I'm currently facing a problem with my tubeless tire. I plugged it on the side of the road, inflated it to the recommended 2.9bar, but it keeps leaking air down to 2.5 bar. I'm currently in Indonesia, so there's a compressor at the side of the road every few kilometers, but it's getting annoying.

Afaik there are two types of plugs: the longer thinner sausages (for the lack of a better word) and the thicker shorter ones. First I plugged the hole with a thin plug, then it continued to leak air. So I added more plugs to the total of three.

I'm sure I'm doing something wrong and there's more to it than to just stuff the hole. Do the different colors for the plugs have a meaning? I've got black and brown. Where would you use a thin one, where a thicker one? How do you use each. I also ran out of that rubber glue, is it necessary? I was told it was included in the plugs already.

My most important question would be: if my fix attempt made the situation worse than the normal plug can fix, do tire shops have a possibility to fix a worst case scenario?

The tire is a Pirelli Scorpion Trail with just 10k km, replacing it is just my last resort.

It would be nice if you could share your experiences :-)

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That would be very frustrating stopping regularly to blow it back up!
Plugs - all the "gummy worms" "plugs" "strings" or whatever you want to call them do roughly the same job - stick them in and plug the hole.
Thick or thin, same job. Choose the largest you can get in. Roughen up the hill a little to give the glue something to stick to.

Some plugs say glue not needed, but I tend to distrust that and only use glue. For one thing, you want the plug to be HARD to put in - and glue makes it easier - which is good - if it's hard with glue, it's impossible without. And you've plugged the hole a lot tighter, which makes it less likely for the plug to leak or fail. DO make sure that about half the plug (folded over) is inside the tire, and give the glue a little time to dry, then cut off the excess carefully with a razor blade, leaving a mm or less on the outside.

Always have several SMALL tubes of glue - they dry out and are useless once opened. Yes, you want glue! Also, the colour of the strings is theoretically not important - but I've always found the brown ones to be somewhat better than the black ones, but YMMV. They all work.

You've already got three plugs in there - that tells me it's a big hole, and that's bad. Also, where is it? On the tread, or the sidewall? If it's on the sidewall, replace the tire, no plug will work as the sidewall flexes too much.

Can it be repaired by a shop - possibly - I don't know enough the damage to say for sure. However, if the hole is on the tread area, it can be repaired from the INSIDE very well. Basically using a "plug-patch" like this:

These are THE BEST repair for any tubeless tire.
They are installed from the inside, through the hole, the blue plastic is removed and it's all glued. Treat it like a patch and it works great.

Roughen the inside of the tire like you would a tube to prepare for patching, apply glue to the tire and let it dry same as you would for a patch on a tube, then inject a small blob of glue through the hole OR rub a little on the shaft of the plug-patch, so you can get it through. Once inserted, cut off the excess, and be sure to rub in the patch, (rub a tire iron on the back of the patch where the clear plastic is with firm pressure and really work at it for a minute to ensure the patch is well seated to the tire, and the plastic is falling apart - then peal off the plastic, don't leave it - and don't take it off until AFTER you've rubbed it in) again same as you would a tube patch.

If you can't find these (often found in truck repair places as well as tire shops) - they come in various sizes for all sizes of holes - then a simple heavy duty patch on the inside of the tire is possible, and I would leave a little of the plugs in the hole, but cut off flush with the inside of the tire.

Finally, I would replace the tire as soon as possible - a hole that size is a lot of damage, and the tire could fail catastrophically at any time. Dirt, water etc gets past the plugs that are obviously not sealing well, and can get into the laminations of the tire and wreak havoc you don't want.

And one last thing - you can watch my acclaimed video on all things tire repair and changing on https://vimeo.com/horizonsunlimited/vod_pages

__________________
Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
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Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Thank you this kind of quality answer I was hoping for :-)

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You're welcome!



I wanted to add that it's a great repair for a tube type tire too, as the damage as noted previously can cause issues for the tire itself if you don't plug the hole. Just be sure the inside of the tire is smooth when done so you don't damage the tube! Of course you still need to patch or replace the tube!

__________________
Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
------------------------
Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

So, my experience with worms and glue (for tyre patching, not recreationally) has been that they always work their way out eventually. Some tyre shops have access to more industrial looking versions of what Grant has shown there, and those have worked as a permanent solution for me ... however there was a time where I had a tear in a tyre and was informed it wouldn't be safe to patch because it would continue to split. I hope you don't have that sort of puncture!

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FreeBSD fan since before it was cool ...

Great reply from Grant so little to add; we've successfully plugged big holes with as many as 6 strips of "jerky", however with a hole like this we've done a better repair, with a patch, as soon as possible (or replaced the tyre). Key to success is to roughen the hole (there should be a rasp in the repair kit) so that the gunk has the best chance of sealing.

If the tyre continues to lose pressure consider that the leak may not be from the puncture you've repaired - there may be a second leak point in the tyre (on one rental vehicle in Uganda we ended up repairing 7 leaks in one tyre! The tyres were in terrible shape - key lesson: check before leaving the rental place), or there many be a loss of integrity in the seal between the tyre and the rim.