Triumph Stag in Enfield with 2 flat tyres

An existing customer called to say that his classic Triumph Stag had 2 flat tyres and could we check it out, this was the first time we would have seen this car as it was locked away in a garage away from the house.

Arranged to meet him that afternoon at his house and he would then take us to the car.

Arrived at the customers and we headed off to the garage, the garage was under some flats at the end of his road. He had already got the car out waiting for us. Both rear tyres where flat.

Loosened the wheel nuts (no need to worry about locking wheel nuts as he did not have them fitted) and then jacked the car up and removed the wheels.

What had happened was that the tyres had gone flat while the car was parked in the garage and when he had moved the car the tyres had come away from the back of the wheel. Inspected the tyres and spotted that they were both over 15 years old. They had no sign of cracking on them but at 15 plus years old we recommended that they should be changed as they could have started to degrade internally due to the age and lack of use. Luckily we had loaded 2 tyres of the same size on the van before we arrived in case the puncture could not be repaired. They were budget tyres but he said he only did a couple of hundred miles each year and that was just pottering around.

As we had noticed that the 2 rear tyres where over 15 years old we also checked the date on the front tyres, these were also over 15 years old. We only had 2 new tyres in this correct size on the van so we would not be able to replace these today. Arranged that we would come back the next day and replace these, he was not taking the car out so this would not be a problem.

Started on the 2 flat rear tyres, removed the old tyres from the wheels and mounted the new tyres after we had replaced the valves. Put the tyres on the balancer and spun the wheels up, they both came back needing 25 grams which we put on the inside of the wheel so that the weights would not show on his gold coloured wheels.

Put the wheels back on the Stag and checked the hand book for the recommended torque setting, luckily the hand book had the information in it but if it did not we could have got the info off of Auto data.

If you have a classic car then keep an eye on the age and condition of your tyres, tyres do not like to be left standing for a long time and the lack of use can actually increase the degradation of the rubber. For information on how to check your tyres click HERE.

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