Thread: Can tire sidewalls be repaired?

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

If they can glue on tread or glue on internal patches for puncture repairs, why can't they use the same glue to bond the rubber flap?

Very good question for a professional tyre man.
Let us know his answer and what documentation he referenced for the answer.

Found on the net

In fact, in the United States it is illegal for a tire shop to repair a tire which has side wall damage. The reason for this is because the integrity of the tire itself is compromised with side wall damage. Now, I'm not saying it could not be fixed per se (a simple patch could probably do it), but would you want to risk your safety or that of your passengers by putting a repair on a compromised tire?

When you patch a Tubeless Tyer, you patch the inside, so the air pressure is forcing it against the wall or tread wall and the glue only has to hold it in place and seal the gaps. Now I'm only guessing here, but I wouldn't imagine that the glue would be as strong as the original moulded rubber. So, even though you might glue the torn flap back in place you effectively still have a torn Tyre. The Integrity of the wall has been compromised to some extent, so it must be weaker. I wouldn't want to find out how much weaker by trying it on my vehicle,
Cheers, Billy

As I said it's currently running only as a spare while the others wear out, so no current safety issues while it merely hangs there, the problem is that the tyre now on the road in it's place probably has about 30K on it so will wear out first. The question is how do I manage that.

Do I wait for the old spare to be worn out and replace 2 (the old and current spare with the cut) with RTF10 or similar.
Or
Do I replace all 4 or 5 when the old spare is worn out?

What you should do is consult the standard rather than relying on opinion on a forum.
From AS 1973-1993, figure 5.1 has your answer. After preparation, how large is the damaged area? Greater than 10mm across plies, greater than 25mm along plies, greater than 5mm across and 25mm along plies, greater than 10mm across and 15mm along plies is unrepairable.
That is the Australian standard that overrides all opinion.

Hang on, we'd all be out of work if we relied on facts, standards and law instead of social media opinion!

Tyres have traditionally been repaired for all types of damage, but standards for "repairable" have got tighter through the years.

I am reminded of a problem our mechanic had in 1964 - severe wheel shimmy on a Series 2. Still there after ensuring that everything was mechanically perfect. Now bear in mind that in those days, it was not normal practice to balance any tyres except on high performance cars, and few tyre places, especially rural ones, would have been equipped to balance any except car tyres (this was in Roma). The mechanic eventually did a static balance, on the vehicle - and found one front tyre was one and a half pounds out of balance. He removed the tyre from the wheel, and found that it had a half circle sleeve fitted. This was an extreme example, but substantial sleeves were often fitted to tyres.

For about the last fifteen years or so, tyre repairers have declined to repair any sidewall damage to road tyres, citing insurance strictures, and today it is difficult to find anyone who will repair even tyres for machinery such as ploughs if there is any sidewall damage or significant tread damage.

As far as I am aware, there is relatively little evidence of accidents following tyre failure following repairs, especially considering most tyre related accidents are almost certainly due to either incorrect inflation or worn tread. For example, one where I was first on the scene at an accident one frosty morning on the Barton Hwy - came over a hill, and a car that had just passed us well above the speed limit was resting on its roof by the roadside, giving a very good view of a pair of essentially bald rear tyres (driver was crawling out the window as I arrived, uninjured).

I would be fairly certain that the changes in tyre repair policies have more to do with litigation than actual risk. Which, of course, does not help anyone except the tyre importers and sellers.

John

current teachings
no sidewall work, no shoulder work no bead work
temp plugs must be removed from the tread face and either refitted with mushroom plugs or internal patches

And thats without getting into the technicalities of what you can do for ply damage discovered in the retreading process.

of course whats taught and whats in the regs is about the same as a pollies promise and whats delivered