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So here's a tire with less than 10,000 miles on it. It has a screw in it. My local dealers won't fix it, claiming the design of the tire won't allow the fix to work. OK, buy a new tire? Sorry... discontinued already. Solution? Tire Rack says buy four new tires for the 4WD Volvo! Any suggestions for this Conti Premier Contact P215 65R16 96H ? I would really like to avoid having to buy four new tires!  

i have patched my own tires with a safety seal brand tire plug in that area and had it work until i wore down the corner of the tread...  there is a trick to doing it... the tire has to be at normal inflation pressure ..  when you push it through .. you have to turn the handle 3 or 4 tiles till the ends of the yarn are starting to turn.. then carefully pull the tool out...  this leaves a knot of the sticky coated yarn on the inside.. prevents if from being pulled out when you turn a corner..  i can still feel the crunch of my channel lock diagonal pliers crunching through the Kevlar yarn they use..  i even had to keep them sharpened with a file to keep them cutting..  i used a lot of the plugs...

i even plugged a whole block of car tires one day.. when some jerk went down the street and punched out 2 tires on every bodys car...   i made sure that everybody was just going to the tire shop to get replacements..  i just did my block... when i finished.. there were cars with flat tires for at least 6 blocks...      

but this was on my tire.. on my personal car..


the tire patch manufacturers do not recommend patches in that area .. as the patch has come off that area do to the amount of flexing it gets... and the tire fails...  

i have put on patches in that area... when i worked in a shop... it was on a vacuum cleaner parking lot sweeper truck...   i patched that tire at least 3 times a week...   i counted 28 patches on the inside before it was cut bad enough that it could not be patched again...    i sent him for 8 ply small truck tires...  he came back with 2 ply snow tires...  since they were on for a few weeks before he had his first flat.. it was too late to take them back...    once he got the 8 ply tires.. i never had to patch them again..  he was a lot happier..


there is a problem...  with patching tires in that area... if the patch fails...  the tire will go flat in seconds..  the tire may tear its self apart..  and RIP THE SIDE of your car apart..   causing many dollars more damage than the price for a new set of matched tires...   since you have AWD.. the tires have to match..   buy a new set..... make sure they are not about to discontinue them...

make sure the tire guy lubes the tires before he takes them off the rim so he does not tear the bead... put them on craigs list..  somebody else will need 3..  or even Ebay...

safety seal tires plugs are from north shore labs.. and the packages of the stick yarns say safety seal on them..  i have not found others that work as well.. i have also found many people don't know how to properly twist them ... so you have to watch..

there is one last worry..   the angle of that screw...   it might have been possible that the sharp end of the screw has rubbed the sidewall inside..   through the thin rubber and into the cords..


there is one more thing..   a few months ago... somebody in a small suv.. had a blow out.. got out of control... skidded off the freeway. over the edge... through the trees... through the fence.. rolled... landed upside down.. the doors were all wedges shut by damage..  and the car caught on fire..  nobody got out..

be sure to have your Tire pressure monitors reset when the tires are at full pressure...  

Thank you for that most excellent reply.  I think I'll go and buy new tires. We drive on high speed country roads, so why take the risk? Have a great day.