Several weeks ago, my wife remarked she hears a clicking sound from one of our wheels. I figured a stone caught in the tread, very common here, I heard nothing, anyway. She remarked about it several times since; I looked over the tires visually; none looked low on air. Today, as I went for our mail, I noticed the Tire Pressure Monitor icon had turned ON. Back home, 3 tires measured 40 psi, the right rear only 30. Driveable, no problem, but might be losing air slowly. Then I spotted it, by chance, as the tire happened to be stopped in just the right position: A one-inch long high-strength bolt had embedded itself in the tire tread, the head of the bolt clicking as it wore away on the pavement. Here's the mechanics of how it worked, unlikely as it sounds: Initially, it was a self-sealing puncture, took thousands upon thousands of "hits" on the pavement to both wear away the bolt head, and "wallow" the wound to the point that it began to leak probably yesterday. I didn't check, but at 30 psi, it might even have stopped leaking, or slowed. I yanked that wheel off, pried the bolt out, learned the hole was borderline pluggable in size, but went ahead and inserted two rubber plugs. A procedure both time-honored, and distasteful, deeply frowned upon by some, yet used successfully thousands of times: plugging a punctured tire is ILLEGAL in many jurisdictions! When I took ARCO Dealer Training in 1972 in El Monte, California, the instructor warned us plugging had been made illegal there. That was a long time ago........ My plug ain't leaking......do not recall even one failing, so we'll keep an eye on it awhile, then gradually forget about it! Jeez, are tires & wheels ever heavy now......Used to do such work for hours with no physical effect, now, pain all over! Frank
See @Holly Saunders's thread about how things are getting farther. They are also getting heavier. Fifty pounds feels like a hundred these days. Perhaps with global climate change, gravity is getting stronger....
I don't know if it's illegal here, but there is only one place in town that plugs tires, an independent service station. It is a very popular place. @Frank Sanoica, for some reason this reminds me of your snake in the dryer vent problem. You must be living right.
@Nancy Hart Well, for the life of me, I don't get the connection.......but the snake problem likely tops my recent list of things imponderable. Which brings up yet another: im·pon·der·a·ble noun a factor that is difficult or impossible to estimate or asses Ponderable: capable of being considered carefully or deeply (Adjective) I use the first term with intent of meaning of the second. So, both interchange. Now, intangible is something else yet again! Frank
The only connection is that they are both rather unusual events, and both turned out to be solvable (as well as imponderable), without too much expense.
@Nancy Hart Ahh, so! My existence has always seemed to be burdened overly-richly with unusual events; I have learned to simply not regard them as "why dumped on me", but rather, "expect something covertly unusual". That I have, but am sometimes still extremely amazed at how the "odds" of the ridiculous happening very often against most events being morosely "blah", have in my lifetime always shifted towards the former, very strongly. Frank