Tire Replacement and Repair Service at Jammin’ J Auto is something we take very seriously.
Let’s start with Tire sizing and how it works and where to find the information for your vehicle. There are 3 places you should be able to find the manufacturer recommended tire size, first, the owner’s manual, next there should be a durable decal inside your driver’s door with tire size and recommended air pressure and lastly – the place most people look first, on the tires themselves. However, if you did not purchase your vehicle new, it is best to double check the tire sizing from the actual tires on the door decal to verify that what is on the vehicle is correct.
A typical tire size looks something like this: P215/65R15 or LT245/70R17
The letter at the beginning indicates use (P – passenger vehicle or LT-Light Truck) and the first number indicates the width of the tire in millimeters. After the slash is the aspect ratio, or basically, the height of the tire in millimeters and the R indicates it is a Radial tire; which most are these days. The final number is for the diameter of the wheel that tire will fit and this one is in inches. All of this information is necessary to get accurate tire pricing. Some high performance tires or special use tires will have additional information and codes on the tire sizing for tires that have more specific uses, such as ratings for higher speeds or heavier loads for larger trucks.
When you have a flat, what happens next? How do we know what is ‘fixable’ and what is not? According to the RMA (Rubber Manufacturers Association), only damage that is inside the treads is repairable. So damage that is done to the side walls of the tire or damage at the inner ring where the tire seals to the wheel would not be repairable. When repairing damage to a tire here at Jammin’ J Auto, we will not install a plug on a passenger car tire; it’s not a safe fix for any tire. A tire plug is a very tough piece of rubber, coated with glue, and then stuffed into the tire injury and everyone just hopes it will hold. Many discount flat repairs are of this type. This saves money because the tire does not get removed from the wheel, but it is unsafe as there is no guarantee that plug won’t just pop right back out while you are driving as there is nothing anchoring it inside the tire. With the extreme temperatures of summer we see tires that just could not cope with the heat and are coming apart. How safe would a little rubber plug with some glue be at 60 mph on a hot day?
The only proper way to fix a tire is a patch plug. This repair requires the tire be removed from the rim and be inspected and repaired from the inside. There are 10 steps that are followed which include special preparation of the injury area, bonding of the patch and the tire, and finally using a special patch plug that patches the tire from the inside while the attached plug is pulled through the injury (hole). Once the patch bonds with the rubber the repair becomes part of the tire. After the plug that is pulled through the injury, it is then cut off to be even with the surrounding tread.
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.