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Flat tire/tube issues

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J

JoshP

Jedi Trainee
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I hate flat tires; changing them isn't too bad when you have a good floor jack and an impact gun. It can be a pain with the stock tube jack and a lug wrench not even half as long as my arm, on a graveled uphill surface. Vent over.

I drove the B to work yesterday, no problems. Came out to go to lunch and my right rear's flat as a pancake. (I knew that when I had my tires replaced, one of them got a tube because the threaded area for the valve stem was rusted out. The flat turned out to be the one with the tube.

I took the offending tire to a service station to get it checked out. They say that the tube ruptured and they had replaced it. The tire was flat again this morning; my question is, what would cause a tube to be punctured or rupture inside the tire?

I half-suspect that the station people may not have done anything with the tire, except to fill it with air, charge me $$$ and hand it back to me.
 
Josh, in my estimation, you just got hosed. But not nescessarily by the "service station" you took it to.
You say that you had a tube installed beacause the threaded area for the valve stem was rusted out. Well, buddy, this means the wheel is rusty on the inside. It's junk, until you can have it blasted and repainted. The rust flakes that are in the wheel are going to cut into the tube, and puncture it. Tubes just don't "rupture", unless they are in an unconfined space, and exceed burst pressure. A properly installed tube, given a clean tire and wheel, should be bullet proof.
Something else to consider, while I'm on my soapbox, is that there are tubes for radial tires, and then there are tubes for bias ply's.
Okay, I'm done.
Jeff
 
Is it a wire wheel or rostyle? If a wire wheel, there should be a rubber spoke protector to keep them from poking your tube...if the inside is rusty, pull the wheel, sandblast it & repaint before putting back together...tube probably isn't the problem - bad wheel is!
 
Check the inside of the tire. They may have missed something sharp sticking through there. Also check the condition of the rim liner and make sure your tubes are rated for radial tires. Sand or file down any metal burrs on the inner rim and while you're at it, sand the entire inner rim and give it a nice coating of paint. Good luck!
 
Figure about 1 1/2 hrs per to blast, prime & paint. I just did 4 for the GT and what a job. I almost felt like buying new.
They look great though.
 
They're Rostyle wheels with new radial tires; yesterday, I had the tire pulled from the rim per everyone's advice and had the rim checked out. The inside of the rim looks fairly clean (that is, nothing that I could see sticking out or pointy). The holes were toward the inside of the tube though, so I'm going to have it checked out a little further.

The service station I took it to previouslyput a patch over the hole, but another one developed not long after.

I called every parts house here locally, and not a single one of them had a 14" tube in stock. Since Rostyles are fairly plentiful in used stock, I'm thinking I may be further ahead to just get a good used one, blast it and paint it, then throw it on there and call it done.
 
[ QUOTE ]
They're Rostyle wheels with new radial tires

[/ QUOTE ]

Then, if there's nothing wrong with the wheel, you don't need a tube - if the wheel's so bad that you need a tube, buy another wheel....good, used Rostyles are only around $15 plus shippng!
 
The only thing physically wrong with the rim itself is that the area for the valve stem is rusted out; other than that, the surface of the rim appears to be in decent condition.

I'm going to go back to the shop and see what the mech thinks, then I'll go from there.
 
I agree with Tony. I run radials on my Rostyle wheels without inner tubes. If your wheels can't hold air without an inner tube, get it replaced.
 
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