According to Holts "On average a car user will incur a puncture every 38k miles." tinyurl.com/c56h77p
The last time I incurred a puncture was about 1996. The sidewall of a rear tyre split, and I'm guessing that it was probably because the previous owner had run over something large.
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I can't remember the last time I had a puncture "on the road", I had a flat on my drive a while back which was pumped up and got me to the tyre guy half a mile away. By coincidence yesterday I saw a car (taxi) on an on slip to a motorway with a flat tyre., and a car about a mile further on stopped on the hard shoulder with a flat tyre. Luck of the game?
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My last one was 2003, when the offside rear tyre of SWMBO's Fiesta Zetec-S deflated on a damp, foggy M3.
Changing that wheel on the hard shoulder was one of maybe two or three times in my life I have been truly, properly terrified.
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Always best to follow the wise words of the H.C.
"Only change the tyre if you can do so without putting yourself or others at risk – otherwise call a breakdown service."
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Last puncture I had was a good few years ago. M74 just before Abington Services at 2am travelling at speed.
It was in my Accord with a stupid can of foam. RAC guy packed me and the wheel in his van, ran me back to a 24hr tyre place in Glasgow then back to the car.
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Was it a drivers side wheel? If so I think I would have just rang the AA/RAC/etc they are trained to deal with that better.
Only had one puncture so far, and that was caused by a vandal slashing tyres.
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How slashable is a tyre, really? I kept the Volvo's original set of Pirellis as garden playthings for the Beestlings, which meant drilling holes in the sidewalls to let the rainwater out. That was a listening-device-planter of a job that I eventually did with a 15mm electrician's bit. Those rubber things are tough.
Which makes me think you'd have to be an unusually strong or committed vandal to slash a whole line of cars' tyres, as we occasionally hear about.
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This is one statistic I think where the average will not be very typical.
I went to ASM recycling the other day, where there are vehicles in and out all day loaded with all sorts of scrap including wrecked cars. I imagine if you went there a lot you'd have several punctures a year.
My wife doesn't visit ASM, but we have probably had a similar number of punctures - maybe half a dozen each in 35 years. In that time I have probably done about 700,000 miles to her 100,000.
Last edited by: Manatee on Thu 25 Apr 13 at 12:17
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I've had two punctures in two weeks recently (that meant a changing of the wheel/tyre immediately).... the one before that was in the late 1980's.
Over the intervening years I've probably had 5 or 6 repairs to nails in tyres etc, that have had me find them and deal before there's a problem.
I never let my own tyres go below 2 - 2.5 mm tread.
The two punctures above were in the van I drive and to be fair, the first was a pot hole hidden in a puddle, when I went tight to the nearside for an oncoming HGV...and the second was a nail, probably picked up at a delivery I did to a farm.
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With the exception of the Phaeton I doubt I've had more than half a dozen punctures ever.
The Phaeton however, with its wide rubber band tyres, split more tyre walls on country roads than you can believe. I must have had 6 or 7 in that car alone. I didn't like low profile before, but since then I've detested them and removed them.
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Both ours have punctured in last three years.
The Berlingo's was bad enough for the tyre to go flat while Mrs B and The Lad were in Tesco. Britannia rescue called and fitted the spare. Damaged item was deemed irreperable and replaced. The Law of Sodde dictated that it had only been on for 2k miles. First flat in then five years of owmership. None since
Xantia's was an undramatic slow due nail in middle of tread. Repaired for about £15 at local fast fit. Second or maybe third in it's then ten year lifespan.
So over vehicles with a combined life of 19years and 370k miles that's less than half a dozen punctures.
Reminds me, I still need to teach The Lad to do a wheel change. His sister would be game to learn too but being 4' 11'' and nine stone wet through she might struggle.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Thu 25 Apr 13 at 14:08
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>>The Berlingo's was bad enough for the tyre to go flat while Mrs B and The Lad were in Tesco....................................... Damaged item was deemed irreperable and replaced.
That would indicate to me it was driven some distance when flat.
I've a couple of family members who've never had a puncture repaired, always required a new tyre. One occasion a new wheel was needed!
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>> That would indicate to me it was driven some distance when flat.
>>
>> I've a couple of family members who've never had a puncture repaired, always required a
>> new tyre. One occasion a new wheel was needed!
It was a nail but too near the sidewall to be repairable by plugging. I wasn't there and Mrs B's lack of mechanical ear/symathy is very marked but I think The Lad would have noticed as he was sat over the damaged item.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Thu 25 Apr 13 at 14:38
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>> Reminds me, I still need to teach The Lad to do a wheel change. His
>> sister would be game to learn too but being 4' 11'' and nine stone wet
>> through she might struggle.
