Run Flat Repairers

Stingray

Anyone know a shop that will repair Fun Flats? I know the are 'unrepairable' but.. its not on the side wall, small tack nail and so far air is not leaking. Don't know how long its been in.

I heard there is a place near Frank Keane's on the Naas Road, but only tyre shop there is Advance and they won't do it

Thanks

mickdw

Smaller independent places will usually fix them. IMO, it is a complete scam refusing to fix something that has not even been deflated. THe tyre manufacturers recommend not to repair as the amount of running done on the deflated tyre could damage it. This is cearly not the case with your wheel.

Anan1

Fast Fit in Dun Laoghaire have done it more than once for me.

alexlyons

fast fit in dún laoghaire put new shocks on a mate of mines pajero sport, and a few minutes down the road they went through the bonnet.. avoid

displaced dub

got mine repaired in Greenouge ind est in Newcastle near Avoca on the Naas road.

Anan1

alexlyons wrote: »

fast fit in dún laoghaire put new shocks on a mate of mines pajero sport, and a few minutes down the road they went through the bonnet.. avoid

What was your friend thinking? They're tyre fitters, not mechanics.;)

alexlyons

perhaps it was the other place down there can't remember the name of them though. definitely know people with bad experiences in that fast fit. There's a great tyre guy in sandycove, although he's always giving out about the run flats on the 5 series, got them changed and he wanted to put standard tyres on it. He had no real reason other than it was cheaper. only reason he wants to do it is because you need to replace them more often, hence more business. The ride is better with standard tyres though.

Anan1

Is that the little place opposite Fitzgeralds? I've tried him once or twice, but there was always a wait so I never actually used him.

alexlyons

not sure, he's on that one way road, think its the same one with grace and harvey at the bottom.

Anan1

That's the one. Tiny little place!

alexlyons

ye, very nice guy, and good prices.

Nissan doctor

The problem with repairing them is that, while it can be done when the puncture is in the threaded center section, the tyre manufacturers specifically say the tyres should not be repaired and this leaves any company who does repair them wide open to liability issues.

I know with Advance pitsop, Continental tyres(who own Advance) have issued direct instructions not to repair them.

sundodger5

the problem is no one knows how much damage had been done to them while driving underinflated, might look perfect as they are designed to be ran on.
so there is an element of risk in repairing them.
its not like the whole nation has a habit of court action at the drop of a hat

mickdw

sundodger5 wrote: »

the problem is no one knows how much damage had been done to them while driving underinflated, might look perfect as they are designed to be ran on.
so there is an element of risk in repairing them.
its not like the whole nation has a habit of court action at the drop of a hat

Yes but the OPs wheel has not even deflated yet.

sundodger5

If air is not leaking as per op then just take the tack out. does not need a repair.
if it has gone in then my original point stands how far has it gone with it being deflated (5psi,10psi whatever)
you can better check an ordinary tyre for secondary damage than a runflat.

vectra

Other than running them flat..!!
What other benefits do they have?

mickdw

sundodger5 wrote: »

If air is not leaking as per op then just take the tack out. does not need a repair.
if it has gone in then my original point stands how far has it gone with it being deflated (5psi,10psi whatever)
you can better check an ordinary tyre for secondary damage than a runflat.

It does need a repair. A nail or tack will be sealing the hole & it will need to be removed & plugged. The tyre hasnt been used in a deflated condition & can perfectly safely be repaired

MarkN

The problem is the sidewall is so hard it might never deflate significantly so you might think it's ok when it may not be.

They are the most useless invention for mass production cars IMO, most of us are not James Bond, the target of the Taliban or anything else needing bullet proof options so apart from generating money for BMW and tyre manufacturers they're a waste of time, awful ride quality, higher cost to buy and they can get you home... great, I can change a tyre thanks.

mickdw

If you can change a wheel, the only upside of runflats would be that you wont get a blowout but they are a thing of the past now unless you are running with dangerously worn tyres.

