Yet another puncture!

A tubeless tyre can hold up for a long time with a small nail in it and it can be hard to find.
Best way is to take the wheel off and immerse it in water and watch for the bubbles. But if you don’t happen to have an old bath in your garden, try spraying it with dilute wash-up liquid.
Also check the valve and rim for leaks.
Check pressures early in the morning before driving. Pressure increases when car is driven or tyres exposed to sunlight.

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Older alloy wheels can also be porous which allows tyres to lose pressure over time.

The tyre’s were new last year. I will get them checked at the place we had them fitted.

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I must be fortunate; 15 years of regular travel to France and never a puncture. But that’s probably because I tend away from the edge of the road. The downside is that I’ve lost three door mirrors.

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‘Our’ road is one of the worst we have come across in rural France. You have to drive on the grass/gravel/whatever on the right to pass oncoming cars safely. And the car bucks due to the ripple-effect surfacing. Pulling a trailer is no fun! However, all our flat tyres have been elsewhere. But we have had two cars stop at our gate and ask for help at due to flat tyres, the first with one flat, the second with two flats at the same time. Nails both times - it makes you wonder where they are coming from.

Next time you change them, get them to clean inside the rim with a kitchen scourer.

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I never change a wheel myself, mainly for the reasons stated it’s impossible to undo the nuts. Also I hate getting my hands dirty and that’s what we pay insurance for. I have always been very pleased with the response on the odd occasion I’ve had a puncture.

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Good to know we still come in useful when something dirty needs doing! :laughing::laughing::laughing:

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Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and suggestions.
Thanks Mike for your info about a telescopic wheel nut wrench - and the pull up. Good idea.
Our experience of calling for breakdown service has been curate’s egg-ish. Like the time we waited an hour and a half and then called the help centre again to find that the driver had tried to contact us on MOH mobile and when he didn’t get a reply he went home. We live in an area that is notoriously bad for mobile phone reception which these days sadly presents us with all sorts of similar problems.
When MOH bought the Skoda the salesman proudly told him there was no need for a spare wheel as he was supplying us with a can of tyre-weld. Thank heavens MOH insisted on the spare. Over the years most of our punctures have been no more than a nail or a screw hole that just needed plugging and then the tyre’s fine to go. Tyre-weld would have cost us a fortune in new tyres! So Ray, I’m sure it’s fine for some people but not for us and our frequent punctures.
I take the point Jane and Robert about checking tyre pressures but I’m assuming that the tyre warning light on the Skoda would let us know if there was a problem with pressure. Is that not the case?
I’m fortunate Paul that I am pretty physically fit. By the time OH had arrived I had the spare at the side ready for him and the jack ready to wind up - it’s very easy. It’s only the wheel nuts that defeat me.
I’d hoped for a chorus of agreement that you were always getting punctures on French country roads. So, no. Just me then. :slight_smile: I need to become a road hog.

Noooooooo!!!
take a brief course with a driving instructor to improve your confidence if you feel it is necessary… but don’t become a road hog, please!
If necessary and safe to do so, stop. Let the other party take all the risks :wink:
We have a number of very narrow lanes round here and looking ahead, if you see a car approaching pull in to a safe place and let the other car pass rather than play a game of “chicken”. It might take you longer on your journey but hey, how much time will you waste having to deal with the puncture before being able to move on again?
Remember the tortoise and the hare?

Failing to check your bicycle tyres which contain a small volume of pressurised air held within an inner tube may well cause the tube to be punctured if you hit a pothole, stone or ride over a kerb. The majority of modern vehicles have tubeless tyres containing a large volume of pressurised air. Losing a bit of pressure over time is not going to make them any more prone to punctures unless you are the sort of person who drives over high kerbs where you may put an unacceptable load on the tyre’s walls. It is a good idea to regularly check your car tyre pressures as the correct pressure will ensure that the tyres are performing at their best and will give their best mileage. Modern car tyres are also very tough and punctures are caused when strong sharp objects are forced through the cover. Most of the objects that puncture tyres are made of metal, usually nails and screws. You would be very unlucky to puncture a tyre by using the grass verge alongside a narrow road to pass an oncoming vehicle.

It’s a problem. I still haven’t got used to the way they do things here. On narrow country roads, people don’t slow down when they pass, they just put two wheels on the verge and expect you to do the same.
The grassy verge conceals all sorts of hazards. Junk thrown from cars, bits fallen off agricultural machinery, rusty barbed wire, hidden ditches - you name it!
So if I have to leave the tarmac to make way for someone, I always do it very carefully.
You may have noticed that the more you give way, the more advantage they take. But I’m never in a hurry and at my age I don’t need to complicate my life by getting into a road accident. So I happily let them get on with it, while complimenting them on their driving skill, using words that need no translation! :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Ah David, in that case I have been “unlucky” several times (see Mike’s comment below yours). I agree Mike - there are all sorts of hidden dangers in our grass verges. I managed to spectacularly ruin one tyre that I ran into the end of a raised stone edge to a gully - completely hidden in the long grass.

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And equally important, you no longer have full control of the car when wheels are on dissimilar surfaces.

I maybe wrong, but I don’t think I lack confidence - I have been driving extensively for over 50 years, including 5 years in Brazil, so being on the RH side was never much of an issue.
But I do think I am polite - so I stand aside for others. And I’ve never had a cracked wing mirror! So I give way to the road hogs coming towards me and it’s cost us money - some serious money - as a result. Hence my view that I actually need to be more aggressive and less polite and force other drivers into the verge.

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I think what you really need is to be more assertive.
The trick is to look as if you aren’t going to give way, while being ready to take evasive action if it becomes really necessary.
But accidents on narrow roads are particularly problematic because, without witnesses, it can be hard to prove who was to blame.
I recommend a dashcam. That could provide useful evidence. But, of course, if it was your fault, you might want to lose the SD Card in the long grass!

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I once stopped to help a couple of young ladies in a hire car, along with a bunch of athletic looking young men (They were very lovely young ladies!) We all had a try. When the strongest guy bent the wrench, we had to admit humiliation and defeat. In the end they had to call the hire firm and get them to come and sort it out.

Or I have been very lucky. I live and drive in an area where meeting a car coming in the other direction is fairly common and both have to put two wheels on the grass. Any serious hazards will have disappeared decades ago.
My pet hate are the 4x4 owners who stick to the middle of the road obviously terrified of having to put one of their tyres on the grass.

Presumably we’re talking tubeless. That may be true of some aerosols but usually the foam forms a skin that can be quite easily peeled off once you have removed the tyre. It’s then perfectly feasible to glue a patch in place.

I think asserting yourself may have something to do with the vehicle you drive. A beat up ex-military Land Rover is my alternative ride and oncoming traffic certainly tends to give it a wide berth.

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I suspect that there is a difference between “can be repaired” and "will be willingly be repaired by the tyre fitter when you get there.