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[Talk2meg00se]

Safe to go with a seal if occasionally tracked, etc?

The tire is new-ish, and I'd prefer not to toss unless I have to. What's the consensus on this? Am I overreacting?

[Longboarder]

Originally Posted by Talk2meg00se

Safe to go with a seal if occasionally tracked, etc?

The tire is new-ish, and I'd prefer not to toss unless I have to. What's the consensus on this? Am I overreacting?

Seal is fine. I just wouldn't track PSS unless it was cold or wet. I've melted them to the point of being dangerous on a hot day. On a freezing rain day however they worked nicely.

[Get lit]

I dont think I would run the tire with a patch on the track. Riding around town would be fine though.

[Bavarian Beast]

I wouldn't track a tire at has been repaired. Just my opinion. I think when you are pushing the limits you need your gear to be as fully prepared as possible and in top shape. Around town shouldn't be an issue.

[Talk2meg00se]

Yeah, that is my gut reaction as well. At the end of the day, it is a compromised performance tire.

[BartM3]

I understand tires for an M3 are costly but crashing a $ 50,000 car on a track because you didn't want to spend $ 450 on a tire...

Around town: no problem
On track: replace for a new one

[Edward]

I tracked a set of PSS for 45 minutes total with two patches on one rear. I'm still breathing. A patch is far far less likely to cause critical failure than worn tires.

But yea, I'd be lying if I said that I felt 100% confident in my equipment.

[Beemdog]

A (clean) pierce from a nail through the tread area will not cause a sudden loss of pressure. If the repair begins to leak, the pressure will gradually drop and trigger the TPMS. Still not an ideal situation for a track day, but not likely to send you off the track either. Much more likely to hit fluids dropped by another car and send you off.

[Flying Ace]

Seal

[jphughan]

Depends a lot on where the nail was. The ideal location is toward the middle of the tire and on the meat (not in a groove). If it's near the sidewall, no way. But I got a nail in a brand new PSS in the best-case spot. My gut reaction was to replace it, but on advice of people whose opinion I trusted, I allowed it to just be plugged. It was still holding pressure after a couple days on the street, so I went on to put 6 track days on it when I was in the semi-advanced group. It was fine. I've worked trackside garage tech where we've plugged tires of people who have picked up nails AT the track. Yes, we told them that wasn't the officially recommended procedure, but they accepted our assessment of their risk level and decided they wanted their track time. They were fine too.

It's always easier to spend someone else's money by telling them to replace something. I wonder how many people saying they wouldn't track a repaired tire have tracked at all, never mind faced a damaged near-new tire. But then there will be people who had a bad experience and say never again, like people who don't believe in home security systems until they have a break-in and then proclaim that nobody should ever go without one. There's always more money people can spend on insurance and other peace of mind, but everyone has to draw the line between risk and cost, and not everyone will draw it in the same place. Some people will tell you that it's a stupid risk to run around on a track without a cage, harness, and HANS. Others will say it's a stupid risk to track at all.

As for PSS on the track in general, it depends on track and driver skill level. I never felt them getting dangerous, but they do get greasy and the outsides will absolutely wear prematurely if you track more than 4 days per year or so, even after messing with alignment and getting camber plates. I switched to AD08R's mostly for that reason and despite having a much lower tread wear rating, they have outlasted the PSS on my usage. Before on PSS I got maybe 6 days out of a front set before they corded/chunked, and the rears corded the insides after 8-10 days. I've got 12 days on my AD08R's and both the front and rear still have some tread left and no premature edge wear.

[Bavarian Beast]

I track occasionally, but run more high-sped on the autobahn. Not rich, but personally like to keep my tires as original as possible, especially when running top end weekly. Tires can take a lot of abuse before giving out, even after having a compromise that was repaired (or not). Obviously the serious trackers here have more experience with less than pristine tires. So in the end you have varied opinions here, and as with most of these types of questions it comes down to your comfort level.

[KingFishy]

I would do the repair on the inside of the tire rather than plug it.

[1MOREMOD]

They usually do combo plug and patch. Has worked well for me.

[atruelunatic]

Like everyone has said in the past, repair is good on the street. But on the track, I'd swap it out with something I know will be safe.

I, too, have a perfectly good tire sitting in the garage because of a nail.

[Talk2meg00se]

If I were to sell both fronts + nail (full disclosure), how much could I reasonably ask? ~1500 relatively easy miles on them.