Nissan doctor

mickdw wrote: »

It does need a repair. A nail or tack will be sealing the hole & it will need to be removed & plugged. The tyre hasnt been used in a deflated condition & can perfectly safely be repaired

Plugging a car tyre is also very bad practice. Plugs are not designed for the the speeds modern cars and tyres are capable of.

sundodger5

if whatever went into a tyre plugged the hole so that no air came out as suggested then we would never see a flat tyre.
anything that fully penetrates the tyre will cause air to leak.
the tyre flexes all the time so air gets out.

mickdw

Nissan doctor wrote: »

Plugging a car tyre is also very bad practice. Plugs are not designed for the the speeds modern cars and tyres are capable of.

Are you saying that no tyre should be repaired?

sundodger5 wrote: »

if whatever went into a tyre plugged the hole so that no air came out as suggested then we would never see a flat tyre.
anything that fully penetrates the tyre will cause air to leak.
the tyre flexes all the time so air gets out.

Ive seen nails in tyres & the tyre loosing 2 pounds of pressure fortnightly. Now this would never cause an issue re damage to sidewall etc. My point was that someone could be driving around with this for a few days without any significant pressure loss leaving the tyre perfectly repairable. It will require a repair as pulling the nail out will cause a much quicker deflation. That is what I was getting at.

Nissan doctor

mickdw wrote: »

Are you saying that no tyre should be repaired? .

I didn't say that at all, I said no tyre road going tyre should be plugged. Plugging a pasanger car tyre is not the industry standard way of doing it.

mickdw wrote: »

Ive seen nails in tyres & the tyre loosing 2 pounds of pressure fortnightly. Now this would never cause an issue re damage to sidewall etc. My point was that someone could be driving around with this for a few days without any significant pressure loss leaving the tyre perfectly repairable. It will require a repair as pulling the nail out will cause a much quicker deflation. That is what I was getting at.

That is a very true statment, but the fact is the person who is asked to repair the tyre has no way of knowing how flat the tyre has become or how long it has been loosing pressure/running low.

sundodger5

Nissan doctor wrote: »

That is a very true statment, but the fact is the person who is asked to repair the tyre has no way of knowing how flat the tyre has become or how long it has been loosing pressure/running low.

That is the exact point. how many times have you had a puncture left for repair, open it up and it is destroyed internally. first thing you say when customer comes back and you show them the damage is it must have been ran on.
a high percentage will say it wasn't.
you cant see the damage on a runflat.

Nissan doctor

The same is true of sidewall bulges and cuts, only caused by impacts but the majority of people will say they didn't hit anything.

vectra

Do many new models come with them and no spare or are they an option when buying a new car?

Nissan doctor

vectra wrote: »

Do many new models come with them and no spare or are they an option when buying a new car?

They were originally an idea that BMW were pushing on their models as well as the mini but now, unfortunatly, other manufactures are starting to use them. I know they are available on the new Opel Insignia.

They are usually only available with certain model/wheel combo's.

vectra

Nissan doctor wrote: »

They were originally an idea that BMW were pushing on their models as well as the mini but now, unfortunatly, other manufactures are starting to use them. I know they are available on the new Opel Insignia.

They are usually only available with certain model/wheel combo's.

Any idea if Skoda push them on the Octavia Vrs ??

Nissan doctor

vectra wrote: »

Any idea if Skoda push them on the Octavia Vrs ??

Not so far as I'm aware, All VRs's I've seen come with Bridgestone RE series tyres.

vectra

Nissan doctor wrote: »

Not so far as I'm aware, All VRs's I've seen come with Bridgestone RE series tyres.

Good stuff.. Hoping to buy one this year and dont want those tyres on it.
Now
back on topic and apologies for hijacking the thread

R.O.R

Stingray wrote: »

Anyone know a shop that will repair Fun Flats? I know the are 'unrepairable' but.. its not on the side wall, small tack nail and so far air is not leaking. Don't know how long its been in.

I heard there is a place near Frank Keane's on the Naas Road, but only tyre shop there is Advance and they won't do it

Thanks

Possibly Tyres & Batteries? They don't seem to have a website, so here is a link to them on Golden Pages. (which takes ages to load on my PC)

http://www.goldenpages.ie/Tyres/Tab_Tyres_&_Batteries/IE_11550417_9999_1003