My neighbor has a 2007 Miata that had a slow leak, which resulted in its sitting on a flat tire for a month. They finally had the flat fixed. Is it safe to drive? It’s an “extra” car, which I occasionally borrow, which is why I am particularly interested in this.
I can confidently answer this one with a maybe.
How are the tyres? Maybe this would be a good time to change them out. BTW, with that Car I would want well matched tyres. I suggest this because I had one and found that it handled really great and you can drive out of almost any problem. This might not be so great if the tyres were mismatched. Good Luck, great car.
For the definitive answer, we have to wait for Capri Racer, our resident tire expert.
However, there is no way that I would drive a car with a tire whose sidewall was allowed to sit in a deflated position for a month. More than likely, there is internal cord damage, but I will defer to Capri Racer’s opinion if he feels that the tire was not damaged.
if youre just driving 30 down the street to the grocery store, no problem. but I wouldn’t go fast for long.
on the other hand since you get to ‘borrow’ the car often, why not chip in and ask them if you could buy a pair of tires to replace them? sort of like a good will, thanks gesture??
There has been a plethora of bad chinese valve stems, what was the source of your leak? If the tire was not driven on it is probably fine, so what was the source of the leak?
I’ve had tires sit flat for long periods like that. Their sidewalls were permanently damaged. I was surprised that it happened, but only the first time. I suppose it had something to do with the age of the tires. The ones that went bad were rather elderly.
The source of the leak was a nail. The neighbor will probably get two new tires. I appreciate the comment that I should contribute to the cost of the tires, we will work that out. Thanks for the replies.