Tire plugs

[san rensho]

Luckily the hole is right in the center of the tread. And, the tires are expensive Bridgestone that only have about 6k miles on them and have tons of tread left.

I've noticed that the insides are just starting to wear a little more than the outsides, so I'm thinking of rotating the tires side to side and at the same time getting the punctured tire patched from the inside while they have the tires off the rims.

[BYprodriver]

Plugging a tire from the outside is a temporary fix at best. Sometimes it can cause the tire to seperate & it always lowers the high speed capabilities. The tire should always be patched from the inside but this still lowers the speed rating of the tire like any puncture, that being said there are interior patches with integral plugs for larger holes & I don't know how much they lower the speed rating. Sidewall puntures cannot be repaired because the sidewall is constantly flexing & helps support the weight of the car

[jaykay]

Both my rears have had a nail stuck in them....lots if construction around TO. The punctures were in the middle of the tread away from the side wall.

They were patched from the inside by a shop that sees a lot of race and track cars. It was non issue for them. They told me that month they had pulled enough nails to build a barn.

Since then I have run the car on a circuit that is tight and very hard on tires... They were melting! I have run them at a high speed track as well with no problems. I know of other that have plugged track tires as well.

There are guys on here that are dead against it for the track

A Porsche dealer will not plug tires

I would look for a competent race prep shop and have them take a look

Hopeful this helps

[Bob O]

Originally Posted by jaykay

Both my rears have had a nail stuck in them....lots if construction around TO. The punctures were in the middle of the tread away from the side wall.

They were patched from the inside by a shop that sees a lot of race and track cars. It was non issue for them. They told me that month they had pulled enough nails to build a barn.

Since then I have run the car on a circuit that is tight and very hard on tires... They were melting! I have run them at a high speed track as well with no problems. I know of other that have plugged track tires as well.

There are guys on here that are dead against it for the track

A Porsche dealer will not plug tires

I would look for a competent race prep shop and have them take a look

Hopeful this helps

I had the same thing happen a couple of days before the last DE. New tires (less the 1000 miles). Picked up a screw in the right rear tire. There was no time to replace tire since Tire Rack would have taken four or five days to get them to the shop, no one in town had a replacement tire, and the DE was the next day. This particular shop is owned by a long time SCCA racer. He had no issue at all with plugging the tire, from the inside and sending me out to the track. He stated that he had plugged hundreds of track and street tires with no issues. I did three days on the track and have taken at least one long (3000 mile) trip with these with no issues at all. (And yes, mine were also melting around the edges at the DE) I think if the plug is done from the inside and done correctly there shouldn't be any problems. Doing it correctly is the key though. I'm sure there will be differing opinions, and the dealers certainly won't do it, but in my experience a plug done from the inside is just fine. That is if the hole is far enough away from the sidewall!

Bob

[Johnny Danger]

A couple of times in the past I resorted to "plugging" a tire as well . My experience has been, if the puncture is relatively small and it's located along the centerline of the tire, there should be no problems. Provided, however, that the plug/patch is done by a qualified and experienced individual .

[DenverSteve]

Same as Johnny and above. No problems ever seen with plugging. If you're taking it in to a tire shop, have it patched and plugged. If you're doing it yourself, and there's no leak, it will be fine. As stated above, I probably wouldn't race it, but I don't do that anyway.