Sounds quite stocky to me at 9 stone; should be fine provided it's not a SUV tyre.
Anyway, my last punctures I had two, at once. Both holes in the sidewall, both not repairable. Clearly somebody had stuck something into them. One I managed to pump up for long enough to get me to Qwikfit, the other I had to swap.
Not wishing to tempt fate, but I cannot recall ever having had a puncture, otherwise. And I run my cars to 1.6mm. I did once have a tyre come off the wheel and deflate which had to be changed, but the tyre shop just pumped it up and it was fine.
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>> I did once have a tyre come off
>> the wheel and deflate which had to be changed, but the tyre shop just pumped
>> it up and it was fine.
>>
Wow, sounds like a wild west stagecoach.
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>>Wow, sounds like a wild west stagecoach.
Yes, very weird indeed. Elderly Renaults for you...
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I've previously gone for years and literally hundreds of thousands of miles without punctures and then a couple of years ago found myself with two in a week. Just the way the cookie crumbles I suppose.
Same with windscreens. You can go for decades without needing one and then... I had an instance a few years ago when I'd had a new windscreen put in, went to collect the car, pulled out of the Autoglass place, turned on to a dual carriageway, accelerated up to speed and within a mile collected a thumping big stone right in the middle of the new screen.
Swung round the next roundabout and went back to get another one fitted.
Didn't have a Hamlet cigar to hand either.
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Thu 25 Apr 13 at 15:53
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My last puncture was two cars ago, the Touran. So thats 2007 and about 90k miles ago.
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Last puncture I had was on a hire car on the island of La Palma last February. Changed the wheel and got the tyre repaired at the village garage for a modest 5 Euros.
Previous to that around 2003 in the CMax. Drove home the length of the A14 on a skinny emergency tyre at 50mph. Not very pleasant experience Tyre "not repairable"
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>> I had an instance a few years ago when I'd had a new windscreen put in, went
>> to collect the car, pulled out of the Autoglass place, turned on to a dual
>> carriageway, accelerated up to speed and within a mile collected a thumping big stone right
>> in the middle of the new screen.
>>
>> Swung round the next roundabout and went back to get another one fitted.
>>
>> Didn't have a Hamlet cigar to hand either.
>>
My f-i-l had a company go to his cottage to replace the windscreen on his Lexus RX450h...and he lives in absolute nowhere's ville in the Scottish Highlands...and the chap dropped the new one, ruining it.
Chap was a tad vexed apparently.
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>> My f-i-l had a company go to his cottage to replace the windscreen on his
>> Lexus RX450h...and he lives in absolute nowhere's ville in the Scottish Highlands...and the chap dropped
>> the new one, ruining it.
>>
Did you ever see the Desert Valley Autos one where they did up an early Plymouth Barracuda? When dismantling it, the lads had it repeatedly drilled into them that the wraparound rear screen was made of hen's teeth and gold dust and that breaking it was not an option, as buying a replacement would remove any possibility of making a profit on the restoration.
They spent ages removing it and then two of them lifted it out very carefully and laid it on a prepared, padded stand in the middle of the workshop[1].
Then, while they were working on the car, someone walked through the workshop, caught the edge of it and it fell on the floor........oops. Their restoration team supervisor was Captain Unpopular with the management and was forced to resort to buying a second scrap car out of his own pocket to make amends.
[1] While watching this, I remember thinking; "I wouldn't leave it there lads......".
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Strangely enough, I was just thinking about that this afternoon, while I was swapping my summer & winter wheels. The spacesaver spare on my Saab is 10 years old & unused. I recall having one puncture within the last 5 years, as it transpired in Austria that whereas in the UK there'd be no problem, it's against the law here to have an extra load tyre repaired. As luck would have it, I currently have a nail causing a slow puncture (very slow) in one of my winter tyres. If it wasn't so much hassle I'd take it back to the UK & get it fixed there....cheaper than €100 for a new tyre! It's bang in the middle of the tread, so should't really be an issue in practice. Might pop over the border to Germany when we get back and check out the situation there ;-)
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I've got two slow punctures at the moment, both on the nearside. MoT tomorrow so I'll get them fixed then, along with whatever bit of the exhaust is blowing.
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Last was about 6 weeks ago - hit some debris on the M5 just as I was exiting- got the 3 miles home and could hear the hissing as soon as I opened the door.
