Nail in tire advice

[ECMesq1]

I got a roofing nail in my front tire. Holding air, but very slow leak. I could:
1. Drive car to dealer
2. Drive car to national discount tire store
3. Lift car with floor jack, remove wheel and take just the wheel to one of the two above
4. Try to remove the nail and plug the tire myself
5. Just replace both front tires (2013 with 9500 miles and original tires...still
Have some tread left, so not ideal)

Any advice on the above is appreciated. I'd rather just take the wheel somewhere to be fixed, but not sure how easy it is to jack with a floor jack (I didn't see anything in the manual about jacking points). Thanks in advance.

[SOberman001]

take the wheels off. Three is a jack point just behind the front wheel. Looks like a small triangle. Info online about this. I jack my car up all the time with a floor jack.

Personally, I wouldn't plug these tires.

[Bruce H.]

Those tires are basically done at that age and miles. Rubber gets hard with age and grip and ride gets worse and worse. More suseptible to hydroplaning on wet roads long before they wear down to the wear bars, and more prone to puncture. Replace all tires if you can, plug if you can't.

[City]

Bruce makes a good point. The tires are nearing their "safe" life. Most will say 5 years, regardless of usage. You probably shouldn't go beyond 6 years. Bearing that in mind, if you want (or need) to salvage another year without replacing 4 tire$ AND you are NOT tracking the car, I'd remove the wheel and bring it to a tire shop where they have the proper equipment. Let them do a proper patch on the inside and I'm sure you'll have no issues for another year.

[swexlin]

Had a nail in my left rear two years ago. Plug was fine. Tires were replaced last year due to age, and still have the old one as a spare. Had the dealer do it, because the local tire store didn't have a machine to handle.

I was able to drive to the tire store (could have driven to the dealer), but once the tire store pulled it, THEN it wouldn't hold, and I had to flatbed to the dealer!

But, your tires are old enough to replace.

[texasram]

One of my corsas have a nail, leaks no air though

[Herrsss]

Need to be careful on what tire machine is used on it. The owners manual stipulates only use a touchfree machine and not all national tire stores have them. It also depends on where the nail is as to whether it's patchable or not. If it's more center it'll probably be fine but if it's closer to the sidewall nope not happening. On top of that if you can avoid it do not, under any circumstances, plug it yourself. I did that in an emergency situation 100 miles from home about a year ago and the patch held for awhile but when it gave out Discount Tire refused to re-patch so I had to buy a new tire.

[ECMesq1]

Thanks guys. Appreciate all the help. I will pull the wheel myself and then take in it to have it checked out. Anyone know if there are any group-buy discounts on new tires like Pirelli ran last year? Thanks!

[texasram]

Those Pirelli deals were on tires that were on the shelf for a few years

[Policy Limits]

Given the age & mileage don't patch. Replace both for even tread counselor

[FSTENUF]

Given the age & mileage don't patch. Replace both for even tread counselor

With that many miles on them. It's time to replace

[ACR]

Sell the car now, it's worthless

[Bruce H.]

Those Pirelli deals were on tires that were on the shelf for a few years

During 2015 they were shipping 2013 date codes but in 2016 they were shipping 2016's that were hot off the press under the promotion with Corsas. What an awesome deal. Freight paid to Canada no less!

Limit was supposed to be 2 sets per member but a lot of you guys must not have ordered because they just kept shipping them to me and I was tracking my ass off trying to wear them out fast enough!

[darbgnik]

During 2015 they were shipping 2013 date codes but in 2016 they were shipping 2016's that were hot off the press under the promotion with Corsas. What an awesome deal. Freight paid to Canada no less!

Limit was supposed to be 2 sets per member but a lot of you guys must not have ordered because they just kept shipping them to me and I was tracking my ass off trying to wear them out fast enough!

Yup, all of mine were fresh off the presses. And Charlotte either didn't know, or care, about the limit, because I must have ordered at least 7 sets of fronts, plus a few rear sets. I'm just about to spoon on my last front set this weekend, after killing them off giving rides at the track this weekend past.

Still patiently awaiting track rat feedback on the R888R's for next year......... ahem, Bruce.

[Bruce H.]

Yup, all of mine were fresh off the presses. And Charlotte either didn't know, or care, about the limit, because I must have ordered at least 7 sets of fronts, plus a few rear sets. I'm just about to spoon on my last front set this weekend, after killing them off giving rides at the track this weekend past.

Still patiently awaiting track rat feedback on the R888R's for next year......... ahem, Bruce.

Winning!

The R888R's are really lacking for wet grip apparently so they're no longer a consideration for me. I just drive too often and too far in the rain getting to distant tracks and I track rain or shine. I've run a lot of tires over the years and I really doubt we'll ever see a better tire than the Corsa for that kind of varied use.

If somebody well-documented a 2 second/lap improvement with the the R888R's I'd say that's nice, but that's not enough to hang with an ACR-E and I'm generally out front of everybody else already on the Corsas... while being easy enough on them for the fronts to last 5-6 track days!!! What more could you ask of a dry/wet street and track tire? And I'm totally okay letting the ACR-E guys be a little quicker

[Bill Pemberton]

Call Jon B and chat with him about a new set -- tires are old enough you should just get a new set ( front and rear). Keep in mind the R888s are a track tire , and TireRack and others even note it is for track use and not general highway travel. Sure you can use , but if you are not a track rat , get a good driving, quiet set of rubber that is also good in the rain, imho --- and I am a track rat.

[Policy Limits]

The DOT standard is to change no later than 5 years regardless of wear.

[Viper Specialty]

IMHO, I have had very good luck with the standard tire patch kits for normal usage. If installed correctly, you will never have a problem.

Lets be real, the potential rim damage from a tire change is a much bigger deal than the tire cost itself. If the tires are still soft and have some life left, *AND* you don't plan to track the car, I would skip the hassles and patch it myself... and run it *safely* until you want to replace them anyway.

Tire age is a poor indicator of actual tire condition in many cases.

All depends on your usage, really.

[Bill Pemberton]

Normally I agree with Dan, but age , heat cycling and the potential speed of the car make it unwise in my humble opinion to patch a super high performance tire. Frankly buying two new ones makes no sense either, as then you have a big gap in age of the rubber, front to back. Still say, bite the bullet and get 4 new, as you will likely be doing that , anyway , in a year or two, if this had not occurred.

[Viper Specialty]

Normally I agree with Dan, but age , heat cycling and the potential speed of the car make it unwise in my humble opinion to patch a super high performance tire. Frankly buying two new ones makes no sense either, as then you have a big gap in age of the rubber, front to back. Still say, bite the bullet and get 4 new, as you will likely be doing that , anyway , in a year or two, if this had not occurred.

Super high performance tires only matter when they are utilized as such. Otherwise, it has the same basic function as any other tire on the road, and I can guarantee it would still be more capable, even patched, than 99.999% of them out there every day on other vehicles. Also, since it is a Gen-3+, a low tire pressure issue would be known about long before it became a big surprise. The owner knows if he will be doing 65 forever, or if he will be doing 200 tomorrow. The only reason everyone always says "replace", is they don't want the liability if the guys says "Yeah, just normal driving" and then takes the car on Watkins Glen three days later like an idiot.

Patched tires do not cause cars to spontaneously combust or randomly fly into guardrails at normal speeds, contrary to popular opinion lol

[swexlin]

As I mentioned above, when I had my Corsa plugged and patched patched 2 years ago, it was perfectly fine. I still have it in my basement as a spare now.

The OP will have to make his own decision.