Can a punctured tyre be repaired?

Every reputable UK repairer works to BS AU159, the British Standard for tyre repairs. It exists because a badly repaired tyre is dangerous, and it draws a clear line between punctures that can be fixed properly and tyres that have to come off the car for good.

Where the hole is matters most

BS AU159 only allows repairs in the central area of the tread — roughly the middle three-quarters. That’s the part of the tyre built to take a plug-and-patch repair and carry on safely. A screw or nail sitting square in the tread is usually good news.

Damage in the sidewall or the shoulder (where the tread curves round into the sidewall) can’t be repaired, full stop. Those areas flex constantly as you drive, and no repair can be trusted there. A kerbed sidewall, a bulge or a slice means a replacement, whatever anyone offers to do cheaply.

The other conditions

• The hole must be small — up to about 6mm across. Most screws and nails qualify; a bolt or a chunk of angle iron usually doesn’t.
• The tyre can’t have been run flat. Driving on a deflated tyre, even briefly, grinds the inner liner apart. The damage isn’t always visible from outside, which is why a proper repair always starts with the tyre coming off the wheel for inspection inside.
• The tyre must be otherwise sound — legal tread (above 1.6mm), no exposed cords, no perishing or previous bodged repairs in the wrong places.

What a proper repair looks like

A BS AU159 repair is done off the wheel: the tyre is removed, inspected inside and out, and the hole is filled and sealed with a combination plug-and-patch from the inside, then the wheel is rebalanced. What it is not is a string plug pushed in from outside in two minutes with the tyre still on the car — those are emergency get-you-home measures at best.

Repair or replace — the honest answer

If the puncture is repairable and the tyre has plenty of tread left, repair it — it’s the cheaper option and just as safe done properly. If the tyre is near the legal limit anyway, paying for a repair on rubber you’ll be replacing within months rarely makes sense, and we’ll say so rather than take the money.

We carry out mobile BS AU159 repairs within about 10 miles of our Bilsthorpe base — see the mobile tyre repair page to check your postcode. Further out, or if the tyre can’t be saved, our emergency replacement service covers the whole patch, 24/7.