Topic: Tire Repair Kits

[Claw]

Does anyone have experience with tire repair and plug kits, sorta like the one mentioned here?

I noticed I drove over the nasty end of some big headed nail.. it's embedded firmly in the tire tread (nowhere close to sidewall) but I'd like to fix it before it becomes a bigger issue.

Or should I just take it in to a tire shop to have it patched and repaired from the inside?

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

I've used on of those on the STi back in the day. It did okay, but did eventually start leaking. When I took it to a tire shop to actually repair, they moaned and complained about the kit needing to be cleaned up before they could actually patch it. I would skip the home kit, and go straight to the shop.

[jellynuts]

I've plugged a few tires myself on bigger tires, but thinking that because my STI had such low-pro tires, a shop would use something more specialized.  So I went to a shop and they ended up using one of those kits anyway. 

I recommend the home kit, but not 37 pieces.  They come in packs of 4 or 5 and you probably won't use them up.  It's not that complicated, but you really need to teabag on your tire for that secret soup. 

[Mason]

I would vote to bring it to Kal tire. They will ream it, plug, and patch from the inside. Most of the time they do it for free depending on what brand of tires you have.

I worked at a tire shop for over a year and never had a tire patch leak

[Jay89]

Done properly, both are good enough. However, the proper patch from a tire shop would hold as they do seal it after the plug is in.

I see those DIY outside plug kits all the time. If I'm in there doing a tire repair, I usually put a bit of sealant on it from the inside to help it not leak in the future.

If you can, bring it to the tire shop and have a proper patch and repair done. In an emergency though, itll be ok

[Claw]

Thanks all.  I dropped it off at Kal Tire, they patched it free of charge.