I took my car to NTB today after noticing a slow leak in the right, rear, tire. They removed a nail from the tire, patched it up and got it back on the road for me for $20 even. (And I didn't even notice any wheel damage.)
This seems too good to be true. I've never had a tire repaired before. Do these patch jobs hold up for a while or should I view the patch as just a quick fix untill I can replace the tire? Has anyone else here had a tire on their M5 repaired?
(Forgive me if this topic has been covered before. I searched the E39 forum for threads with tire repair and turned up nothing. )
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/ / Kent
2006 M5 - Interlagos Blue / Black Perforated / Brushed Aluminum.
A lot depends on how much wear is left on the tire and your driving habits/requirements.
If I were planning to drive across Europe (as I do) I would be very reluctant to drive with a plugged (i.e. repaired) tire. Can you imagine the stresses involved when 400hp meets the road during extended high speed driving or track runs?
On the other hand, if you've got a lot of miles on the tire and you're only commuting around town, I'd probably wait and replace a pair of tires at the same time.
The final possibility is to discard the damaged/repaired tire, replace with a new pair and keep the semi-worn one in case of future punctures. In any event, I would avoid relying on the M-blow me system at all costs.
it seems like the right rear gets more punctures than any other. no scientific data, just from my own experience and hearing stories. i don't want to do a poll, but does anybody else think the right rear gets most of the punctures and any reason why?
Originally posted by Magna it seems like the right rear gets more punctures than any other. no scientific data, just from my own experience and hearing stories. i don't want to do a poll, but does anybody else think the right rear gets most of the punctures and any reason why?
My understanding is that the front tire often runs over a nail or screw lying flat on the road, which then spits it out back "active" where it the rear tire runs over it and gets impaled and punctured. Don't really know why the right side would get more flats, other than perhaps most of the nails and construction debris is off to the (right) side of the road.
I've had 2 nails in 14K miles. One in the right front, another in left rear. Had the front one plugged with no further problems and the rear just doesn't leak. Since the wear bars are rapidly emerging back there.. no sense in rushing to get that one fixed.
Magna--there is evidence-- it is not just coincidence. In the US we drive on the right side of the road. Garbage, nails, pins, etc. make their way to the gutter on the right side of the road by air and by rain. When you drive by the turbulence and car stir up the trash and then the right rear drives over it.
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2006 M5 6 Speed Manual, Silverstone
2002 Ford Excursion Limited Ultimate
2003 Ford F-350 HD Lariat 6.0 TurboDiesel
2004 Cadillac Escalade ESV
2004 Polaris Ranger
I wanted to post a follow up to this thread about my repaired tire.
In my last post on this topic in April I said that I'd just keep driving on it and keep the board posted on how long it lasted.
Well, today, 3 months and about five thousand miles after the initial patch job, the tire gave up the ghost. I was about to get into my car and head back to work after lunch when I noticed that the tire looked very low. (I ignored the tire defect warning during my morning commute, assuming that it was only slightly low as it had been on occasion before.)
I thought I could make it to the nearest gas station and put some air in it. But on my way to the gas station the tire started making terrible noises and the back end of the car began to squirm around a little bit. I pulled over to the side of the road immediately and saw a comical trail of shredded rubber behind my tire.
There's no saving the tire now. It will have to be replaced. The wheel looks fine, though.
So in case you ever think, "I wonder how long one of those tire patches would last on my M5," my answer is, "about 3 months or around 5,000 miles."
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/ / Kent
2006 M5 - Interlagos Blue / Black Perforated / Brushed Aluminum.
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