holy! $30?? Can someone say ripoff? Just for future reference, America's Tire Company does free flat repairs regardless of where you bought the tires.

Anyway, the repair should have something that looks similar to this

Where the round white part should be inside of the tire, flush with the inner tire, and the pointy part should have been pulled through and snipped to be a similar height as the tread.

 

i would not pay more thatn 15$ for a repair. ive never had a problem with a plug before either. anyone care to elaborate on the negatives of a plug?

 

I'm guessing you mean a gas station plug? I haven't done many, but iirc, you need to first file the hole down a little, and then put the plug in with an applicator, and pull the applicator out.

The main reason this is bad, is because a lot of people don't file the hole the angle the puncture is at, making another hole, or damaging the tire further. The second reason this is bad, is because the plug doesn't always seal the entire puncture. It may seal the inside of the tire, so it doesn't leak, however, water can still get into the steel belts causing them to rust. The last and final reason you shouldn't do this, is because many tire shops will not properly repair a tire with a gas station plug due to the above reasons and do not want any liability for a tire failure. I'm not sure if these are the only reasons, however, these are the ones I was told while I worked at America's Tire Co. Anyone else have anything to add?

 

If you don't remove the tire from the wheel for repair, you can't inspect the inner liner for a collapsed sidewall or similar damage.

Sears Auto Center also use the one-piece plug/patch repair method you illustrated earlier.

 

Hm now with all this talk about differing methods, you guys have me a bit paranoid. :P I might go back there and ask in more detail how they go about repairing.

Thing is though, I'm on my original set of RE070s with over 32k miles on the car. That's generally how timidly I drive. They are pretty well worn though so I'll probably be replacing them come summer. As long as this lasts until then I'm ok with it.

 

As long as the gas station knows what to do you'll be fine, on my last car I had several $10 plugs that lasted through 30,000 miles and several track days. Just watch them doing it and make sure they properly clean the hole first.