Greetings,
Washing the car this morning i discovered a nail in my left rear tire.
after washing, took it for a quick spin, no loss of air pressure. TPM read normal.
i know you can't repair the tires. my question is do you replace both rear tires at the same time?

it's a 2012 911 GTS with 7000 miles. from what i hear, 15k miles is about the max.
my plans are to go to the dealer tomorrow for a new 1 or 2.

opinions please.

cheers,
NAV

 

Depending on the location of the nail you can repair the tire. If it is near the center of the tire they you should be able to either plug it or have it professionally patched from inside. if it is a couple of inches from the sidewall then you won't be able to plug or patch it. I had a nail in my tire and had it plugged and even did a couple of track days with no issues at all. If it's done right then it should be okay to just repair it.

 

Why cant you repair tires? I had a nail in the rear as well, I bought a $10 repair kit (plug) and drove on the tires for the next two years. I have done that many times with all my cars, never an issue. Unless you track the car on those tires you will be fine.

 

Lots of people will just plug and/or patch a tire if the nail is not too close to the sidewall. Some will even use them for track days which is a bit much, imo. Take it to a tire shop and see what they think. If you opt for replacement, two tires are ideal but if the remaining tire has good tread depth, say 50%-75% of new, then one will work fine. AND, I certainly would not buy tires from a P-Dealer! That's $$$ nutz!! Best,

 

on my other vehicles I put a plug in but on the P car I have it done at the tire shop where they dismount the tire and patch it from inside

 

My P-Dealer matches Tirerack prices. Seems like many dealers of all brands want your tire business.

 

Replace both tires and send the old one to me i'll even pay for the shipping.

p.s.-- Patch it.

 

i'll let you guys know what i decided. i will put the other tire(s) up for sale as soon as i get new ones.
i am reluctant about taking it to any other place because of the center lug set up. most places are probably clueless about it.

cheers,
NAV

 

why buy new tires, just repair the old one, its simple, people do it all the time, what could go wrong, the patch falls off and you get a very slow air leak (never heard of it happening)

 

If the Patch is done correctly from the inside...you'll be fine.

 

That's a good observation but there is also sales tax to consider. Where I live if I buy 2 Pilot Sports, unless my dealer beats Tire Rack by 8.5 percent I am leaving about $100 or so on the table (after shipping charges). In certain circumstances I would go to the dealer but $100 is $100 - and I do not have a whole lot of love for my dealer.

 

Hey guys,
Did lots of homework over the weekend. Priced tires, best was tire rack, high 3's.
Called the local P dealership, quoted me $465 plus $35 for install/each.

Ended up going to Premier Sportscar Service here in Vega$. They are a small independent, owned by a seasoned P car mechanic who has won in many famous races. The whole staff was top notch, especially the office manager, who squeezed me in for a repair.
Turned out the nail was a small sheet metal screw, and it only penetrated the rubber tread. I was, needless to say, relieved. No patch was needed.

Can't say enough positive about this repair/race shop. They do work on cars from all around the country. The owner, and chief mechanic is incredibly meticulous. If you need work done, I highly recommend them.

Cheers,
NAV

 

I've had 3 patches done so far, all diff tires. No problems. $35 for a patch is a heck of a lot cheaper than a new set. Just be sure the shop is reputable. First shop I used ground up half of the lip of the rim then tried to convince me I brought it in that way. In the end they refinished the whole rim and got me a loner for 2 days.

 

It belies my age but when i worked at a gulf station going through school, we even patched sidewalls with no problems. The refusal to do so now is just a liability issue.

 

Also being an older guy, I think it was only with the advent of radial ply tires that sidewall patches were abandoned. The sidewalls on radials flex in such a way that repairs became less stable and more importantly, even the smallest damage to the sidewall structure of the belts on a radial can result in much more catastrophic failure of the tire. I'd bet that the tires you repaired were the older bias ply tires where the sidewalls didn't flex much.

Thinking way back, my dad was an early adopter of radial tires and he kept having people trying to tell him he had a tire going flat due to the resulting bulge of the radials being an unfamiliar sight at the time.