How Does a Tire Store Repair a Punctured Tire?

by Tara Dooley

Inspection

When tire gets a flat, most individuals have it taken to a tire repair shop to have it fixed. If done properly, a tire store will first remove the tire from the car to assess the damage. Tires will need to be inspected inside as well as out to find where the leak is coming from and to check for tears in the wall of the tire. If there is a tear in the wall, there isn't much that can be done to fix it.

Sometimes the hole is particularly hard to find. In this case the tire might need to be submersed in water to look for bubbles. The bubbles would indicate where the hole is.

Repair

Once the hole is located, and it is determined that it can be repaired, the tire shop will plug the outer layer of the puncture with a plug. To do this, a worker will first scrape out the hole and score the rubber inside it. This will give the tar plug something to hold on to. On the inside of the tire, a patch will be used to seal the inner liner.

Things to Watch for

Repairing a tire correctly will take about 30 minutes. This is due to having to take the tire off the car to inspect it properly. If you go to a repair shop and are told that the tire can be done in 10 or 15 minutes, then it is not doing you a favor. Without inspecting the inside of the tire, there is no way to know if there is other damage that might tear further while driving. This could cause a blowout and wreck.

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