What is the opinion of driving on a tire with a plug in it. Went to a friend's house Saturday evening, punctured a drive tire and was leaking with a noticeable hiss on arrival. Flat in about 25minutes. No tire shops open before monday AM, so it was plugged and reinflated. It seems to be holding air and will monitor for loss of pressure over time. Tires are about 3.5 yrs old (oct 18) with almost exactly 30k miles. I am guessing half tread left. Punctured between tread blocks. Tire has already been patched once for a nail in similar location. Truck is not really worth another 6-800 dollars for 4 new tires, as I already have one mis.atch from a torn sidewall in Nov '20.

Plugged a couple tires on my Mercedes (no spare) & had no issue.
Speed limit on the tollway by my house is 75mph, no problems there +/- a bit.

I have plugged tires many times and run the full lifespan on them. As long as the plug is not on the sidewall or right at the edge I would be fine with it.

Should be fine if it was done correctly and checked to make sure it isn't still leaking.
Keep an eye on it.
Look for a used tire if you don't want to spend the money on new.

I have plugged tires I've driven 10s of thousands of miles. As long as it's done properly, and in the center of the tread (not on or near sidewall) it should be good for a very long time. At least until the tire itself wears out.

Plugged quite a few tires in 50 yrs of driving but I always went to the tire shop to get a patch placed on the inside of tire. With my luck just the plug would let loose at the wrong time.

If done properly, it'll likely outlast the tire.

I'm running on a plugged tire now with no problems.

I would recommend having the plug repair patched on the inside. It is a better and more permanent repair. The plug might seal the leak but it might do it at one of the body plies and not necessarily at the inner liner. This will allow the casing to separate somewhere down the line. If the tires were about worn out then I’d go with the plug if it’s working. But if you are planning on running that tire for another year or two hedge your bet with a patch.

My last truck had three plugs and a patch .

I once carried a spare that had a plug in it for years.

Is this a vehicle/driver that is likely to exceed 90 mph? If not, probably nothing to worry with. If so, who knows?

If there is enough worry about it, let Discount tire or another tire shop pull it off and patch it (if it is patchable), remount and balance it and never worry again.

Krazeehorse is mighty right.

While I've only plugged 3 tires all were driving without any worries or problems until thread depth led to new tires all around.

I know one of them was driving another 20,000 plus miles. Can't remember what the others were driving.

If the hole was in the tread area (not too close to the sidewall which is subject to flexing) and was a clean puncture and not torn up (in which case a plug will leak anyway), you're fine.

I’ve run the old style push in plug for thousands of miles without issue. As long as you install it properly it’s impossible for air pressure to push it out. A mushroom plug is far better but requires a trip to the tire store. It’s made of rubber and wears at the same rate as the tire and can be damn near impossible to locate once installed.

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Originally posted by Krazeehorse:
I would recommend having the plug repair patched on the inside.

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Originally posted by blueye:
Plugged quite a few tires in 50 yrs of driving but I always went to the tire shop to get a patch placed on the inside of tire. With my luck just the plug would let loose at the wrong time.

That's been my practice too.

A patch at my local shop is like $9. Cheap insurance.

A lot of people have a bunch of holes punched in their bodies that have healed up just fine.

If you wrapped a person around a rim and drove them for 70 thousand miles, they would wear out in very short order.

Figuring all that, the tire should have no trouble at all going an additional 30 thousand miles.


But them again, we are comparing apples to orangutans so, everything I just said is meaningless.

I worked in a retread shop in the early 60s, did the plug repair dozens if not hundred of times.

This was the bias tires not quite into the radial construction era. It was common repair for certain kinds of damage. Marking it a 'run-out' for as long as it would last, usually for the life of the tread. On the other hand, the guy that did the buffing away prepping the outside for the recap process, would reject any casings with plugs from further retreading process.

I don't recall ever having much of a customer problem with them.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by Krazeehorse:
I would recommend having the plug repair patched on the inside.

quote:

Originally posted by blueye:
Plugged quite a few tires in 50 yrs of driving but I always went to the tire shop to get a patch placed on the inside of tire. With my luck just the plug would let loose at the wrong time.

That's been my practice too.

A patch at my local shop is like $9. Cheap insurance.

Around here a plug is $10-15 at the small indy shops and a patch at Goodyear is $30-40. And the big shops will only do patches and most of the time they'll tell you it's too close to the sidewall even if it isn't so they can try to sell you a new tire.

Good to go! I think that every vehicle in my driveway has a plugged tire. If it’s on the highway, we seem to be the one to find it.

I plugged a Michelin Pilot Super Sport tire on the rear axle of our 911. It was harder than hell to get the plug into the tire, I had to take it off the car and rig up a fulcrum to get it through the belts, but it worked flawlessly and was on the car when we, very reluctantly, let the car go.