[sumeethaldankar]

My 97 800 has had 3 punctures in around 13 years of it's life(car is low mileage).All 3 were of the rear tyres.For the 1st occassion i found the rear tyre punctured in the morning which means that i drove on a punctured tyre without knowing the tyre had gone flat the previous day.Got somebody to replace the tyre.

The 2nd occassion was when i returned home after fitting brand new Neo alloy wheels i found a nice long nail sticking into my rear left tyre.Drove straight like that too the tyre shop and got the tube changed.

The last occassion was just a few months after fitting alloys on the wheels.This was the 1st time in my life i changed the tyre myslef after having a car for 11 years.

I always threw away the tube after the punctures and got new ones replaced.The tyres in question are MRF Zigmas.Sure they are noisy and lack grip but are tough and long lasting.

[SS-Traveller]

Since this is the "Street Experiences" thread, let me recount a couple of incidents many years ago about punctured tyres stranding me, and changing the tyres. I've not been stranded since the last 4 years or so when I've changed over to tubeless tyres, and my decision to buy a Scorpio was heavily influenced by the TPMS feature - when you drive on unknown highways in the middle of the night, like I do, the peace of mind it offers is unbeatable.

The year was 1999 IIRC, and we were on a trip to the upper reaches of Kumaon in my 1973 Premier President. The tyres were cross-ply, retreaded but in good shape. We had covered about 1000 km, including Nainital, Ranikhet, Kausani, Baijnath and Almora, and were on our way back on the NH24. Now NH24 in those days was a narrow single-lane road, with a miserable surface, and not considered safe to drive on after sundown (especially the section between Moradabad and Garh Mukteshwar). And this was the section where our luck decided to desert us. We ran a puncture on a rear tyre at around 6 PM (still daylight, and we were hoping to cross Garh Mukteshwar in daylight, and get into Delhi by 10 PM).

Tyre changed, we were on our way, looking for a place to have it repaired. No joy for over 30 km. The other rear tyre chose just this time to deflate too. It was already dark by then, and traffic was sparse, with no sign of a tyre repair shop or any other habitation anywhere.

I kept driving - with the flat, at around 20 km/h. 10 km later, when we found a puncture repair shop, the tyre had almost shredded through, with smoke coming out of it. Mercifully the rim survived. The punctured spare was repaired and put in (the fellow did not have an old tyre that I could buy from him), and with a prayer for no more punctures (Lady Luck came re-visiting us), we were home at 1 AM.

[PatchyBoy]

I have had numerous punctures in all my vehicles, both 2 wheelers and 4 wheelers in the past. Here are some experiences from the last 3 vehicles:

1. BMW 323i (In Australia) - Got the car (used) with Pirelli tyres. A week later noticed a crack on the side wall of one of the tyres and promptly took it back to the dealership. The tyre was replaced with a brand new one, free of charge. Surprisingly, even though the crack was visible to the naked eye, there was no loss in tyre pressure.

2. Avenger - On the way from B'lore to Hospet. Went into a puddle of water, immediately after a speed breaker and the rear tyre went limp. Viola, there was a puncture repair shop just 50 meters ahead. Pushed the bike there and waited for the shop to open. Got it fixed and went ahead. Never had another puncture with the Avenger, till I sold the bike after doing 20000 kms.

3. Fiat Palio - Took delivery of the car and drove straight to the tyre shop to get alloys and upsized tyres ( Michelin XM1 185/65 R14 tubeless)fitted. After a couple of moths, noticed a nail sticking out of the rear tyre. Got a tubless puncture repair kit and fixed it right away. The second time was on the way to Hyderabad, when I heard an unusual noise from the rear of the car. Pulled over and found the rear left tyre flat. Swapped with the spare and continued on. After returing to Bangy, inspected the tyre and found a deep cut on surface of the tyre, that comes in contact with the road. Tyre could not be fixed and had to buy a new one.

I always carry the jack, tubeless puncture repair kit, battery operated air pump in the car. I also check the spare before going on long drives. Better safe that sorry

Rajan

[johnruben]

Not even a Week, Again Puncture on my right Rear wheel (M800-Previously Left Rear wheel), Had to replace the tube since it had 4 punctures. Also I had to fix my spare tyre this time.

