big nail : flat tyre

[Roadster]

I ran in to a big nail yesterday with the front left tyre
I was about 100 miles from home and despite my runflats, it was impossible to continue due to the head of the nail sticking out way to much and I couldn't get it out with my limited roadside tools.
Fortunately I have a spare tyre, took about 5 minutes to change tyres, most effort went in to putting the original front tyre (19") into to trunk

some crappy pictures I took with my blackberry




max allowed speed with the spare: 50mph or 80km/h
took me a while to get back home... being overtaken by trucks all the time, not my usual driving

The X pulls very hard to the right now so no real fun driving...

[rh71]

I cannot believe you couldn't see the nail on the road before you drove over it!

What kind of drivers are you over there in Belgium?

JK

[Roadster]

Originally Posted by rh71

I cannot believe you couldn't see the nail on the road before you drove over it!

What kind of drivers are you over there in Belgium?

JK

We are not terrible drivers in Belgium (at least I'm not...), we just have the worst roads in the world...we actually have some road between the potholes and not the other way around

it was raining big time, must admit that I didn't see that thing lying on the ground. I've asked the tyre shop to give me the nail as a souvenir

[ALPHA]

Originally Posted by rh71

I cannot believe you couldn't see the nail on the road before you drove over it!

What kind of drivers are you over there in Belgium?

JK

Hey Eagle eye.. you are joking right... come here in Greece were most of our roads are crap with full of bumps and dirt and you'll find out if you can focus 100% on the road for objects while driving with 140km...

[two-five boy]

Doesn't look like there's much tread left on the damaged tire. Might be a good idea to replace both front tires at the same time to avoid drivability problems. Rule of thumb is tread depth of tires should be no more than 4/32" off from each other.

[wslee]

wow ! this lesson teach me to keep a pliers in my car, my 7 seater don't have the spare tire, thanks.

[Roadster]

I went to the tyre shop this morning to drop of the tyre.
They told me they are not allowed (car is a lease) to fix the puncture with the usual mushroom as the tyre is a runflat...
Reason is they can't see if the steel structure in the tyre is damaged or not... told them I pulled over immediately after hitting the nail... but they don't want to hear it. The same thing happened to me on my E61, had the tyre plugged with a mushroom, the tyre blew up about 3 months later, so maybe they're not wrong... Anyways, by Monday I should have a new tyre installed.
not my problem because I have extra tyres included in my lease, but it feels like a waste to throw away a tyre that could have lasted for another 10k kms...

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by Roadster

I went to the tyre shop this morning to drop of the tyre.
They told me they are not allowed (car is a lease) to fix the puncture with the usual mushroom as the tyre is a runflat...
Reason is they can't see if the steel structure in the tyre is damaged or not... told them I pulled over immediately after hitting the nail... but they don't want to hear it. The same thing happened to me on my E61, had the tyre plugged with a mushroom, the tyre blew up about 3 months later, so maybe they're not wrong... Anyways, by Monday I should have a new tyre installed.
not my problem because I have extra tyres included in my lease, but it feels like a waste to throw away a tyre that could have lasted for another 10k kms...

In the States the tire will be recycle, probably into children playground cover.

[ard]

Originally Posted by upallnight

In the States the tire will be recycle, probably sold for $5 to somebody who will patch it and sell it on ebay for $30

Fixed

[DBC]

I have had run flats repaired, as long as you have pulled over and put the space saver on as soon as the gong goes, then the tyre should not be damaged. But if you run on it deflated heat builds up leeding to damage to the tyre, de lamination etc.