I suspect collusion between car and tyre manufacturers to fit these modern wide low-profile tyres on cars that don't need them because they don't give anything like the mileage that a standard profile tyre gives.
Rolls tended to have tyres designed for comfort. And stuck with crossplies for some time after most had gone radial. So generally had a poor life even with normal use.
Most of the people who post here are well-known to the NHS so this exercise will probably send them to A&E :-)
I have no problem with my cheapo foot pump, but it does have a tendency to tip over sideways which could cause a sprain for certain people.
Also any part of the tread near the sidewall. Tyre places should have a chart .
I thought plugging was banned these days. Safer to vulcanise a patch on the inside of the tyre, then rebalance it.
It is never a good idea to ignore warning indicators. Though tyre pressure warning lights can be somewhat erratic on cold mornings.
Dunno. Most of the times I have had a bad puncture it has been by catastrophic damage to the side wall by a large nail, bolt or screw travelling at speed on a motorway. No repair even remotely possible.
I have run flats now so they are basically toast by the time you get to a garage range ~50 miles at <50mph if they will not hold pressure.
It is always worth having a footpump in the car even with run flats.
It only takes a couple of pumps to restore any monthly losses - some of which are due to leakage when you attach it. You are more likely to spot a slow leak if you use the same kit regularly. Obviously if the tyre won't hold pressure at all it does you no good but if there is a modest or slow leak then pumping it up again will get you home quicker.
Possibly. It is a long time since I had a repairable puncture. It mostly seems to be side walls that go these days.
I watched one being done once. The patch had a plug part which was pulled through the hole. The patch was smoothed on the inside and excess of the plug part trimmed.
This was in a reputable tyre supplier etc. It never leaked etc in the life of the tyre.
I use my bike pump (track type); as its designed for much higher pressure the air volume per 'pump' is reduced, it only takes a comple of strokes to adjust the pressure by a few psi.
According to the British Standard. puntures near the edge CAN be repaired, but only by hot vulcanising, which very few places offer, so only likely to be worth waiting and sending off for a very new and very expensive tyre.
SteveW
In the end I got two new tyres. KwikFit did it quite quickly.
I didn't. I didn't trust it because last winter it kept coming on and the garage said it does that in cold weather.
This time I couldn't see a tyre that was obviously down compared to the other three. Both front tyres looked a bit down but not that much. Both were at about 28psi according to my pen-like gauge (instead of 33). Both were about 30psi and not the 35 Tesco was claiming after I put some air into them.
So it was completely unclear as to which tyre, if any, was the problem. Do ye expect to have two tyres at once with an issue?
Hence my Q about what to use instead.
I'd only expect to use it at home, to make sure pressures are OK without having to go to a petrol station.
I must say that the pumps at petrol stations aren't much cop. The ones the Swiss had when I lived there were much better - and free. They had a small canister with a nice large dial and a shortish hose, that you could carry to each wheel. It lived on a nipple at the end of a high-pressure line and was usually pressurised to a couple of hundred psi or so. When you had finished you put it back on the high-pressure air line nipple, and it re-pressurised itself back to 200psi or whatever. Much easier than dragging a hose over the bonnet and then being unable to read from a distance the tiny digital scale they have these days.
I'd like to see that on a car tyre,
My motorhome tyres are inflated to 80psi on the rear. When we bought our first mh, I discovered the standard forecourt lines are set to 60psi max.
Then I tried a couple of the small 12V pumps, besides the time, one died, the second just couldn't do it- even though it was claimed to.
I invested in a proper compressor.
Our current mh came with a 12V compressor which looks more substantial but I still carry a spare wheel.
Darwin awards are for people like that!
They are good for about 50 miles at <50mph according to the manual. I limped home on one after taking serious damage. It wouldn't hold pressure at all. Pumping it up was accompanied by a whistling noise. I decided to stop and let it cool down every fifteen minutes of driving.
It is impressive just how well behaved run flats are at speed. I had a blowout on the M1 at motorway speeds on one of mine after penetrating damage from a sharp steel bolt. The warning light came on with a message to pull over ASAP. The scariest bit was getting to the next motorway exit at a mere 50mph when the inside lane was typically doing 70+.
Runflats are insanely expensive to replace but you don't get the serious loss of control that goes with a blowout on a conventional tyre.
Halfords do an electronic one- about £15-20 from memory- which has a good spec. Assuming it is as good as the spec, it is more than good enough for normal car use.
I'm on my second one (I lost the first one).
Lovely bit of driver responsibility that, even when they make monitoring the tyre pressures so easy.
Of course they will. Luckily it wasn't also an ambulance for the people you hit when you lost control of the vehicle?
<snip>How can someone have a car and not (already) also have (in the car) a suitable pump (plus a torch, towrope, spare fuses, a longer / telescopic wheel brace and maybe a drop of oil and some water)?
Just askin ...
Cheers, T i m
I've just driven some 20 miles since the new tyres were put on. The pressure warning light is still on.
So you didn?t reset the system? When you?ve pumped your tyres up many systems require you to reset to store the newly inflated tyres as ?correct pressure?.
Tim
Except that they don't, as I have pointed out.
Why d'ye think they wouldn't? They told SWMBO an hour. In fact they turned up and changed the wheel within 20 minutes. That's quicker than I could have done it from scratch.
I take it you are aware that roadside assistance is no longer the AA man and his motorbike/sidecar? They have much better jacks and the compressed air jobby for removing nuts and torquing them up properly when replacing them.
You don't lose control of a vehicle these days, not on rural roads anyway. And as usual you're nodding off. I was at home; SWMBO was driving. It even says that above.
Last puncture I had was in 2014 due to broken glass in a narrow lane at some roadworks. Previous flat was in 1984, also due to some broken glass where some kind person smashed a bottle in the road.
And you're overlooking the spare bulbs. We still have the (unopened) bulbs/fuse kit from the previous car bought in 2008. They're evidently a waste of time - except they may be a legal requirement in some places, of course.
You might carry oil and water for the rattletrap you drive. Last time I checked the oil, just before last service, it was up to the mark and the same colour as fresh oil.
But keep on talking bollocks - it keeps us amused.
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