I found a razor-like piece of metal stuck in my tire. I brought the car to Costco and they pulled the piece out. I was told that there was no leak with the tire. I noticed that they didn’t patch the tire. I’m not experience with this, should I bring it back and ask them to patch it? What are the options to patch the tire?
If the tire doesn’t leak there would be no benefit to patching it. There is nothing to fill the cut on the outside. Whether or not the the tire has been compromised depends on the width and depth of the cut.
My opinion: if the cut is about equal in size to the other tread cuts in the tire, or smaller, then it should be no problem.
Keep an eye on the tire. You may have no idea how deep the cut is, and it could develop into a leak eventually. If it does, then get it patched. It’s often difficult to see low pressure in a tire visually. Use a tire pressure gauge to test it weekly until you are sure it won’t leak.
There is no hole through the tire. In order to “patch” it, they’d have to deliberately MAKE a hole where the metal was, so they can turn around and fix it.
Does that answer your question?
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Thanks for the info guys. I will keep an eye on the pressure for the few weeks. I was just afraid that the cut would get larger without patching.
Like everyone says there is nothing to patch. Costco is very conservative and safety oriented. If they felt there was a problem with the tire they would have patched it or told you to take it out of service.
They know the thickness of the tire under the tread. If this piece of metal was in the tread, then that adds additional rubber to the thickness. They probably determined that the piece they pulled out did not go deep enough to penetrate the cords (plies) of the tire. That is why they didn’t do any repair to it, anything they would have done would have weakened the tire, not strengthen it.
A cut in the rubber will not enlarge. It may develop rounded edges after awhile and look slightly bigger, but that will not go very deep, only on the surface.
BTW, if this piece of metal was in the outermost tread block of the tire and they felt that it penetrated the cords, they would not patch it. You would have to get a new tire. If you have 4wd, you would need 4 new tires. If they didn’t tell you that you need a new tire, or tires, then you can rest assured that the tire is OK.
Here’s what I do if a tire has a foreign object . . .
I spray WD40 at the area
If it bubbles immediately, the nail or what have you obviously went all the way through
If it doesn’t bubble immediately, I carefully pry at the nail with a pocket screwdriver, to create a slight gap. Then I spray again. If there are still no bubbles, I remove the nail. Then I spray again, into the hole. If there are still no bubbles, I call it good
I’ve removed many nails over the years, and it hasn’t come back to haunt me yet
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I know this thread about 3 years old, but I had an exactly same situation, and Costco tire shop guy just pulled metal piece out of my rear tire. He said it went it side ways, and he did bubble test, and he found it not to be leaking. So I’m curious what happened after your incident 3 years back?