Can I replace one tyre?

k66yla

I had a puncture caused by a split valve. Took it to my local tyre place and they replaced the valve. They also took my spare wheel off and re fitted the fixed one. Total cost £5.

jase1

What's the spare like?

If it's down to the markers I'd be inclined to put the good Nankang in the spare compartment and replace the spare and the bad tyre with two new mid-range ones.

It's not something that I personally favour but I've driven plenty of cars with mismatching tyres and not come to grief. The only problem really is that if you do hit the limit of one of the tyres' grip, the handling may be unpredictable. If you don't routinely kick the back out, there's not much to worry about.

All this does depend on whether the bad tyre can be repaired -- it may well be. I certainly wouldn't have a problem with running on Nankangs, or Roadstones come to that (Roadstone are made by Nexen btw).

jase1

One other thing I would say, is that if the car is getting on in years, and the spare looks untouched, I'd check the date stamp. Not a good idea to use 10 year old tyres even if they're visually OK. I'm replacing one of mine for this reason.

Weird_Nev

1) yes, it's fine to change just one tyre.

2) As mentioned, check the seal of the "bead" of the tyre onto the rim. Alloys corrode over time and this can break that seal, or the alloy itself can become porous and leak air. The valve may also go. If the tyre doesn't have any damage/nails in it, then look to the wheel or valve as the source of the problem. I'd be inclined to change the tyre anyway if it's been driven on with the pressure as low as 7psi - it's not good for them.

toasterman

Well done Rikki.

I've just got back from a tyre place, and they said it wasn't sealing properly, due to something on the wheel (he did tell me but I'm really tired, so wasn't taking it all in), and that the tyre was fine.
They took the tyre off, did something with the wheel, coated some sealant stuff on it (similar theory to how a bicycle puncture repair works, but not same liquid, obviously), and put the tyre back on. It cost me a grand total of £15.95. Good news.
He advised me to check the tyre pressures again in a week just to make sure it's not still going down.
He also told me they always look at if a repair is possible before replacing. That's nice to know.

Thanks for your help/advice everyone. I now know in the future I don't need to necessarily have matching pairs.

Rikki

toasterman wrote: »

Well done Rikki.

I've just got back from a tyre place, and they said it wasn't sealing properly, due to something on the wheel (he did tell me but I'm really tired, so wasn't taking it all in), and that the tyre was fine.
They took the tyre off, did something with the wheel, coated some sealant stuff on it (similar theory to how a bicycle puncture repair works, but not same liquid, obviously), and put the tyre back on. It cost me a grand total of £15.95. Good news.

Your welcome.:cool2:

The seal becomes dry. They just take the tyre off and put it back on the rim and seal, just as they would with a new tyre.

Glad it worked out and cheaper than a new tyre.

grizzly1911

Glad you got it fixed - my local repair shop would charge a lot less though:p

So today I phoned a couple of garages to enquire about replacing one tyre. They advised me that I should make sure the tyres on the same axles match, but that the front and back can be different.....

Do garages do that? I've never had a repair offered as a service. ...

Because it is in some of their interests to sell the tyres.

If the tyre is worn past a certain point it isn't always economic to just repair it as the life in the tyre is less than the labour to fix (if it is fixable).

Providing a tyre meets the correct specification (speed/load/type etc) it is safe to put on the car.

Ditchfinders have to blame something;)

toasterman

grizzly1911 wrote: »

Glad you got it fixed - my local repair shop would charge a lot less though:p

Haha. I think he did something to the wheel, like knocked a few dents out, or scoured off some of the black bits or something.
Either way, a lot more reasonable than the ~£60 each even budget new tyres cost these days.

vaio

in an ideal world you'd have a matched set of premium tyres, in the world of unemployment and/or general skintness then pretty much any tyres that are the right size and have enough tread depth will keep you legal

mcjordi

so long as they are the same size tyre on each axle its fine

ie. 185.65/14 and the same on the other side its fine..
could be 2 steelies and 2 alloys or 3 and 1 well you get the idea so long as the tyre sizes are the same