Tyre trouble

Malcyb

Member
Afternoon,
Sorry for the flagrant abuse of the helpfulness of forum members, but I’ve got a non-A2 question that someone her might know the answer to…. Just as I’m about to take Gracie for her major surgery at WOM, my other car (Polo GTI) suffered a puncture, my first for over 25 years. To save me wasting time trying to find a tyre place to repair it, judging by this picture does it look repairable? It looks to me as if it’s not, it’s a pretty large split, can’t imagine how it happened! And a bit near to the side wall.
A18D30DD-5011-4ECF-B573-89D2CEE7BAE1.jpeg
 
6mm diameter is the maximum limit for a puncture repair and only one repair allowed in V rated and above tyres.
 
If that is the cause of your puncture then legally it is probably too close to the sidewall to repair and might not be possible any way due to the size of it but it looks like either a piece of glass or metal cut that tend to not go all the way through.

Have you checked the rest of the tyre thoroughly for a nail or screw somewhere else as the cut photographed might not be the cause of your puncture?

Best way to check to be sure is inflate the tyre using the compressor in the boot of your A2 and spray with water with a little washing up liquid in it and it will bubble where the puncture is?
 
Looking at the cut again it does look pretty deep, like someone could have stuck the blade of a knife in it.

You haven't upset one of your neighbours I hope? ??
 
I would not repair that tyre. Also looks to be suffering from age cracking / splitting. What is the date code on the tyre?
Not sure but I think they’re pretty new, only bought the car a few months ago and tyres had lots of tread. However I suspect the cracking/splitting might be because I unknowingly continued driving on it for some time when it must have been as good as flat. Yes I know that’s very dangerous and wouldn’t have done it with hindsight however I was duped by the TPMS. It flashed a warning a couple of hours into a 200 mile trip so I checked all my tyre pressures and one of them was only very slightly low so pumped it up and cleared the warning. It didn’t reappear however nearing home was getting a lot of noise through the offending wheel though it still drove ok, so suspected all was not well. When I got home i was alarmed to find it was hot, and flat as a pancake.
I think I have probably abused it enough to require replacing…
 
6mm diameter is the maximum limit for a puncture repair and only one repair allowed in V rated and above tyres.
Agreed with 6mm but never heard of the one repair rule could you point me in the right direction as to this ruling?
 
Looking at the cut again it does look pretty deep, like someone could have stuck the blade of a knife in it.

You haven't upset one of your neighbours I hope? ??

Nope, something happened on my journey yesterday, see above….
 
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Not sure but I think they’re pretty new, only bought the car a few months ago and tyres had lots of tread. However I suspect the cracking/splitting might be because I unknowingly continued driving on it for some time when it must have been as good as flat. Yes I know that’s very dangerous and wouldn’t have done it with hindsight however I was duped by the TPMS. It flashed a warning a couple of hours into a 200 mile trip so I checked all my tyre pressures and one of them was only very slightly low so pumped it up and cleared the warning. It didn’t reappear however nearing home was getting a lot of noise through the offending wheel though it still drove ok, so suspected all was not well. When I got home i was alarmed to find it was hot, and flat as a pancake.
I think I have probably abused it enough to require replacing…
If you have run on it flat the sidewall will be destroyed inside and there will be rubber bits everywhere so nothing to think about, it would be very dangerous for it to be repaired so just get it replaced ?
 
If you have run on it flat the sidewall will be destroyed inside and there will be rubber bits everywhere so nothing to think about, just get it replaced ?

Sure… thanks for confirming my suspicions. I‘m still surprised that a flat wasn’t that obvious on such low profile tyres.
 
@Howey

Any tyres rated ‘V’ and above can only have one puncture repair in the lifetime of the tyre.

source..

mine are W so qualify for this restriction, however this would be the 1st repair. Still, I think I’ve learned enough in this thread that it’s not repairable anyway
 
Unfortunate and expensive. No doubt no spare either. Going back to your first post about first time in 25 years, that is the reason most cars do not have spare wheel / tyre any more. At best a " mobility kit ". That kit would be useless in your situation anyway. Add in that once you use a mobility kit on a tyre nearly all garages will refuse to repair the tyre after that. My advice is if you think the tyre is repairable and you can safely remove it then get it repaired. If not safe, middle of nowhere etc then use the kit but be prepared to have to buy a new tyre after.
 
@Malcyb - if you zoom max into you picture you will see that doble parallel crack-line I have drawn below.
That doble crack-line might be orbital... you can also see that you have transverse cracking.
The damage looks like 50/50 knife/glass, you also see that you have developed gracking in both end of the gash...
Visually - I agree with @audifan that the rubber look old and dry, if it has been driven a long drive at less than 10psi, yes that can be some of it.

All in all; this tire is on it'sway to collapse. Be safe and find another tire, please.... (never fun to through a tire with 6mm pattern, but....)

Cheers
dieselfan

dårlig dekk.jpeg
 
Realistically that would be a pair of tyres as just getting one would presumably mean quite unbalanced tread depths across the axle. Agree with everything noted above about proximity to sidewall, probable quantity of sidewall damage due to running near-flat and large quantities of internal debris due to friction. Best of luck with the replacement.
 
Unfortunate and expensive. No doubt no spare either. Going back to your first post about first time in 25 years, that is the reason most cars do not have spare wheel / tyre any more. At best a " mobility kit ". That kit would be useless in your situation anyway. Add in that once you use a mobility kit on a tyre nearly all garages will refuse to repair the tyre after that. My advice is if you think the tyre is repairable and you can safely remove it then get it repaired. If not safe, middle of nowhere etc then use the kit but be prepared to have to buy a new tyre after.

Luckily it’s a 2015 model before all cars had rubbish cans of goo so at least I‘ve got the space saver on. Once Gracie’s home with her MYP box then I’ll get a new tyre, I’m not taking any chances
 
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