New Tube: Rs. 300
Old Tube Puncture Fix: Rs. 30 x 4 = Rs. 120
Brought Used Apollo Tyre for Spare: Rs. 650

Now that i have a spare tyre in the back of my car, can breathe a lil until another 5-6k KM, then finally i will be changing them tubeless

[cnaganathan]

Here is my list:

1. From my Bike days: couple of punctures on my KB100 RTZ, KB-4s and Kinetic Honda can't remember the count though. One that distinctly remember is a puncture I had on the RTZ - I had to ride it for almost 6 kms before finding a puncture shop. By then the tube was almost shredded to ribbons.

2. My first puncture on the Indica V2 was the most strenuous as I did not know the correct position for the jack. I put it under the Shock absorber and ended up huffing and panting jacking up the car

3. First puncture on my Indigo XL was a real bad one. I ran over a manhole cover and ended up slitting the side wall. Worse still was this happened during the evening peak hour near the Thiruvanmiyur temple!!

4. Recent experience with the Indigo XL - the tyre used to lose pressure every 3 days and my driver kept driving it that way for almost 2 weeks. I finally got him to replace it with the Spare and take this one to the tyre shop only to find a large metal screw close to the side wall. The darn screw seemed to have been there for a long time that it had almost lost its head.

BTW, I have never taken help to change my car tyres and in most cases have managed to do it within 15 minutes.

[jaguar.runs]

No major issues till now with punctured tires. May be because I could identify it at early stages. With the normal 120 kmph runs on the Dubai highways, I always prefer to keep my tires in good condition.

In 2006 I was driving on Emirates road at a slow speed (due to the usual traffic jam) in my Mazda and I could suddenly hear a tuk tuk sound. Good that it was winter and I had my windows lowered. I pulled to the hard shoulder and checked the tire. Could find a short steel screw on my tire with sound of air leaking out. Took it to a tire shop and fixed it immediately.

Second one was for my first GT, found my wheel punctured while starting for office. Changed to spare and left for office. After a few visit to the tire shops, could find that it's a needle hole puncture on the side wall :(. The normal tubeless puncture repair won't work. Checked the price for new one and got the first shock. 750 AED for a brand new 215/45 R18 Yoko Advan which comes fitted on the GT . Checked for other option, all had the same answer: Not available, very rare tire size or the price was very high (Bridgestone RE050 RFT was 950 AED. Did a special repair from the inside and kept it as spare.

No punctures on my second GT which is due for a tire change after 80k kms (The tire noise is killing me). Waiting for the tire from last one month .
Going a little wide with 225/45 R18 Nitto Invo. Crazy pattern and great reviews combined with great price (Only 450 AED with fitting and balancing). Will post some pics and a small review in a relevant thread once the fitting is done.

Here is a picture of the tire to show the pattern.

[Googleman]

My story is long, unique and has a bad ending:

2008 - December: Neice(9 Yrs) and Nephew(5 yrs) had their school vacations so came to Bangalore along with Mom and Sis.

2009 - 1st January: Took Mom and Sis with the kids to Forum Mall to do some shopping. As usual they shopped untill the showrooms started to close and by the time we left Forum, it was already 11:30PM. Car was parked in Sunshine. We left and after 100 metres of driving I found that Front left tyre was low on air pressure and looked to be punctured. I parked my car aside, took out the jack and spanner with the spare wheel and started unscrewing the bolts. I have tubeless tyres so this was the first time I was changing the tyres, never faced such a situation earlier.
After trying a lot, I was not even able to unscrew even 1 of the bolts, it seemed to be too tight and jammed.

I was still trying untill a auto driver stops to help. I first tell him to let be, I will do it but later he insisted saying it's too late and the ladies were there. Anyhow he would ask me to pay him for doing so, I thought let me take his help. He tried and failed too. Soon, another auto driver stopped and I sensed problem but later both of them seemed too kind so I thought it's ok. Both of them triend and in the process to unscrew it, they broke 2 nuts, which means, the bolts did not unscrew, it came out with the nut itself. This was a bigger tension for me now. I thought I will send Mom and Sis along with the kids by Auto, but they were new. What if the Auto driver mugs them on the way?

