a typical service station would take the wheel off the car, depressurize the tire, remove the tire from the rim, put a rubber patch on the inside of the tire (after removing the nail), put the tire back on the rim, test for leaks in a tank of water kept around for the purpose, put the wheel back on the car, and send you on your way some nominal sum poorer. I remember getting stuff like this done for $35, but that was quite some time ago; I'd guess $50-$75 these days, and maybe less. Tire shops and garages do a lot of these.
The tricky bit with the tires put on a Tesla is that many of them are sound-absorbing types. This, apparently, has resulted in some tire manufacturers putting a foam on the inside of the tire. A few years back this gave your random gonzo in a tire shop the fits. From reading reports around this and other forums standard practice is, I think, to cut a circular hole in the foam, remove it, put the patch on as per normal, then glue the foam back on top of the patch.
There might be some tire shops that would want to balance the tire after the fun: The patch adds a bit of weight to the tire, so I'd guess the careful types would put the wheel on the balance machine, spin it up, then add weights in the right places until no more bobbles. That's me guessing: The cognoscenti around here might have a different opinion.
For what it's worth, for nail/screws like what you've got, there's an extra-cheap approach that people do use with some success. It sort of requires that one get the wheel off the ground which requires, typically, a jack and one of those special Tesla jack pads on the car.
First step is to get the kit at a local auto parts store. The kit consists of something that looks like an overgrown needle, maybe 4"-5" long, some squarish in cross-section strips of rubber, and a tube of rubber cement. Get the car wheel off the ground, turn the wheel until the screw is visible. Remove air from the tire to depressurize it. With a pair of pliers, pull the nail out. Thread one of the rubber strips through the eye in the overgrown needle, liberally douse the rubber strip with lots of rubber cement, and, using the needle, push it into the tire.
Some of the kits will allow one to give the "needle" a half turn so it can be disengaged; then one removes the needle, waits a few minutes until the rubber cement hardens, then cut off the excess sticking out of the tire. In others the needle has no gap and can't be disengaged; in which case one pushes the needle into the tire until the rubber strip is on the inside, then pulls the needle back out so some of the rubber sticks out of the tire. Cut off the excess rubber, wait for the rubber cement to finish drying, and cut off any further excess.
There's instructions on the kit; follow them.
Then, pressurize the tire. It'll hold. I've used these back when I was more of a shade tree mechanic some 20+ years ago; they work. And have the advantage that one doesn't have to take the tire off the rim; in fact, one can do it with the wheel on the car, if one is careful. People around here who are more into this kind of thing (and maybe carry a small jack, one of those lift-point donuts, and maybe a lug wrench in the trunk) swear by them.
But, no question, the square, bicycle-tire type patch is the golden standard, so it's your call.
Back in the day, a typical service station would take the wheel off the car, depressurize the tire, remove the tire from the rim, put a rubber patch on the inside of the tire (after removing the nail), put the tire back on the rim, test for leaks in a tank of water kept around for the purpose, put the wheel back on the car, and send you on your way some nominal sum poorer. I remember getting stuff like this done for $35, but that was quite some time ago; I'd guess $50-$75 these days, and maybe less. Tire shops and garages do a lot of these.
The tricky bit with the tires put on a Tesla is that many of them are sound-absorbing types. This, apparently, has resulted in some tire manufacturers putting a foam on the inside of the tire. A few years back this gave your random gonzo in a tire shop the fits. From reading reports around this and other forums standard practice is, I think, to cut a circular hole in the foam, remove it, put the patch on as per normal, then glue the foam back on top of the patch.
There might be some tire shops that would want to balance the tire after the fun: The patch adds a bit of weight to the tire, so I'd guess the careful types would put the wheel on the balance machine, spin it up, then add weights in the right places until no more bobbles. That's me guessing: The cognoscenti around here might have a different opinion.
For what it's worth, for nail/screws like what you've got, there's an extra-cheap approach that people do use with some success. It sort of requires that one get the wheel off the ground which requires, typically, a jack and one of those special Tesla jack pads on the car.
First step is to get the kit at a local auto parts store. The kit consists of something that looks like an overgrown needle, maybe 4"-5" long, some squarish in cross-section strips of rubber, and a tube of rubber cement. Get the car wheel off the ground, turn the wheel until the screw is visible. Remove air from the tire to depressurize it. With a pair of pliers, pull the nail out. Thread one of the rubber strips through the eye in the overgrown needle, liberally douse the rubber strip with lots of rubber cement, and, using the needle, push it into the tire.
Some of the kits will allow one to give the "needle" a half turn so it can be disengaged; then one removes the needle, waits a few minutes until the rubber cement hardens, then cut off the excess sticking out of the tire. In others the needle has no gap and can't be disengaged; in which case one pushes the needle into the tire until the rubber strip is on the inside, then pulls the needle back out so some of the rubber sticks out of the tire. Cut off the excess rubber, wait for the rubber cement to finish drying, and cut off any further excess.
