Tire shop “repaired” my tire after saying it was in the unrepairable area.

[Kaster]

I have a 2008 Tundra and the tpms went out on it, long story short I had to go to big O tires to get some new stems programmed but it failed. I ended up with new tires from them and paid 150$ for a 3 year warrenty where they replace tires or repair them if possible for free. (I can link the conditions page if requested) anyway, about 9 days after I got the new tires (cooper rtx all terrain) I got a screw puncture that leaked air in my outer tread area. I took it in 2 days later when I had time to and they have a sign up of where they can and can’t repair a tire. The tech comes in and points on the sign and says it’s on the unrepairable area, manger goes out with him and comes back saying that since the tires are so new and that the screw was in the groove of the tread (between the raised areas) that it would be fine to patch it. So they did. They asked that I come back by before I make any long distance trips to make sure the patch is holding but I wanted to know if this was actually safe or if I should ask for a replacement? I have to make a 1.5 hour drive to my college campus and back every weekend and it’s pretty barren between here and there. I’m not very savvy on tires so I was going to ask. (My trust in them isn’t very high since they jammed my glovebox closed when the retaining cord broke and told me they fixed it, and after they patched my tire that failed to properly put the valve stem caps back on leading to 2 of my tires being flat the next morning before work.)

[aleekat]

Screw in the groove is patchable. Shouldn't be an issue. As far as not putting the stem caps on and losing air. The inside of the stem wasn't properly tightened. Caps don't hold the air in.

[Kaster]

Originally Posted by aleekat

Screw in the groove is patchable. Shouldn't be an issue. As far as not putting the stem caps on and losing air. The inside of the stem wasn't properly tightened. Caps don't hold the air in.

Thanks for the reply, good to know they weren’t doing something that shouldn’t really be done. As for the valve stem cap, as my tpms wasn’t able to be programmed I got a set of caps that read the pressure, the technician failed to properly put them back on leading them to leak. As I screw then on they let out a bit of air due to how they work and if you only partially put it back on then it can become unscrewed or leak air.

[Stealthee]

If those caps have metal threads change them out for rubber/plastic. The tire pressure caps are a problem waiting to happen anyway, but you cannot use metal caps on tpms sensors because it can cause corrosion and lead to premature failure or even breakage of a TPMS sensor.

[Kaster]

Originally Posted by Stealthee

If those caps have metal threads change them out for rubber/plastic. The tire pressure caps are a problem waiting to happen anyway, but you cannot use metal caps on tpms sensors because it can cause corrosion and lead to premature failure or even breakage of a TPMS sensor.

I have had previous issues with that and ended up having to get whole new stems in that vehicle, the ones I currently have are the same material as the valve stem screw itself and it comes with a water resistant and dust proof cap to put over it all. Thanks for the warning though.