kedvesh

Tires are Falken FK-451s and are two years old. I got the affected tire patched/plugged and it seems fine with no loss of air. There's plenty of tread left on both rear tires for daily driving.

Complicating issue is that I'm scheduled to run a HPDE @ VIR this weekend. Not sure if it would be o.k. to run with this tire or not.

What's y'all's recommendation? Run with it? Make a mad dash for the tire dealer tomorrow (Friday) for one new tire (or do people recommend a matched set of two)?

Note: Falken does not appear to retail the FK-451s now...seems they've moved to the FK-452s...not sure about the differences and whether one of each type on the rear end is a smart thing.

Mucho thanks in advance for the advice!

AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

SouthernSon

It is according to how close to the edge the patch/plug is located. The location determines whether the tire is dropped one or two speed ratings. The other factor is how aggressive you are at the track. Personally, if the patch is well over an inch from the sidewall I would give it a run if I wasn't pushing it too hard. But, I would watch the increase in pressure and try to gauge the wear/tear to which the tire is subjected. A lot of factors go into to this determination.

kedvesh

Ahhh. Another night owl!

Both nails were in the central grooves of the tire, not the outlying grooves or tread.



At VIR, I usually hit the high 120s or low 130s on the backstretch. Thus the concern.

Bill Dearborn

It depends on the manufacturer whether or not a tire maintains its speed rating after a puncture repair. Some say a tire correctly patched will maintain its rating while others will not guarantee the rating. So the question you have to answered is whether Falken says they will maintain the rating if correctly repaired and if the answer is yes the next question to be asked, was the repair done correctly as Falken defines correct.
Bill

Roy1

Any type of puncture weakens the tire. Personally I would not run that tire at a HPDE. To me the tires are cheaper to replace than the car if the tire decides to come apart.

kedvesh

Patch/Plug was the method used (I think) and matches what Falken says can be done. They make no mention of any degredation in speed rating because of the repair action (ref http://www.falkentire.com/Limited%20_warranty_tires.pdf )

AU N EGL

Keep a close eye after each run on the section where it was patched. any idication of seperation, and no more.

Personally I would not run a patched tire on the track at speed. On the street, yes, but not on the track.

Aardwolf

I got a nail in my tire like that last year. After running a search here I found that quite a few had patched the tire and ran it. I decided to do the same, I had no troubles at my last HPDE. It's had some street miles on it to. 130 MPH at the track.

davidfarmer

plug it......just keep an eye on it. I plugged a tire and ran the ROVAL at Charlotte: even that was OK.

Obviously, no guarantees, but I'd plug it and rotate it to the LESS loaded side of the car.

95jersey

If this were the case, I would be buying new tires every year. I am not telling you what the scientific answer is.... But I have run plug/patched tires at the track for YEARS. As long as the hole is not near the sidewall, then you should be fine.

The worst case is that the patch/plug falls out and tire goes flat again. I highly doubt that steel belted radials would fall apart because the rubber has a tiny 2mm hole. There are so many layers of material holding those tire together, that if a small 2mm hole effected the strenght of a tire, I would be amazed.

kedvesh

Thanks all for the comments. Looks like half a dozen of one, half a dozen of another.

I'm going to err on the side of caution and get two new tires this afternoon - General Exclaim UHP; tops in their category on the TireRack.com evals ( http://www.tirerack.com/tires/survey...cleSearch=true ).

Cost, availability and similarity to the Falkens were all considerations.

I'm going to sell the good/non-punctured rear tire w/ plenty of tread on eBay or to whomever wants it (i.e., you CF "pukes" included!) Thanks!

sothpaw2

This is what I was told back in 2005 when I had this issue. It's best to have an extra set of track-only tires for this reason.

I choose not to take the risk and bought tires.

kedvesh

I do, but I wanted to use my street tires for several reasons this time around:

• curiosity on how they acted on the track
• possibility of inclement weather while at the track and on the way home (my track tires have very little tread, if any, right now)
• I don't trailer the car or have a trailer hitch on the 'Vette to bring a second set of tires. So, I normally drive to, run on and drive back on one set of tires. (Yes, my 275/40/17s and 305/30/18s Toyo RA-1s on Z06 rims along with tools, etc. will fit inside a coupe, but just barely!)

Tintin

If all you are doing is HPDE it won't make any difference. By the way, you DO NOT need speed rated tires at the track you will only go really fast for a few seconds. I ran a whole season of SCCA T1 on used tires, half of which were plugged or patched. I did it to prove a point (and win a bet) with a friend. I think I only had one race where two of the tires were the same brand, but not the same style of tire. I won every race I entered. Every one. Do not worry about patches, driving up the bump in your driveway is harder on the tire than a little heat cycling at the track.....

All this tire plug = bad tire is bullsh%& to sell more tires and limit liability... Oh , did I mention that I had interest in 3 Firestone stores so that I could get cheap tires.... HPDE will not be fast enough or long enough to make a problem.... Go have fun..

varkwso

I have run patched and plugged tires on track. They need watching like all the others....no worse - no better...