There's instructions on the kit; follow them.
Then, pressurize the tire. It'll hold. I've used these back when I was more of a shade tree mechanic some 20+ years ago; they work. And have the advantage that one doesn't have to take the tire off the rim; in fact, one can do it with the wheel on the car, if one is careful. People around here who are more into this kind of thing (and maybe carry a small jack, one of those lift-point donuts, and maybe a lug wrench in the trunk) swear by them.
But, no question, the square, bicycle-tire type patch is the golden standard, so it's your call.
This just happened to me two weeks ago with 600 miles on my car (not the same tire, but in almost the exact same location). Woke up to a completely flat tire on my way out the door for work.
I was able to fill it up, get into a local tire joint and they claimed it was too close to the sidewall and didn’t feel comfortable patching it, although I have my suspicions they didn’t want to deal with mounting/unmounting a 20” tire and possibly messing the wheel up for some nominal fee. Whatever the case, they happily plugged the tire for me and even did it for free. So far so good!
I was able to fill it up, get into a local tire joint and they claimed it was too close to the sidewall and didn’t feel comfortable patching it, although I have my suspicions they didn’t want to deal with mounting/unmounting a 20” tire and possibly messing the wheel up for some nominal fee. Whatever the case, they happily plugged the tire for me and even did it for free. So far so good!
howardnj
Member
Get a new tire!
I had screws/nails in both rear tires. The first at 900 miles and the second one at 11.2k miles. I replaced both tires.
fholbert
Active Member
That happened to me 20 + years ago, smart policy! I’ve not used another tire shop since, five or six complete sets of tires plus a few that had to be replaced. Employees really hustle, don’t think I’ve ever sat in the waiting room more than a hour.
Really hard to beat their prices. When you do find a better price (Costco) remember Discount Tire fixes flats, re-balances and rotates for free. Seems every time I buy tires I get $100 back in the mail. Use the Discount Tire credit card and you’ll save additional money.
Is that how they do it in New Jersey?!?!
Technically, replacing the tire might be worse than having it repaired. After 11k miles, the rear tires could be worn down quite a bit. Having one new rear tire and one worn rear tire could actually be dangerous in some circumstances.
howardnj
Member
In NJ Tesla has roving tire repair vans that come right to the house. They showed up in my driveway in 40 minutes.Is that how they do it in New Jersey?!?!
Technically, replacing the tire might be worse than having it repaired. After 11k miles, the rear tires could be worn down quite a bit. Having one new rear tire and one worn rear tire could actually be dangerous in some circumstances.
Since I make frequent trips to Florida from NJ I am not about to take a risk of a failed plug or blowout in a tire on I95
Tesla documents the thread depth on their invoice of all four tires as well as the brake pads. They properly lift the vehicle and properly torque the lug nuts. There are those always looking for the cheapest way out. I'm not one of those! I learned that important lesson a long time ago.
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FWIW, about 1.5 years ago, I was going downhill, in the dark, on a road with no curbs or right-side lane marking, when a lights-on police car came racing up the hill the other way. Like everybody else, shifted to the right somewhat, and discovered that a homeowner with a bunch of good-sized rocks on the landscaping had let said rocks roll into the gutter. Where the front right tire found at least one, ripping the sidewall. I managed to limp the car off the busy road and onto a residential street.
The Tesla mobile wheel repair guy showed up in about a half hour and gave me one of his spares. The dead wheel went off to the local Tesla SC.
The tire was toast, natch. The fun part was that it only had around 5000 miles on it, but, unfortunately, Michelin had stopped making that type. (They're making it again.. go figure). A mad search through the interwebs found a place in Texas that still had one, was willing to ship, and I had it drop-shipped to the SC. They replaced the tire, I showed up, and they swapped out the loaner in about fifteen minutes.
Best of all: I had bought the original set of tires from Tirerack, the online guys. Their tires come with a hazard warranty; they paid off the purchase price. Not bad.
The Tesla mobile wheel repair guy showed up in about a half hour and gave me one of his spares. The dead wheel went off to the local Tesla SC.
The tire was toast, natch. The fun part was that it only had around 5000 miles on it, but, unfortunately, Michelin had stopped making that type. (They're making it again.. go figure). A mad search through the interwebs found a place in Texas that still had one, was willing to ship, and I had it drop-shipped to the SC. They replaced the tire, I showed up, and they swapped out the loaner in about fifteen minutes.
Best of all: I had bought the original set of tires from Tirerack, the online guys. Their tires come with a hazard warranty; they paid off the purchase price. Not bad.
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