URGENT quesion: Tyre Puncture - Repair OR New Tyre

[tstendall]

I have an 05MY Lotus Elise 111R.

I've recently (in February this year) had a full set of new Yoko AD07's LTS tyres fitted.

This evening when I went to drive home I noticed the rear passenger side tyre was looking a bit flat. After I'd driven (gingerly) home I noticed a screw in one of the tyre grooves (close to the centre line, nowhere near the side wall) and the tyre pressure was about 6 psi (for my geo setup it should be 24 psi).

I'd be more than happy to drive on a repaired tyre on a "normal" car, but I wondered whether it made any difference with it being a high performance machine.

I'm not particularly mechanically minded, so my question is should I get a completely new tyre or just repair the old one. I assume that tyre repairs are pretty standard, even on high performance cars and it okay to do whatever you normally would on them but I thought I'd just check the position with the lotus "massive". I'd rather not fork out for a new one, but if its likely to affect the safety of it, I'd rather play safe and get a new one fitted.

I could also do with having the wheels balanced (I've noticed some vibration at over 65mph sometimes) so if anyone knows of any decent tyre fitters (preferably with Lotus knowledge) that also do wheel balancing in the Mansfield area that would be wicked awesome.

Thanks in anticipation.

Tom

[John D.]

Personally I'd get it repaired. There may be others who differ but I can't see the problem.

[Justin S]

should be fine with a repair.

[21TonyK]

In a road tyre on a car used on the road, especially centre of the tread a repair is fine (IMHO).

[Grinnders]

As it's not sidewall, repair should be fine.

[tstendall]

Excellent - thanks so much everyone for the quick replies.

I've gone with the repair option and it seems fine only £35 with all four wheels balanced as well.

Cheers

Tom