While both the autodrivers were trying I was thinking of an Idea to get Mom and Sis home safely, I will think about the car later. Called City Taxi and they said they will be there in around 15 mins. Suddenly an auto driver gets up and says he is leaving, I found it fishy that he is leaving without asking any money. I could do nothing than to let him go. He started his Auto and left. Soon I realised my cellphone was missing, the autodriver flicked it off. I got very hyper and did the most follish thing anyone would do.

I asked the other driver to come along with me and catch the first one who ran away with my phone. So we left in the 2nd auto trying to catch the 1st one. Somehow we were able to catch him after a chase of 10-15 mins. I asked the 1st Auto driver to give me back my phone and he denied. I had nothing to prove that he took it. I tried stooing people on road to atleast give a call at my phone so that we could know where it was ringing but noone helped. They were too scared to talk. Nothing could be done and I realised I had left Mom, Sis and 2 kids alone on the road at 12 in the night.

Cursed myself and asked the autodriver to take me back. Thankfully everything was fine back there and after we reached the City Taxy reached. I tried to unscrew the remaining 2 screws and was successful. Quickly changed the tyres. Asked Mom and Sis to sit in the cab while I followed them. Handed the Auto driver 250 bucks for breaking 2 nuts of the wheels and left cursing my bad luck.

Reached home and Thanked God that nothing really bad happened. Learned a lesson of my life to never trust auto drivers. Got the nuts replaced the next day 2nd Jan.

What a nice was to start the year.

[mobike008]

Out of the 6 brand new cars that i owned in the last 8-9 years, i can outline the experience of only 3 of them as have been keeping track of it only since then.

At the outset, my experience with tyres and punctures has been extremely good and i am truly happy due to reasons outlined below. I have over 16 years of driving experience, i still dont know how to change a flat

Hyundai Santro Zipplus
KMS Used : 38,000 kms in 3.10 years
No. of Punctures : NONE and sold the car with rear tyre never seeing the daylight

Hyundai Accent Viva CRDi
KMS Used : 55,000 kms in 3.9 years
No. of Punctures : 1 and sold the car with rear tyre never seeing the daylight

Hyundai i10 Kappa
KMS Used : 8,000 kms in 1.9 years
No. of Punctures : NONE TILL DATE

Hope above is an example to prove how good i take care of my tyres

[Googleman]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Hope above is an example to prove how good i take care of my tyres

How good? Does you car have a 'Nail sensor'?

I thought one can't help much about punctures. Only prevention is 'Drive on the pitch' and less of offroading.

[DWind]

Originally Posted by mobike008

No. of Punctures : NONE and sold the car with rear tyre never seeing the daylight
Hope above is an example to prove how good i take care of my tyres

I am assuming you mean the spare tyre at the rear? Did you not do wheel rotation all these years?

[ad75]

heres my experience with flat tyres..

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...py-ending.html

[ch.nathan]

I wanted to open a seperate thread for my query. But just found this thread.

Why is that always RHS tyres get punctured?
Do you guys also experience this - or it's only me?

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by ch.nathan

Why is that always RHS tyres get punctured?
Do you guys also experience this - or it's only me?

Maybe because the friendly neighbourhood tyre shop 1 km down the road places those nails in the middle of the road? Just in line with your right side?

Come to think of it, maybe - just maybe - the number of RHS punctures I've suffered in all these years is more than those of the LHS tyres. But that's not to say there were NO punctures on the LHS.

[manim]

In 3.2 years with 68.5K on the odo, three punctures so far on my Civic-AT.

[Tiger]

Just 1 puncture in 7.3 yrs in my Ikon.

But couple more which I will never forget..
I think its 2nd June10, just couple of kms after passing Kunzum la rear left tyre got punctured & had real struggle in lowering the spare tyre from hired self driven innova. one local Sumo guy helped to lower spare tyre. It was 2nd day after Kunzum pass opened & snowing heavily on that day(heard that its highest snowfall in 35yrs)

And 2nd one just after couple of hours after first one. Around 8 kms before Chatru.. we had to stay at the dhaba there & go to Manali next day. To get the puncture I had to go to Sissu which was 50kms from that place.
We were very lucky on that day as only couple of Sumos passed after our vehicle & because of their help we were able to reach Manali. Again next day road was closed.
Couple of days later around 33guys who tried to cross got stuck at chota dhara for 9 days & finally airlifted. we met those guys before at Nako & Tabo.
Not able to upload those 2 photos as both are more than 1mb.