Great:rolleyes:

As glad as i was going to the Marlin RR day i've picked up a puncture :mad:

Only noticed it on sunday as i was giving it a thorough clean. The two rear tyres are about half worn so have a good 10 to 20k miles still left in them. Ive got a nice screw embedded in between the grooves on the off side rear, so decided to call out the AA as its free and i' knew that i couldnt take the wheel off having tried a few months ago.

But it looks like the spare had a puncture and has been repaired with what looks like a rubber bung in the hole. Now i know you can get punctures repaired but just how safe is it? Does it mean i cant drive my normal 70-80mph on the motorways? does it effect the insurance?

I would prefer to get the rear tyre repaired just so i dont have to fork out for 4 new tyres soon, but am a bit worried about driving on what is a damaged tyre especially as i need to drive around 100 miles to go to an interview tommorow. So have got to get up early to get the original repaired.

To repair a puncture like that the tyre is taken off the rim, and the hole may be enlarge to take whats known as a mushroom, it has a large head, and a long rubber tail to it, the tail is poked through the hole and pulled on untill the (or it may be presticky i think) cement that is used to hold the head of the mushroom on the inside of the tyre is set.

The ecxess tail can then be cut off, it may affect the balancing of the wheel but thats about it, no need to worry about insurace, or speed capabilitys, it should be as good as new.

There are some that tyre people wont fix, this is due to the hole being too close to the edge of the tyre and there not being enough room to fit the head of the

mushroom, this is when a new tyre is required.

Its just like fixing a puncure on a push bike inner tube from the inside out.

I got one at Marlin on Saturday too. I had to rush down the road to Quick Fit who removed the tyre only to find it full of rubber shavings inside and be completely knackered. They didn't have any the right size in stock, not that I would have bought one there anyway so they took the tyre off the steel spare and fitted that for me - All free of charge!!

Tyre repairs are perfectly safe. There are only certain types of puncture they will repair, generally anything in the sidewall or too close to the edge is a no-no. And bearing in mind it's in their interest to flog you a new tyre you can be pretty sure that anything "borderline" won't be repaired either.

Thanks guys.

I was looking at the spare and think about when the tyre wears down, is the plug going to stay in. But then on the back its going to be a while.

At the momment the repaired spare is a full treaded michelin premacy, so dont know why the wheel has 50mph max on the side. Is the steel rim not a astandard steely?

Hope the wheel can be repaired as its a bit strange with different tyres on the back. The screw embedded in the tyre is certainly in the central half of the tread so its nowhere near the edges.