Tires come in direct contact with the road and as such are made to withstand a lot of contact and damage. However, sometimes your tire will encounter something that it can't get past. When this happens, your tire may get a puncture and become flat. When you experience a flat tire, you will be faced with the decision to either fix the tire or replace the tire.
How Long Did You Drive on the Puncture
The first thing you need to determine is how long you were driving around with a punctured tire. If you noticed the damage and were able to pull over right away, you may be able to effectively fix the tire.
If you felt like your vehicle was driving weird, but it took you a while to stop and pull over to see what was up, you may have done too much damage to the tire. The same is true if you realized that the tire was punctured right away but continued to drive with the punctured tired until you reached a safe place or an auto repair store.
The more time you spent driving on the tire after it was damaged, the greater the chance is that you will have to replace the tire instead of repair it. Driving on a damaged tire generally increases the amount of damage the tire experiences.
Where the Puncture Is Located
Next, where the puncture is located matters. If the puncture occurred to either the shoulder or the sidewall of the tire, then the puncture cannot be repaired. It doesn't matter if the puncture is large or small or even how long you drove on the tire. Tire patches simply don't work on the shoulder and sidewall of the tire, and repairing the tire would create an unsafe situation.
How Big the Puncture Is
The last factor is how big the puncture is. A nail in your tire is a very small puncture that can be easy to repair. Other similar punctures that are about the size of a nail head can also easily be repaired.
If the puncture starts to get into the size of a nickel or quarter, you are talking about a hole that cannot easily be repaired. You will need to replace the tire instead.
If you have a long cut on the tire instead of a simple puncture, you may also need to replace the tire. When a tire is cut, there is a risk that the belt of the tire may be damaged as well, something a simple patch job cannot fix.
If you are unsure if you should replace or repair a Nissan tire with a puncture in it, talk to the technicians at your auto dealer. They can check out your tire and give you their opinion.
