On this picture, you are seeing a rubber plug that has been crammed into the side wall of a tire. There is so many things wrong with this that I don’t know where to start, but I’ll attempt to hit the high (or low) points.
#1 At Jammin’ J Automotive, we will not install a plug on a passenger car tire, it’s not a good fix for any tire! (A tire plug is a very tough piece of rubber, coated with glue, and stuffed into the tire injury and everyone just hopes it will hold)
#2 To make matters worse, this plug is in the sidewall of the tire. Any tire manufacturer will tell you that any tire injury in the shoulder area should not be repaired, because this is soooo dangerous. Once the stability of the sidewall of the tire has been compromised, it is definitely not recommended to put that tire back on a vehicle.
#3 And just when you think it can’t get any worse, this is a low profile performance rated tire that is designed to be operated at high speed.
With the extreme temperatures of summer we see tires that just could not cope with the heat and are coming apart, so the question is, how safe do you think this plug would be at 60 mph on a hot day? There is legislation being considered right now on making it illegal to plug a tire and that the industry must follow strict guidelines to repair a tire of which I am in favor of.
Link to RMA (rubber manufacturers association) procedures
http://www.rma.org/publications/tire_service_professionals/index.cfm?PublicationID=11303
Link to RMA video
The proper way to fix a tire is a patch plug. This repair requires the tire be removed from the rim and repaired from the inside. There are 10 steps that are followed which include using a special patch plug that patches the tire from the inside while the attached plug pulls through the injury (hole). Once the patch bonds with the rubber the repair becomes part of the tire. These pictures are of the patch on the inside and the plug that is pulled through the injury and then cut off.
At Jammin’ J Automotive we use the RMA’s (Rubber Manufacturers Association) procedures for every tire repair because we want the safest option for our customers. For more information please check out their website www.rma.org