Anchovies for car tyres

I've used them (and friends have used them multiple times). Sometimes no further repair is needed (if you are lucky...)

Used them on my son's car. They work fine in an emergency.

I used a mountain bike one on our car when we were in Italy. It survived the journey home, the trip back to Italy the following year and was still in when I sold the car.

Totally forgot about it.

From a UK legal point, they don't meet the required British Standard for tyre repairs.

Never used them but you can get the mushroom type you insert from the outside.

Mushroom Plugs

I used one in a nearly new motorbike tyre, it went to 5000 miles and never lost any air.

I've done several and treated them like permanent repairs, never had any issues.

Do the external mushroom plugs need any glue?

Also, the anchovies are sold by Halfords, ECP and Kwik Fit, assume there's be a disclaimer if they weren't legal...

I’ve used them to get to the tyre fitters.

But yeah off road use only written in the instructions. Still safer than trying to jack a loaded van up in an inconvenient location in my opinion.

Black Circles say plugs are legal, but don't specify if that means anchovies.

The Halfords kit says max 40mph.

Black Circles say plugs are legal, but don’t specify if that means anchovies.

A plug fitted from the inside is legal so they are technically vague but their statement is correct by omission

They say the same about tyre weld but I've used it for permanent repair of non holed tires just fine and will continue to do so.

Any business carrying out an automotive repair, should be doing it to the relevant British Standard, which means a combined plug and patch (often referred to as a mushroom, however not the kind listed above). And part of the repair is inspecting the tyre for any internal damage.

The anchovies (and the small mushrooms) are an approved fix in other countries, but not the UK.

The chances of one failing catastrophically are slim, but the biggest risk is any crash that could be attributed to a non-compliant repair could have your insurance asking questions.

I used one and it held for 8 months until the car was written off (for unrelated reasons...). If use one again if needed and have no concerns about it.

I've had a punctured tyre stored outside for a year.   When I got rid of it the steel in the hole had gone rusty. For this reason I'd only use any kind of plug in an emergency as only a full repair is going to seal the hole in both sides.

I had some red plastic plugs designed to screw in and snap off the handle, worked great but I had to look for a garage that would repair it as the first one would not accept that the visible bit was larger than the hole and claimed it was too big to repair so I'd only use them again if desperate or I knew the the wasn't repairable/or almost worn out.

I took my car to the local tyre place twice for different tyres and that's what they used, then I just drove like normal till the car died. They never said anything about it being a temporary repair, but they were a bit of a cavalier bunch.

I think dynaplug was originally invented for cars or motorcycles. I have a car dynaplug kit in the boot just in case, haven’t needed it yet though.

I've used anchovies on a nearly new car tyre that I knew wouldn't be repaired. No issues.

Even took it to the Porsche dealer to fit a couple of tyres to "new" wheels after I buckled them.on a pothole.  They pointed it out - I said I knew it was in there, they shrugged and carried on.

Have them in the back of the car for "emergencies".

(They may have potential to throw the balance out slightly.... Perhaps)

I thought it was completely normal for tyre places to repair tyres? (If it's in a 'repairable place')

Any recommendions for an anchovy to keep in the boot, in case? (as seems to be common, my new car was supplied without a spare wheel)

I've successfully used this kit. It's much harder to push an anchovy through a car tyre than a mtb one so a bigger handle is useful.

www.amazon.co.uk/Slime-20133-95-Repair-Tackle-9-Piece/dp/B0BSXL2CJR/?th=1

I have a kit but thankfully not needed it yet

Any recommendions for an anchovy to keep in the boot, in case?

I just used the ones I bought off ebay for the lawn mower!!

(the anchovy is about 3mm wide at a guess)

I used one to repair a motorbike tyre as a 'get-me-home' fix many years ago. I subsequently took it to a tyre place to get a 'proper' (plug patch) repair. They told me that they couldn't repair it because I'd fitted the anchovy into the hole and they weren't allowed to 'repair a repair'. (It would otherwise have been repairable.) One scrap tyre 🙁

Why scrap? If the repair worked, it worked.

Why scrap? If the repair worked, it worked.

The repair I used was only for temporary use (like some of the ones linked above) and I wasn't happy riding around on it long term. I didn't realise that using it would prevent a permanent repair.

With any of the 'anchovies' there is nothing physically holding them into the tyre - they rely on glue. In theory, at least, they could be forced out again; most likely to happen when the tyre is hot (i.e. at high speed). Also, they aren't guaranteed to seal against the inside surface of the tyre, so could allow air into the tyre structure, possibly leading to delamination (again, most likely with a hot tyre). The proper repair plugs have mushroom heads that are inserted from the inside of the tyre and seal against the inside surface.

Why scrap? If the repair worked, it worked

The Temporary repair worked. You have no idea or control nor inspection capabilities to determine how long it would hold.

It's a bit like saying the boy with the finger in the dam was successful as the water stopped coming through..... But in reality he was never going to be able to stop it forever...

Fair enough....