I wouldn't

Went to the garage the other day and my right rear tire was flat as a pancake. Took the car to the tire center where and they found a screw on the edge and said they could not fix it and it fact would not let me drive on it and put on the spare.
The rears have 7,000 miles on them and about 5/32s or half the tread left. The tires are Pilot Sports 245/40/17s N2s and I was told they are no longer produced or available so I have to go to the Pilot Sports PS2s N3 and I have to buy 2 of them which sucks because I was not planning to replace the rear tires for a while.
My best alternative would be to find a Pilot Sport in inventory if I could find one. I had the same situation happen when I got a nail in my MXX3 tire. I hate it when tire manufacturers change their lines every couple of years.
I plan to contact Tire Rack to see if they have a Pilot Sport somewhere. Does anyone know if the PS2s N3 have a similar tread pattern to the older Pilot Sports since I need to match the Pilot Sports fronts or other places to search for a Pilot Sport??

At 5/32 you will have a substantial difference left to right. Better to do a pair. As an alternative, you might find a serious tire shop that will put a radial tube in the tire, if you did nto drive on the sidewall and thereby ruin its structural integrity.

You can plug the center. You cannot plug the edge.

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

their sizes -- one being used of course the other new -- violate the Porsche tire guidelines for mixing new and used tires on the same axle.

Here's some cut/paste from my digital factory manual:

- When replacing a tyre on an axle, make sure that the tread depth of the new tyre does not differ from
that of the other tyre by more than 30 %!

(As an aside, when the right front tire of one of my cars had to be replaced due to some impact damage (deer) the insurance company paid to replace both front tires even though the wear was about 15%.)

Here's more:

- Repairs on ZR tyres are impermissible, as is the use of inner tubes in tubeless tyres!

Many (including me...) have elected to violate the above guideline. I rely upon the tire maker for what it considers ok to repair and many say if the tire is in otherwise good shape, if the hole is small (quarter inch or less in diameter) and in the hole is in the tread the tire is repairable with no compromise in the tire's speed rating. Now finding an indy tire shop that will repair an otherwise good tire on one of these cars is hard enough, but finding a Porsche dealer that will fix a tire... Forget it. (However, I had one dealer help me by having another (non-Porsche) dealer under the same corporate owner fix a tire once in a pinch when I was on the road. No names. Oh, and didn't even charge me for the repair even though I offered to pay.)

- If new tyres are to be mounted or the tyres of one axle are to be replaced, tyres of the same make and with the
same specification code must always be used on each of the two axles.

Many elect to 'violate' the last guideline. I have to point out that different tire brands even though the sizes are the 'same' can have different effective rolling diameters and on some models (depending too upon the tires involved) not following the last guideline can cause problems with the ABS or PSM. In AWD cars mixing different tire brands front and rear with different effective rolling diameters which can cause grief to the AWD system.

So, it looks like you're facing replacing both rear tires, at least.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

re: "Now finding an indy tire shop that will repair an otherwise good tire on one of these cars is hard enough, but finding a Porsche dealer that will fix a tire... Forget it."

That's NOT my experience. I got a screw in the tread of my brand new OEM Pilot Sports (slow leak) shortly after taking delivery of my Cayman and took it to my local Porsche dealer. They happily repaired it rather than replacing it ... had I known that this was not allowable, I would have insisted on a new tire when I brought it in. Foolishly I relied on them to know what was and wasn't permissible. This was the same trip to the dealer in which they told me that the "rust" on my alloy wheels had to be sanded down and repainted (PPBB's forum explained to me what the dealer didn't know, that the "rust" was cosmoline and I removed it myself with mineral spirits). Same dealer that botched 15K service on my old Boxster. Thankfully I've driven about 12,000 miles on the repair since then with no problems.

the problem is when it is on the edge where the belts meet the sidewall and the integrity is questionable at the edge of the patch area.

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

I think they said it was not even in the belt. They also said a plug, if someone did it, would probably not hold and be dangerous as the edge wore down.
Dealers for the most part take the conservative approach and tell you to replace the tire. They don't want the liability. I've had nail punctured tires repaired at other places. If the screw is where mine was no reputable tire shop will try to repair it.
I need two new rear tires. No way around it and they will be different N numbers, sub brand and maybe slightly different tire treads because my Pilot Sports were discontinued by Michelin.

will not repair the tire.

I have seen at least one factory manual that in the tire and wheel section forbids repairing 'ZR' tires and it wouldn't surprise me that all Porsche model car factory manuals forbid fixing a 'ZR' tire. Hence if a dealer refuses to fix the tire it is simply following 'orders' from the factory.

Might be in your case the dealer extended you a favor because you recently bought the car there. A tire puncture is not covered under new car warranty so had the dealer not fixed the tire for you you would have probably faced buying a new tire.

Sincerely,

MarcW.