Back from a weekend at home to a car flat on Chapel Lane near Selly Oak station: do not pump it and drive. The fitter reaches the car and rules on repair versus replacement there.
Flats in Selly Oak can be discovered on return. Students come back by train to a car that has sat on Heeley Road for three days with a nail in it. Hospital staff walk out of the QE to a tyre on the rim on the Raddlebarn side. Shoppers come out of Selly Oak Shopping Park to a pressure warning. The garage on the Bristol Road is a short drive away and that is the mistake: a flat tyre driven even that far is usually ruined.
Photograph the tyre and the sidewall marking, say which street and whether a permit or a barrier is involved. At the car the wheel is removed and the tyre taken off it. A simple hole in the tread gets an internal repair; a gash in the sidewall, a bead chewed by driving on it flat or a torn liner means the tyre is replaced from the van's stock. You are told which before the work starts, and both figures were on the call, so nothing is decided under pressure.
On run-flat tyres? They behave differently once deflated, so check the handbook's limits and read our page on run-flat tyres; we fit replacement run-flat tyres at the car in Selly Oak as well.
If the job turns out to be different, see broken tyre replacement in Selly Oak, burst tyre replacement or wheel balancing.
Chapel Lane, Heeley Road and the other streets round Selly Oak station, Bournbrook terraces where a permit is displayed, Selly Park driveways, the bays at Battery. The A38 and Aston Webb Boulevard are no place for a flat.
| Main roads | A38 Bristol Road; Aston Webb Boulevard; A4040 Harborne Lane and Oak Tree Lane |
|---|---|
| Typical arrival | A long run from London: allow 2 to 3 hours |
Flat tyre: the first steps →Flat tyre help on the Selly Oak page
Act early. On Watford Road or Fordhouse Lane, the A4040 round Stirchley, ease off, indicate, then tuck into a quieter side street instead of a bus stop. Switch on the hazards, move passengers onto the pavement, and send us the street name plus a landmark like Kings Norton station so the fitter can find you.
Before calling from Selly Oak, check the other three; a car left for days in Bournbrook can lose air all round. Then study the flat one: a screw in the tread, a cracked valve stem, a graze from a terrace kerb. Do not drive it to a Bristol Road garage. A narrow temporary spare, if fitted, is a slow, short-range stopgap, and changing it on a tight permit street is awkward and exposed. The car waits in its Bournbrook bay or on the Selly Park drive while you ring.
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Found it flat in Selly Oak? Leave the car on the street and let the fitter decide.
