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Need your advice on a good inside automotive tire patch

You don't balance them when installing yourself?

Reply to
Tony Hwang
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You can put just about any "chain tire shop" name in place of Sears and be just as accurate. There are a few good ones of every brand - but more bad ones.

Independents and to some extent automotive dealers are significantly better.

I've had issues with Firestomne. BF Goodrich, and in the old days Uniroyal tire centers all doing the rip-off - either attempting it on me, or doing it to my customers.

Reply to
clare

The plug patch is far superior to the string. I'll use a string in an emergency - reluctantly.

Reply to
clare

Actually quite a few would. I know mine did. It's the only way to keep customers. Treet them like GOLD. The car salesman sells a customer his first car from the dealership. The service department sells him the next - and the next - if there is a next.

Reply to
clare

Obviously you only do a static balancing. Is that good enough for your driving?

Reply to
Tony Hwang

I've ballanced many a tire dynamically that was in perfect static ballance but caused severe high speed shimmy. I've even balanced tires that had been "road force balanced and still shook - and gotten rid of the shake. I used to balance within 1/8 ounce and could get a V rated tire dead smooth to over 140MPH.

Try that with a bubble ballancer. Particualarly on something like a

2555/50 rire.
Reply to
clare

All my family cars have 2 sets of tires on OEM wheels.(summer and winter) I swap them out when season changes, rotate them as well at home.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

I found out tire jobs at dealers don't really cost more. Same with any service at dealership where we purchase(trade in) our cars.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Harbor Freight is the LAST place I'd buy tools. I have been dissatisfied with almost everything from them. If I want cheaper tools, I usually buy the "Toolshop" branded stuff from Menards. Most of their tools have been fairly decent. Otherwise I'll pay the higher price and get Craftsman or at least the middle of the road brands like Stanley or Black & Decker.

Reply to
Paintedcow

clare wrote, on Mon, 07 Dec 2015 15:45:00 -0500:

I know. I know. I know. I know. I know what you're saying even BEFORE you said it.

All I can tell you is that I bought the tools. I then mounted only 5 tires on BBS rims with the HF mounting tool. I balanced each one meticulously with a static balancer from HF. And my car does NOT shake shimmy or vibrate at any speed.

What does *that* tell you?

If my car shook, shimmied, or vibrated, *then* I would start looking at balance (among a ton of other things like suspension and tire pressure differences and tread differences and shocks, alignment, etc.).

That's all I can tell you.

Clearly, if my tire vibrated at speed, I would take it to a shop, and pay them $30 to test ride the car, and then they would *tell* me if it was alignment or balance or a worn suspension, etc.

What I'm saying is that you do NOT need to ALWAYS dynamically balance. If you mount your own tires, you get the CHOICE.

I do realize that if you have a shop do your tires (which 99.99999% of you do), then dynamic balance is thrown in with the standard charge, so there is no sense in NOT getting dynamically balanced.

But, in "my" case, dynamic balancing would be a waste.

Or, are you saying, that I secretly have a vibration that I don't know about yet?

Reply to
Danny D.

What's that got to do with the price of chicken milk on thursdays??? We are talking about REPAIRING a tire.

Reply to
clare

I should add that with the strings, you stuff the folded string in the hole, then when the probe is in the tire, you rotate it a couple turns, and that make a "ball" of string inside the tire, so the string doesn't come out. That's why the probe shouldn't be a comple 0, but have an opening in the side, like a C, so that it will come loose and you can pull it out without any of the string.

They worked well too.

Some webpage pointed to by some post here said holes up to 1/4" but my impression is that a 3/8 or evne 1/2 screw makes a hole that is bigger than 1/4" when something is holding the hole open, but closes down to almost nothing when the screw is removed. ???

Reply to
Micky

I can generally also buy the parts I require to do my own repairs cheaper from the dealer than from the autoparts store - and almost ALWAYS cheaper than on-line when you factor in the shipping.

