to be thinking "today I will be told I have nails/screws in my tires"

[LovelyFriend]

Today I've taken my car in for MOT/Service.

The last 3 years I have done this (at 2 different places) I have received a call to be told I have nails/screws in 2 otherwise perfectly good tires and they need to be replaced.

Apparently I am both very unlucky to get so many nails/screws in my tires, and also very lucky that despite the high number of nails/screws I have in my tires I NEVER get a flat.

So I'm beginning to think this is a con - but I don't know what to do about it?

I wanted to ask them to check my tires before I left this morning but there was a huge queue. And I wimped out. They came out to someone waiting in the waiting room and told him he had a screw in his tire and he just smiled and nodded. Yeah I know the feeling mate.

I am doubly cynical about this as I have been driving for 30 years, and it it only the last few years since I split from XP and have been getting the car serviced myself again that this unfortunate affliction has been affecting me.

I don't know anyone else who gets so many, or even any, nails and screws in their tires. I drive on perfectly normal London streets.

So AIBU to think these car service places are fucking me over?

Is this a "thing" now?

Or is getting screws and nails in your car tires a really common thing these days? And if it is a common thing, how come nobody gets flats or blowouts?

zipzap we are going on a driving holiday on Saturday and there is no way I'm going to set out with nails in my tyres

UPDATE

Just hear back from KwikFit and there are NO NAILS OR SCREW IN MY TYRES!! First time in 4 years/4 MOT's that this is the case.

passed MOT with flying colours.

they tried to sell me some coolant and brake fluid on top (though levels are OK) and were going to charge me £160 for that, but I passed on that opportunity. So just the advertised rate for MOT & full service payable.

Whew!!

Thanks for all you advice today everyone. I'll check my wheels are on properly before I drive off.

Yay for a happy ending!

I don't think it's ever come up at MOT for me and I take the car in myself. I've had two flat tyres due to nails, one locally and one on holiday in Jersey, in both cases I've taken the car into Kwik-fit type places and got a new tyre within an hour. Not Kwikfit itself though.

I invariably have low treads though and need a new tyre or two because of that, I drive an automatic and I think you wear down tyres more quickly.

I've actually had the opposite problem, where they've passed the car, and when I've got the details of the check there's been something that just passed the MOT but really needed doing very soon and I was a bit annoyed they'd not done it, as it was serviced at the same time as the MOT. So I had to get it done about 3 months later which was a nuisance.

I have been waiting to hear all day. I'm glad it's worked out. I think that the last place was probably scamming you but it was just a coincidence the place that you went to today had somebody with a nail in his tyre at the same time you were in.

Thanks OurDearLeader that pretty much sums up how I feel too.

Next time I will take to the testing station as recommended upthread for MOT and get service done separately.

Same issue for us at a VW garage, in side wall too interestingly.

Usually when you get a nail/screw in the tyre you don't get a flat right away because the nail/screw mostly blocks the hole it makes (like how people in films who have been shot with an arrow don't start properly bleeding till someone takes the arrow out).

I noticed one of my tyres looked a little bulgey but not flat, checked the pressure and found it was low so reinflated it, then a couple of weeks later checked the pressure again and it had lost a bit of the air - turned out to be a nail, but wouldn't have become a flat without me driving around on it for another few weeks or even months - but if the final rupture happens on a motorway or roundabout (which did happen to me a few years ago) it can cause a serious accident as the steering suddenly goes crazy, so much better to sort it as soon as the nail is found.

Yes that was one of the concerns for me - if I actually did have 6 nails/screws in sidewalls of my tyres (and it wasn't a scam), how long was I driving around with them in my tyres for before they were discovered at my MOT/service?

I'll never know now. But it is a relief to be nail/screw free this time.

Are nails/screws in tyres something people regularly check for themselves?

DH checks for nails every time he washes my car. I find it hard to see them, but he has the knack of it.

I've had nails in the side wall of the tyres without it going down. In both cases I spotted it and took it on so definitely wasn't a scam with me.

I wash my car as often as I get an MOT :)

me too, but DH likes a nice shiny car, so I leave him to it.

good news - should we make a diary note for next year :)

Yes dad please do - it's in my work AND google diaries.

I will try and remember to quickly check tyres when I fill car up once a month

We've never had this and DH has been driving for 16 years.

He has to drive the children to school every day and it's an hour there and back and he changes his route there and back to avoid all the traffic.

We use our car a lot as well and DH drives us all over the UK every year for holidays and days out.

I think your right OP and it's a con.

I had this the other week. Serviced my VW at the dealership. They said nail in tyre. First off they said they could repair, but then I've had to buy a new tyre.

Hmm, now I'm suspicious. Tyre wasn't flat at the time....

OTOH I've had a tyre blow out on a motorway sliproad and it aint funny.

I've had a nail through the side of my tyre just once in 20 years of driving.

Luckily I was parked within sight of a tyre fitting garage and someone helpfully left a note on my windscreen to point that out. And the car had been fine when I was driving it.

I have found that with one well known chain of tyre and exhaust people, my car always failed the MOT on tyres and exhausts. Every time. And we've caught them out in a lie about not having the cheaper option tyres in stock as well.

Coupled with the way they kept harassing me by phone about taking out their insurance policy on something, we decided not to use them anymore, we go to an independent garage now and have never had any problems. Tyres and exhaust seem to have miraculously become far more resilient.

can I just say...£160 for brake fluid and coolant!!!!!

I used to have this issue but with exhausts, every time it was 'badly corroded' and they did indeed show me a badly corroded exhaust pipe. Whether it was mine or not I couldn't prove.

This year with a different garage that I did trust, it was a track rod end.
Now I only changed both TREs 6 months earlier because I could feel and hear an issue with them when driving, the issue hadn't returned. "Oh well, you can get some duff parts off the internet" was the response.
I've started keeping ALL receipts including for stuff I do myself. The problem is there are general part numbers but not individual serial numbers so what can you do?

It makes me very angry that women get ripped off like this.
It also makes me wish I'd paid much more attention when my Dad was getting to me to help him with car repairs when I was growing up.