Permissible repair areas
Punctures, popped tyres, slow leaks! We’ve all had them. I used to quote a 1.4 every year, I still don’t know where I got that statistic from?
We repair many tyres every day, on all types of vehicles. The car and van repairs we carry out are to stringent British Standard requirements (BS159f) which states how a tyres should be repaired. We follow these rules and if a tyre can’t be repaired safely we won’t repair it but will recommend a specialised repair or replacement tyre.
Tyre with extreme run flat (under inflation) damage.
The first step, once the offending leak has been detected, is to examine the inside of the tyre for any signs of damage caused by the tyre having driven on in an under-inflated state (All very sexy I know, but that’s what we do!)
Then the penetration (the hole where the air is coming out) is drilled out with a six millimetre reamer, the area on the inside of the tyre where the reinforced patch will sit is buffed so that any ridges are made smooth or, to a suede finish. Next a thin coating of vulcanising fluid (glue) is painted onto the prepared area. Then we wait, for a few minutes while the fluid cures and then we insert plug-patch into the hole we drilled. The face of the patch is coated in a adhesive that reacts with the fluid we applied to the tyre and creates an extremely firm bond!
Plug patch ready to be inserted
The final stages are to coat the prepared area with an inner liner solution which replaces the air tight liner that is removed when the tyre is buffed. (Hopefully that made sense?) Then the tyre is refitted to the rim, inflated, the puncture is checked to make sure there are no leaks, re-balanced and then refitted to the vehicle.
Not at all sexy I know, but something we do every day and which some of the other large chains ‘discourage’ their technicians from doing with their priority being on selling a replacement tyre. We have a simple way of looking at it, if we wouldn’t be happy driving on the tyre then we won’t repair it! So you can be assured of a safe, professional job doing, every time.