Reply to
clare

clare wrote, on Mon, 07 Dec 2015 15:32:24 -0500:

This I thought was a joke, but, I called Wheel Works, and guess what! If I bring in the tire, they will patch it with the plug/patch, for free!

Yep. For free! Woo hoo.

It doesn't matter that Tire Rack sold me the tires and that I installed them myself.

Perfect.

  1. I can remove the tire easily.
  2. I bring it to Wheel Works
  3. They patch it correctly, for free.

I asked them over and over again "are you sure it's free?", and they said yes. I told them they're crazy; but I like their kind of crazy.

I'll let you know what happens.

Reply to
Danny D.

clare wrote, on Mon, 07 Dec 2015 16:33:36 -0500:

Specifically about:

  1. Removing and replacing the tire on the rim ourself, and,
  2. Patching a hole in the tire, and,
  3. Perhaps dealing with balance issues thereafter.

Choosing the patch seems to be *easy* now that I know there is only one kind of patch to choose.

BTW, I called Midas (whom I hate), Goodyear, and Wheel Works. Midas and Goodyear only patch or plug but not both. Wheel Works does a patch/plug, and they do it for free!

No more calls for me. That's too easy to ignore.

I will let you know what happens (I accidentally left the key in the ignition when I needed to straighten the wheels to jack up the car so I'm charging my battery as we speak).

Sigh.

Reply to
Danny D.

clare wrote, on Mon, 07 Dec 2015 15:40:32 -0500:

I have a beemer. It breaks a lot.

The dealer service department gives me plenty of free soda and coffee. And then they charge four hundred dollars to replace a battery.

No thanks.

Reply to
Danny D.

Danny D. wrote, on Mon, 07 Dec 2015 21:44:31 +0000:

The bimmer costs even more because it has twice as many wheels and a far larger battery.

No thanks on anything at the dealer other than a warranty or recall repair (which should be free).

Reply to
Danny D.

clare wrote, on Mon, 07 Dec 2015 16:34:53 -0500:

I must agree that *shipping* on tires from Tire Rack, even when it just ships by UPS from Nevada to California, still costs about $25 per tire.

So, at $100 per tire times five, the tires cost $500 but shipping alone is $125 which is huge compared to the sales tax on $500 which is only about $50 (roughly) if bought at a tire store.

So, the way to go, if you can find it, is to find a place that *matches* tire rack prices for the tires, and then it only charges the 10% (or whatever) sales tax, and then you have no shipping costs.

Tires are odd that way, because they cost a *lot* to ship. Usually shipping and tax cancel each other out; but not with tires.

Sigh.

Reply to
Danny D.

Oren wrote, on Mon, 07 Dec 2015 12:49:50 -0800:

Hey. Good t' hear from ya! How'z them huckleberries?

PS: If/when I decide to get a gun (when I get rid of all my sister's children living with me and the grandchildren don't visit me n'mo'), I'll have to ask you which one.

I'm kind'a thinking I'd like a 9mm, maybe Ruger? Or a revolver (fewer screwups when you're shooting scared?).

I kind'a like the 9mm though (for home protection).

Yes, I know a shotgun is the best way to go for home defense, but, I like the pistol better for some reason better.

We had a few robberies up here, so that's what got me thinkin'.

Reply to
Danny D.

Paintedcow wrote, on Mon, 07 Dec 2015 15:15:16 -0600:

I know. I know. I know.

When I was looking for balancers and tire changing tools, I found better ones (Northern?) but they also cost more.

If I were to do the job once a month or so, it would pay to get the better tools. I agree.

But, how often do you really change all your tires? I do it once every couple of years at most.

So, in the next 20 years, I'll change tires about 10 times. For that, the HF tire-changing tool works just fine.

PS: I had to bolt it to a pallet though, as there's no way you can use it without mounting it to something sturdy.

Reply to
Danny D.

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