[jcaligood]

I found a nail of some type in my rear driver side tire on my 2018 SS 1LE. It does not appear to be losing air pressure. So it's either plugging a hole or the nail isn't that deep into the tire, I can't tell without yanking it out.

I took my car to Discount Tire today and the employee told me it is "too close" to the repairable area for them to patch it. I'm not 100% sure this is correct. He said because of the type of tire (Michelin Pilot Sport 4S) the patch would wrinkle after some time, due to more rubber being in the corner. I'm not sure if he is BSing me on this. Based on the pictures, does anyone know if this would be safe to patch? I might take it somewhere else to ask them to patch it, if they will.

My next question, if I have to replace the tire, would I be able to replace just one tire? I'm thinking the Electronic Limited Slip Differential might sense different tread wear and it might effect the eLSD.. Am I overthinking this, or is this a legitimate concern?

Any input is appreciated!

[JKSully]

I can't speak to whether it is fixable or not, but general rule of thumb is to replace both left and right tires on an axle at the same time. You may be able to get away with it if there's very little mileage on the tire and you have close to 100% tread depth remaining.

[Jaxcam02]

Anything within an inch of the sidewall is too close for comfort to patch for me.

[KenMaro]

I feel your pain OP. I was doing a wash, prepping to put mine away for the winter soon and found a bold screw in the passenger side rear, similar placement as yours only the bolt hex cap is sticking out. No loss of pressure, I did not pull it out. Tempted to wait till spring, go through my normal prep (over inflate the tire) and see how it holds for the next week. I have the original run flats on still.

[Mark114]

Originally Posted by jcaligood

I took my car to Discount Tire today and the employee told me it is "too close" to the repairable area for them to patch it. I'm not 100% sure this is correct. He said because of the type of tire (Michelin Pilot Sport 4S) the patch would wrinkle after some time, due to more rubber being in the corner. I'm not sure if he is BSing me on this. Based on the pictures, does anyone know if this would be safe to patch? I might take it somewhere else to ask them to patch it, if they will.

It’s a liability issue. Tire manufacturers generally don’t support patching the outer edges of the tire and most tire shops won’t perform patches that aren’t supported.

Here is Discount Tire’s policy:

https://www.discounttire.com/learn/tire-repair

[Scottyz]

The plug/patch likely won’t hold in that area because of the curvature on the inside of the tire. Trust me I wouldn’t risk it.

[jcaligood]

Thanks for the response, all. Sound like I'll be replacing that tire.
I just put a tread depth gauge on both rear tires, and they both read 8/32

Could I get away with replacing just the one tire, since the other still has 8/32 tread left?
If I replace only one, would the eLSD sense a wheel slip because of the tread difference?

[WhiteMale]

I don't think you'll risk anything eLSD or ABS, etc.., but its not what you SHOULD do and for most of the same reason a shop won't patch that, they won't sell you one tire, either. It's just not how they do things. It's awful to think a small puncture can cost you $500-1000.

That it's in that thick tread block is likely why it isn't leaking, yet. Too it might not go all the way through, either.

[Nothing like an SS]

As everyone stated, too close to the sidewall to be repaired.
You CAN get just one tire, but not the best option. Expensive, yes, but replacing both tires is the right call, unfortunately.

Been there, done that...... feeling your pain!

[Norm Peterson]

Originally Posted by jcaligood

I found a nail of some type in my rear driver side tire on my 2018 SS 1LE. It does not appear to be losing air pressure. So it's either plugging a hole or the nail isn't that deep into the tire, I can't tell without yanking it out.

I suppose you could pull it out, at which point there are two possibilities

(1) it's not leaking - do nothing.

(2) it is leaking - you could plug-repair it while you source new tire(s). This is not a long term solution (though it should hold up in the short run as long as you drive carefully and conservatively and keep an eye on the TPMS readout.


Norm

[Nothing like an SS]

Originally Posted by Norm Peterson

I suppose you could pull it out, at which point there are two possibilities

(1) it's not leaking - do nothing.

(2) it is leaking - you could plug-repair it while you source new tire(s). This is not a long term solution (though it should hold up in the short run as long as you drive carefully and conservatively and keep an eye on the TPMS readout.


Norm

Also very fair advice!

[ctrlz]

Yes, not technically in the safe zone. No shop will touch it.

What I would do:
Hit it with soapy water and see if it bubbles. If bubbles, you know it went through. Personally, I would try to plug this and see if I felt the belts when reaming the hole. If so, I would plug it and drive on it, obviously checking the integrity of the plug for a few days.

If it does not bubble, just pull the nail. Sometimes these nails are short, or go in very crooked. Once you pull the object, hit it with soapy water again. If no bubbles you are done.

In my experience, I have never had a nail puncture that did not bubble unless it went through.

I would not drive on it with the object still in the tread. Eventually it may go deeper. So I don't agree with the advice to just drive on it if it's not leaking.

Just looking at the shape of the thing, looks like it went in crooked.

[cdrptrks]

If you are just doing street driving you may get away with plugging it yourself but I would not use it for any track days or high speed pulls to be safe.

I found a nail in a similar spot on one of my tires when there wasn't much tread left on it and plugged it myself since I knew no one would fix it properly with the tire dismounted from the wheel due to liability and did an few autocrosses on it to finish off the tires without any issues but kept a close eye on it to check for any bubbles appearing in the tread or sidewall and initially used soapy water to make sure it sealed fully and checked TPMS to make sure it wasn't slowly leaking. The particular autocross location was pretty wide open so I was unlikely to hit anything if the tire blew out or the plug came out and caused rapid pressure loss during a run. It depends on your judgement and risk tolerance but the safest option is to replace the tire in question.

Here's the kit I used: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Slime-De...40-A/203349942

[ctrlz]

Originally Posted by cdrptrks

I would not use it for any track days or high speed pulls to be safe.

Depends how deep it goes. If this thing is only in there a few mm, you may be fine. You can't tell until you pull it.