Faraaz23

Hi everyone,

The idiot roofers at my condo building forgot to do cleanup and several of my neighbors and I ended up with nails in our tires. I had to take my car to firestone and they patched one of my Kumho Ectsa SPT's. My question is, how safe is it to drive on a patched tire? Should I just go ahead and get a new tire? Common sense suggests to me that the patch or the area immediately adjacent to the patch is going to be a weak point.

Thanks in advance!

Faraaz

EDIT: The patch is almost directly in the center of the tread, not anywhere near the sidewalls.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

if it's patched correctly and the tire is still structurally intact, patching it is just as good as nothing happened

directly at the middle of the tread and assume you found out soon enough, those are both good news

DaveGS4

iTrader: (2)

You should be just fine as long as it isn't close to (or in) the sidewall

mex lex

iTrader: (4)

I have like 2 or 3 patches each on two of my tires. I've been driving with them with no problem. They are not near the sidewall. My question is, is it safe for me to drive at a high speed with the patches?

Seize

Yeah, I agree with what the others have said, as long as it isn't close to the sidewall it should be ok.

I gashed up my tire really bad awhile back while running over a box-cutter. It looked like it couldn't be salvaged but a friend of mine that works for Ford patched me up and I was good to go

Here's a pic of the damage



Oh and yeah, the razor went all the way through the tire.

charliea42

As someone earlier intimated, you might very well consider that your tires no longer offer the speed rating they once had. You might want to consider keeping your speeds to double digits. Just be thankful you didn't have a BMW with RFT. They must be replaced when punctured.

Lexmex

That's exactly correct on the sidewall issue. Down here, patching tires is something that is done on every street corner, known as vuclanizadoras, they will take your tire off its rim and repair it on the spot. I have had a tire with such a patch for a while and no issues.

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

As already mentioned, a properly repaired tire no longer has its speed rating, therefore, according to manufacturer should not be driven at high speeds... There are reasons behind that, having to do with how well the repair adheres to the tire under higher temperatures...

as for "Seize" I would not drive on that tire at all... or at least replace it as soon as possible... ALL tire manufacturers have the same rules for repair, governed by the RMA (rubber manufacturer association). Basically states that all tire repairs must have a patch on the inside and some sort of filler that fills from the tread surface to the inner liner/patch. Without the filler, moisture can readily get to the steel belts... from there, they corrode/rust and the tire comes apart, or separates... 3 of the last 4 tires I've had come into the store with "separations" have actually had repairs in the same area as the separtion... two of them repaired incorrectly, one correctly (no repair is perfect)