Run Flat Repair Story

[nucferr]

Just for your info....my experience with a run flat repair..

Went out this am (today) to go for a sunday drive in my Z06 and as soon as I started it up got the "left rear tire flat" message followed by "limit speed to 55" and the the DIC automatically went to the rear tire pressures with the left rear measuring 8 lbs. Shut her down and got out and you could not..instantly tell you had a flat but tire guage verified and then after studing the tire you could tell there was something different as to the way it looked. I had not driven it for about a week and after looking did not see anything. Got my racing jack and from the back and using a smallpiece of 2 X 4 jacked up the car. As soon as the car was in the air I could see the dreaded sheet rock screw to the threads (I only have ~500 miles on the car).

In my various car shows/stuff I had ran into a guy that .. out of his garage ...has hunter/bear equipment to both balance/mount/alignment of cars. he is into Porsches and actually races them. Well I dig through my wallet and find his number and give him a call. He said he had someone coming over sometime this morning for tire work but to bring it over.

I pulled the wheel from the vet and in the pick up drove the 15 miles to his place (had never been before). From the road looked like an ordinary home but once you approched the garage the guy had like a "two guys" garage..with all of the above equipment (other then this guy was not near as organized as the show...actually his looked like he was working full time out of his garage but I know he is not).

Anyway he looked at the tire and said he had 100% confidence he could fix the tire and the tire would be no worse for the repair butttt he admitted he had never tried a 12" rim on his machine. He said that together we would try this and at any time I felt uncomfortable we would stop.

His machine was...obviously new and no metal ever touched the rim. He always made sure that the wheel sensor (at the valve stem) was on the IMMEDIATELY opposite side of the direction the machine would turn..that way the machine never had to operate anywhere near the sensor (by the time the machine broke the bead 3/4 around the tire was free). He also used a lot of soap (and he mentioned a lot that what he was using was no "Joy" it was a professional tire lubricant made espically for mounting tires..it looked like wax).

(PS for those of you that have never seen a run flat unmounted (I am one) there is nothing about the tire that tells you it is a run flat (no donuts/hard rubber/etc). It appears that the side wall has additional strength and that lip of rubber (that you see on the outside edge) must work to provide the run flat capability)

Once the tire was completely off of the rim he first buffed the inside area around the hole. Then he ran a "file like" drill bit through the hole. Then he vacuumed out of the inside rubber area. He applied some adhesive and then from the inside pulled a plug with a stem (looked like a tire patch with a plug attached and the plug had a thin piece of wire as a leader so that you could thread through the hole. He then "rolled" the inside patch to ensure adheasion. After a few minutes of waiting he then applied a different liquid material (like glue but different) over the entire buffed area (he said that once you buff the inside of a tire the air barrier is now demished (the glossy finish inside of the tire is the air barrier) and that this stuff will built it back up. He then trimmed the plug on the outside.

Mounting went uneventful. He used something he called a "bead thingy" that had plastic clips tied togeher with a string. This would allow the tire to be "mounted to the rim" but keep the bead from seating so that you could position the tire on the bead in as close to identical position as it came off. This did not work for us and when we got the tire back on the rim most of the bead had seated. He said that if I wanted him to he would break the bead again and attempt to relocate the tire (closer to orginal position) but since we were going to check balance anyway he would just rebalance. I did not want to try faith as we had cause no damage to wheel to this point.

For the balance we removed the original weights using....a kitchen knife. Worked perfectly and then using finger nails and some goo remover finished removing the weight glue.
Now this is the neat part.....he would have his balance machine spin the tire and then using the weight the machine recommended he would use duct tape to place the weights. On the second spin he would shift the weight one direction or the other until the whell was balanced (Most shops will just mount the weight the first time and on the second spin just added additional weights (thus counterbalancing some of the initial weights). By first installing the weights with duct tape you can reduce the number of weights. He did both inside and outside like this then marked the location and permentally installed the weights. He then checked the final balance which was near perfect (readings less the 0.04)

Once back home and installed (I did take the time to wax the inside of the wheel) I started the car up and ..did get a lump in my throat as the car DIC still warned of a flat on the left. I drove it around the subdivision (less the 1 mile) and the warning was still present. When I left the subdivision and got about 1/2 mile away at 35 mph the message went away and the rear tire readings came up on the dic with normal pressures showing.

Entire eposide (of this two guys garage) took about 90 minutes and cost me $40 but I know what kind of care was taken.


I have read some threads that say Goodyear will repair for free but I would rather pay to know the care that was taken.

Just though I would pass on this experience

[Sabot]

Sounds like you got a bargain, just the peace of mind alone is worth the cash you paid.


Sabot

[nucferr]

Originally Posted by Sabot

Sounds like you got a bargain, just the peace of mind alone is worth the cash you paid.


Sabot

Sabot
I agree 100%
Moral of story is that as corvette owners we need to find and make friends along the way!

sorry to all that may think my story is a little winded but the more we know (about our vets) the better

[Antivenom 447]

Glad to hear it wasn't a horror story...........

[constren]

I didn't follow the exact process of what happened but I do have a caution to share with you. If you plugged the tire, I have always been told by tire guys that you may separate the radial strands that run circular around the tire. I plugged a tire once and the tire soon after exploded when driven, although not a vette tire. I would be very careful with a patched/plugged tire, especially if it is a steer tire and/or you ever get up to a high rate of speed. FWIW.......

[ZO6 AL-X]

Good to hear it was a happy ending.