Guides
Can my tire be repaired?
A puncture is repairable if it is in the tread, no larger than a quarter of an inch, does not overlap an earlier repair, and the tire was not driven far while flat. Anything in the sidewall or the shoulder is not repairable at any size, and no competent shop will patch one.
The four questions, in order
Tire repair has industry limits, published by the tire manufacturers' association and followed by anyone doing the job properly. They come down to four questions, and a no to any one of them means the tire is finished.
- 01
Is the puncture in the tread?
The tread is the flat part that touches the road. Only that area can be repaired. The sidewall, which is the smooth curved face with the writing on it, cannot be repaired at all, and neither can the shoulder, the rounded corner between the two. That is not a shop being cautious: those areas flex on every rotation and no patch survives it.
- 02
Is it a quarter of an inch or less?
Six millimetres. A nail, a screw or a staple is almost always inside that. A gash, a tear or anything you can get a fingertip into is not. Beyond that size there is not enough sound rubber around the hole to hold a repair.
- 03
Does it overlap an old repair?
Repairs cannot be stacked or crossed. If there is already a patch inside and the new puncture is close to it, the tire is done. Two separate repairs far apart in the tread are usually acceptable; two that touch are not.
- 04
Was it driven on while flat?
This is the one that catches people. A tire run with little or no air heats up and destroys its own inner liner, and the outside can look completely normal afterwards. Any real distance driven flat means the tire gets replaced, whatever the puncture looks like.
What a proper repair involves
If all four answers are good, the repair itself has a correct method and two common wrong ones.
The tire comes off the rim. That is not optional, and it is the step that separates a repair from a bodge. Off the rim, the inside can be inspected for the liner damage that tells you the tire was run flat, and for a second hole you did not know about.
Then a combination patch and plug goes in from the inside: the plug fills the hole through the tread, the patch seals the inner liner, and they are one piece so the two cannot separate. The area is buffed and cemented first. Done that way, the repair lasts the rest of the tire's life.
What is not a repair
Two things get sold as tire repair that the industry does not accept as one.
- A plug pushed in from the outside without taking the tire off. It is fast, it often holds for a while, and it leaves the inner liner unsealed and uninspected. It is a get-home measure, not a repair.
- A patch on the inside with nothing filling the hole through the tread. Water and road salt reach the steel belts through the open channel and the tire rusts from the inside out.
- Sealant from a can is neither. It can get you off a shoulder, which is worth something, but it usually has to be cleaned out before a real repair and some kinds damage the pressure sensor.
The cases that are never repairable
Worth knowing before you spend an evening arguing with somebody about it.
- Anything in the sidewall, including a cut, a gouge or a bubble. A bubble means the internal structure has already failed.
- Anything in the shoulder, the curved corner between tread and sidewall.
- A puncture larger than a quarter of an inch.
- A tire driven any distance flat, because of liner damage you cannot see.
- A tire already repaired at that spot, or with repairs that would overlap.
- Tread worn below the legal 2/32 of an inch, because the tire is finished anyway.
How we handle it
We check all four at your car, with the tire off the rim, and we tell you which way it went before doing anything. If it is repairable we fit a combination patch and plug and torque the wheel to your vehicle's figure.
If it is not, we say so rather than fitting a repair that could fail, and the choice becomes your spare, a new tire or an inspected used one. We would rather lose the repair than sell you one that comes apart on I-35.
Repair or replace?
Can this tire be fixed?
Question 1 of 3
Questions about this service
There is a nail in my tire and it is not losing air. Can I leave it?
No. The nail is plugging the hole it made, and it will work loose or shear off, usually at speed. It is also grinding a larger hole while it sits there, which can take a repairable puncture past the quarter inch limit. Get it looked at while it is still repairable.
Can a sidewall puncture ever be repaired?
No. The sidewall flexes on every wheel rotation and no patch or plug survives that movement. This is not a shop being careful; it is the same answer everywhere because a sidewall repair fails, and it fails suddenly rather than gradually. A sidewall puncture means a new tire.
I drove a couple of miles on it. Is it still repairable?
Probably not, and the outside will not tell you. Running with little or no air overheats the inner liner and tears it, and a tire in that state can hold air for a while and then fail. It has to come off the rim and be inspected inside before anyone can say.
Is a plug on its own good enough?
Not as a permanent repair. An outside plug leaves the inner liner unsealed and means nobody has looked inside the tire, which is where the evidence of run-flat damage is. It works as a way to get somewhere, and it should be followed by a proper patch and plug or a replacement.
How many times can one tire be repaired?
There is no fixed number, but no two repairs may overlap or sit close together, and each one has to satisfy all the same conditions on its own. In practice, a tire with two sound repairs well apart in the tread is acceptable; one with punctures clustered in the same area is not.
Can you tell me over the phone whether mine is repairable?
Sometimes. If you can see where the puncture is and roughly how big, and you know whether you drove on it, that answers most of it. What cannot be judged by phone is the inner liner, which is why the tire comes off the rim before we commit to a repair.
Tell us where you are.
Call or text (512) 573-0135. Give us the cross street or a dropped pin and we will tell you what it costs before anyone drives.
(512) 573-0135