BHPian sachin_cs recently shared this with other enthusiasts: Yesterday night, I was on call with my friend and I was flaunting about my car’s tyres. That the XM2+ are holding really well and there’s not a single puncture in the last 50k kms. Lo & behold, when I woke up in the morning and took my car out of the driveway, the first thing I noticed was a big screw in the front right tyre . Since, I was taking my dad for physiotherapy, I didn’t bother checking the air pressure and dropped him for his session. Once I got back home, I evaluated the situation that the pressure is not leaking yet, so it should be fine to drive to a nearest tyre shop. Today being a Sunday, I knew that most of the tyre shops would be closed and I didn’t want to visit any random roadside tyre shop, still, I made a couple of calls to the tyres dealers in my contacts and they were closed for the day. Anyways, I decided to hit the city and after driving 20kms on a punctured FR tyre, I found an MRF dealer open near Make in India chowk. I enquired about the puncture repair service and I got a typical Indian head nod. Couple of things I learned today-Getting puncture repaired is expensivePreferred repair type should be the mushroom puncture which is done from insideRubber based plug type puncture which is inserted from outside is for emergency purpose, it may result in future leaks & also damage tyre (according to the tyre guy, I’m not sure how true is that)After getting the puncture repaired, one should check the balancing too ( more on that later)I gave the tyre guy a go ahead, we took the car on ramp and the front right wheel was removed. He then proceeded to remove the tyre and I just hate these guys & their machines because they always, always end up leaving new scratches on alloys . Even when I asked him to be extra careful, he managed to leave some souvenir. After removing the tyre, he removed the screw, then made a hole in the tyre using a drill. Then used a grinder to make preparations on the inner surface of the tyre, applied some glue and used the mushroom puncture to complete the repair. Once we were done, I asked him to fill the nitrogen to 32 psi & then mounted the tyre on the balancing machine. And guess what, even after getting my alignment-balancing done just a week ago, the balancing was again out and it took 45gms of balance weights. The final bill was Rs 475 for puncture, nitrogen & balancing (one tyre), after bargaining a bit, we agreed for 400. I will be very honest, despite being behind the steering wheels from the last 19 years, it never crossed my mind to check the balancing of the wheel after a puncture repair. And today, it was proved that even if you have got your balancing done very recently, chances are that the balancing may go out after a puncture repair. For representational purpose Some random clicks in Bastar: BHPian sachin_cs also shared an update regarding this issue: I got the balancing and alignment done few days back but somehow I was not happy with the straight line stability. Whenever, I would take my hands off the steering, it would pull to the left. So, finally, I decided to visit my go to place Akaash Tyres in Ring Road 1. I informed the technician of the left pull and he did a re-alignment and off we went for the test drive, well, this time the left pull became even stronger. We got back after a 5km drive and I drove the car to the ramp again, he did some settings to the values followed by a test drive, the car was again pulling to the left, if I kept my steering straight, the car went to the left and if I kept it slightly tilted towards right, it drove straight. We got back to the shop again and this time, I sat on the driving seat to perform the steering L-R motion and then decide a steering centre. Again the same drill, we went for the test drive and there were some improvements from the previous adjustments, but somehow, I was still not happy because the car was still pulling to the left. We got back to the shop for the 4th time and this time the technician decided to perform a tyre rotation, well it didn’t work too. So, as a final resort, the technician suggested that we keep the steering slightly left when putting in the steering lock and then perform the adjustments. Well, 5th time is a charm , we went on a long test drive, drove at various road conditions and speeds and finally, finally after a lot of efforts, the alignment finally got right. The car drives straight, even if you leave the steering wheel, the car would drive straight without pulling to any particular side. Huge thanks to the team at Akash tyres & the owner Inderjeet, for accommodating my request and performing the alignment till the very last to my satisfaction. Also, I was not charged anything as I got the alignment done few days back. The reason why I wanted everything to be perfect was because a long road trip is on the cards soon. Quote from BHPian deepfusion:No offence, but you overspent on the puncture repair. You would have been good if you would have gone for a normal puncture repair. That would not have warranted even removal of the tyre. That is the whole point of sharing the experience here sir, I really want to know from other experienced members if the outside plug type repair is for emergency purpose or can be used in long term & also if balancing is warranted or I was fleeced. Thanks for your input. Continue reading BHPian sachin_cs’s post for more insights and information.