Tyre had sustained sidewall damage so just replaced it
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Punctures seem to coincide with visits to the tip and neighbours having building work done. As the front tyres are pretty new I am avoiding the tip at present.
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I wonder where Holts got their statistics from.
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It wouldn't be the the marketing people who did the "Holts Tyreweld" blurb would it? :-)
Last edited by: Old Navy on Fri 26 Apr 13 at 08:34
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None on 300ZX in 50k miles
None on Prelude in 60k miles
None on 735i in 20k miles
Two on Civic in 70k miles
None on CRV in 50k miles, but did remove a non-penetrating screw from a rear wheel)
One on FRV in 40k miles
One on Forester at 20k miles (noticed screw in tread and lowish pressure day before trading in for the Shogun)
None for Shogun in 9k miles
None for Swift in 8k miles.
= 4 in ~320k miles.
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note: all of my cars had full size spares except the FRV which has a space-saver, and the Swift that has gunk (not even room for a S/S under the boot floor).
It is a minor concern (likely to be a major one if I shred a tyre).
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>> It wouldn't be the the marketing people who did the "Holts Tyreweld" blurb would it?
>> :-)
>>
It might be, but since I've always had (and always hope to have) a spare wheel I'm not going to buy their product anyway.
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Living in a rural area we get thorns in the sidewalls quite a bit - if you're not a regular country lane driver you may find it's one reason why cars in the countryside don't like pulling over quite as much as you'd like them to.
Had to replace a half-worn tyre on daughter's car the other day for that reason. Her second in the last few months, car has done about 20K, so she's well ahead of the average.
It's considered very dodgy driving off the swept line on any of the roads around here - despite advance driver training telling to use all the road width.
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My last puncture was in December. The day before a drive to the Swiss Alps for skiing, I checked the tyres on the S-Max, to find that one of them has a screw in the tread. And of course in their wisdom Ford don't give you a spare wheel! Luckily we had an alternative vehicle.
The lack of a spare was a bit off-putting when we bought the S-Max. It's eventual replacement WILL have a spare.
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>> My last puncture was in December. The day before a drive to the Swiss Alps
>> for skiing, I checked the tyres on the S-Max, to find that one of them
>> has a screw in the tread. And of course in their wisdom Ford don't give
>> you a spare wheel! Luckily we had an alternative vehicle.
>>
If there was a spare, would you have set off with with it in use and a punctured tyre in the well? It would likely be a space-save anyway, full size spare is almost unheard of now.
>> The lack of a spare was a bit off-putting when we bought the S-Max. It's
>> eventual replacement WILL have a spare.
>>
As above, it's likely to be a space-save anyway. If you're buying new you could probably negotaite one as part of the deal.
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Have had 2 in 15 months on runflats on the 3 series, drove on in each case & got tyre replaced next day, anybody else had more punctures in runflats than previously on ordinary tyres.
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>> ........... full size spare is almost unheard of now.
The Sunday Times is compiling a database of what you get, or what you can get as an option, as far as spare wheels are concerned.
www.driving.co.uk/advice/6269
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Last proper puncture on road was in car transporter on M6 at B'ham just north of jct6, some metal debris shot out from under the vehicle in front and i couldn't avoid it, moments later the steering suddenly started pulling to the left and by the time i stopped the nsf tyre was fully flat, massive hole in centre of tread.
HA Wombles soon arrived, nice people as always, mentioned there had neen several victims of this debrss which caused severe damage to some cars, soon as they knew i had help on the way they cleared off, but not before teasing me gently.
ATS van that came out didn't have a long enough air line to reach the nsf (transporters bit longer than standard artic) luckily i was empty so he drove his van up onto the back of the transporter so it reached....much to the amusement of the VOSA crew sat on the hard shoulder on the other side.
I asked him why he didn't simply park in front, not allowed, which seemed odd cos when changing the wheel he would have 23 tons of steel protecting him from an errant vehicle instead of 2 but there you go, rules is rules and as always made up by people never themselves in the firing line.
He did mention that he'd once had to dive over the armco (best avoided on the elevated section..;) when someone hit his van and smashed it into the lorry he was fixing...gulp.
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>> On average a car user will incur a puncture every 38k miles
It is useful for tyre manufactures for their annual profit forecast but means nothing to average motorists.
You could just have a puncture in your next journey.
Last edited by: movilogo on Mon 29 Apr 13 at 11:26
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There's a 1 in 4 chance of getting a puncture.
(1 in 3 for Robin Reliant or Sliding Pillar)
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Interval between punctures - Old Navy
