DIY puncture repair.

[JimX]

I've seen a few threads here where people have taken their tyres into a tyre shop for a puncture repair. I thought that some people might want to know that you can repair most punctures yourself at home with a repair kit without having to remove the tyre from the rim.

I bought my kit from a motorcycle spares shop, and in fact the same shop uses the same repair kit for tyre repairs they do for their customers, they just charge a lot more because they are supplying the labour. They charge around $20 for a single repair, whereas the whole kit with 8 plugs in it is around $20. Replacement plugs are about $5 for 8 or something.

The instructions that come with the kit are pretty straightforward, however the basic overview is like this:

1. Take wheel off car/bike.

2. Remove nail/screw/whatever with a pair of pliers.

3. Use hand drill thing that comes with the kit to round out the hole.

4. Put plug into the plugging tool. The plug is like a short piece of squishy string and the tool is like a big sewing needle but with the hole in the pointy end.

5. Coat plug with tube of gluey stuff that comes in the kit.

6. Push plug into hole, pull plugging tool out so that it kind of wedges the internal ends of the plug back into the hole from the inside.

7. Trim back the excess bit of plug so that it's flush with the tyre.

8. Take tyre to servo and inflate with air.

If you're really quick and the tyre is around half full of air or more, you can do this while the wheel is still on the car or bike and plug the hole before the tyre goes completely flat. I had a puncture like this in my bike's rear tyre recently. I rode the bike to the servo with a half flat tyre, did the repair in 5 minutes and inflated the tyre on the spot.

Because these go in from the outside, there is a risk of them being pulled out by centrifugal force. However the bike shop guy said that he's done numerous trackdays at EC on his bike with these plugs and no problems. The thing is though bike tyres wear out much faster than car tyres (rears wear out every 3-6 months or 1-2 track days), so I might take more care on a car tyre that did occasional trackwork and had a hard compound tyre that lasted a couple of years. I'm not sure though, the glue *could* be stable enough to last a few years. I'm just saying I don't know.

You can get mushroom type plugs which flatten out inside the tyre to stop it being pulled out by centrifugal force, however these plugs are rubber and not squishy like the ones you get in the kit, and they can end up being cut by the steel belts and end up leaking. You can't really do these at home though and they cost $40-60 in a repair shop. So if your puncture repair costs less than $40, chances are it's the cheap push in/pull out type you can do at home.

Each type has its pros and cons, the shop I got my kit from didn't like the mushroom style due to them sometimes getting cut by steel belts. Also of course you have to pull the tyre off the rim to fit the mushroom plug so it takes them a lot longer. I have done at least 200kph on a tyre with 2 of the cheap plugs in it and no problems. I've had around maybe 10 tyres with these plugs all up over the years (done by both the shop and by myself after I learned about the kits), and none have leaked before the tyre wore out.

[Zane]

Just thought I'd add that I have used this type of DIY puncture repair twice and it's an easy job. Never had any problems with leaking and quite frankly I forgot that I've had one in my right rear tyre for the last 10000kms. Have done track days with speeds up to ~200km/hr and never had any issues. Sure beats spending time and money at a tyre shop.

Great thread JimX.

Z.