Tire plugs

The wife ran over some road debris this morning and a piece of hard plastic or glass got stuck in the tire. I worked in a tire store for a while just out of high school and patched too many tires to remember with the plug/patch that's installed from the inside.

I like those.

However I bought an old school push in plug kit from harbor freight to fix a nail in the lawn mower tire.

Question is would you trust that in a tire that rides your wife and kid around?

The hole is only about the size of a pencil lead and is right in the tread.

Yes. I pulled a nail out of one of the tires on my daughter's car three days ago and plugged it with a kit from Car-Quest.

Yes.

I also work at a tire shop right now and patch/plug patch tires all the time. I have no problem with a plug in a tire. The way that the plugs work when installed properly will not leak or come dislodged. I plugged a tire in an auto zone parking lot right after buying a kit before I worked in a tire shop.

I put a plug in a tire on my Ford Explorer. Since then it has been to New Bunswick and back twice, and down to Alabama and back, tows a race car to the track and back every week, plus day to day driving. Almost 40,000 kms so far, no problems.

Yup. I have a plug in my DD that's been there for 50k miles with no issues. Got one in one of my autocross tires too with no problems.

Cool thanks guys

My friend bought a streetbike and rode it around for 2k miles before randomly finding out that the previous owner plugged a high performance liter bike tire to save $180.

I do it all the time in cars and never saw a negative issue in a decade.

In reply to rickr84:

I don't think I would plug a sport bike tire.

Depending on how hard you'll be using the tire, use discretion with regard to far far onto the shoulders of the tread you'll put a plug.

I'll go farther out on rears than fronts.

Depending on how hard you'll be using the tire, use discretion with regard to far far onto the shoulders of the tread you'll put a plug.

I'll go farther out on rears than fronts.

I wore out a tire that eventually had two plugs in it on the MINI. I used a Dynaplug kit.

I've had four flats in that car, more than my entire cumulative lifetime total before. It all started when I took off the run flats and started carrying a Dynaplug kit and a little compressor instead of a spare. I guess I was just tweaking the nose of the god of luck. I never had a problem with the plugs I used. One flat was a sidewall tear that took three or four plugs. It held air long enough to get to a tire store.

Safe enough!

I use the "sticky brown string" from NAPA. I've plugged several tires with lots of tread and then proceeded to run them until it was time to replace them. The plug never leaked. And yes, wife and kids.

Mine are always nails or screws, which make a neat round hole. The sharp glass/plastic bit would concern me if the hole was more of a slice than a round hole.

After Katrina, there were so many nails on the roads around New Orleans from roofers and demolition debris hauling that I was getting 3 or 4 flats a week. I picked up a plug kit at an equipment dealer and started plugging them myself. When I bought new tires 30k miles later, I had one tire that had 20 plugs in it. I have replaced trailer tires that have had upwards of 10 plugs.

I've plugged a lot of tires. Even some competition tires.

Terry mentions a flat we got in our test set of Hoosiers before Solo Nats last year. I was the tire plugger since I had the most experience.

Vorshlag Mustang Test Day

You can get cheap plugs at almost every auto parts store, but I've been buying them from big-rig shops and my favorite right now is Safety Seal.

Safety Seal Kits

If you're willing to break the bead for a real repair, I recommend a tire-rivet. I've also got a few of these in my tire patch bag. Scroll down to see them at the bottom of the page.

Tire Rivets

Yep I've raced tires until they were slick with plugs in them, every set up to my Star Specs, which have no holes so far jinxes self.

No, it is not safe. Goodyear has told their franchisees for years not to do it, the integrity of the casing has been damaged & problems may ensue Your performance tire loses its speed rating when you plug a tire which is why police departments replace their tires rather than plug them. It's easy, it's cheap & it usually works, but a failure can be epic & fatal. your kids, your wife, your choice,

I've never TT'ed or a-x'ed on plugs, but I've sure driven 1000's of miles on plugs

purplepeopleeater wrote: No, it is not safe. Goodyear has told their franchisees for years not to do it, the integrity of the casing has been damaged & problems may ensue Your performance tire loses its speed rating when you plug a tire which is why police departments replace their tires rather than plug them. It's easy, it's cheap & it usually works, but a failure can be epic & fatal. your kids, your wife, your choice,

What? Sure, I can see them not plugging but replacing instead of patching? That doesn't make any sense. But hey, it's not their money.

I just plugged my tire an hour ago. I used a "slime" brand kit from the Zone. I really freaked out when I used the rasp to open up the hole... what was a tiny, slow leak of about 1psi per day turned the whole tire flat in about a minute. Then, I couldn't get the rope into the insertion tool, so I had to pry the fingers open with a screw driver. I made a colossal mess with the rubber cement, and pushing the rope plug into the tire was a pain. I expected the whole process to be much easier than it was. I hope your experience is better!

BS on cops not plugging tires. i bought my p71 straight out of the cleveland police auction and one tire had 4 plugs in it.

i had a hole from a bolt once that i put a plug into, and the plug blew out. so i put 2 together and installed them. sold the car 5k later with the tire still doing fine.

delivering pizza i've done it for YEARS... I've used whatever kit I had laying around as long as the plug wasn't dried out...

i've only had one problem, it was a slow leak, I took it to a tire shop to have a patch installed...

Never seen or heard of a plug failure. I've plugged a ton of 'em. YMMV.

In Vermont external plugs are illegal to install. Shops are SUPPOSED to install the ones with the patch from the inside. Doesn't mean I haven't used the quick fix ones though. Never had a problem with them.