There Is a Screw in My Tyre, What Should I Do? | Hometyre Mobile Tyre Puncture Repairs

Punctures can come from all areas of life, from screws in areas with new builds to incredibly sharp stones just littered around the ground to objects you wouldn’t think of such as vape pens (see below!), bottle tops and even spanners!

One thing that we can all agree on is that they have a habit of happening at the most inconvenient time; On the way to drop the kids off, off to work or heading on holiday. There are a couple of ways to ensure your mobile after a puncture, but they don’t always work; Run-flat tyres and tyre gunk.

In the event of a pressure loss, run flat tyres will allow the driver to drive at 50km/h for up to 50km. However, once the tyre has been driven on for this length of time without air inside of the tyre, the tyre must be changed as the sidewalls will have overheated from the weight of carrying the vehicle.

An alternative is to use tyre gunk (of which you can find out more here). Tyre gunk is a sealant that goes inside of the tyre and once a foreign object penetrates, it will quickly form an airtight protective barrier around the object preventing air from escaping. If the object is pulled out, the gunk will seal the hole (to a certain size). But, if the hole is too big, then the sealant might not work. Therefore, in the event of a pressure loss, we recommend stopping as soon as possible and calling a qualified professional to come and help!

For a puncture to be repairable, it needs to fit three specific criteria:

• The diameter of the penetration must be below 6mm in diameter.
• Ideally the puncture must be perpendicular to the tread (otherwise the plug won’t seal correctly).
• Finally, location, the puncture must be within the central three quarters of the tread.