Building sites around Eastside and Millennium Point shed screws into Birmingham treads, and most of them can be repaired where the car is parked, provided the hole sits in the right place.
Slow punctures are the usual Birmingham version: a tyre a few psi lower each morning outside a Kings Heath terrace, or a pressure warning on the A34 heading through Perry Barr. The culprit is typically a screw or nail driven straight into the tread, collected from site debris on the edge of Digbeth or from grit gathered at the kerb of the Bristol Road. Repairability for a Perry Barr or Kings Heath driver hinges on the position of that hole and its width, never on the age of the car.
BS AU 159 governs the decision. Off comes the wheel, then the tyre from its rim so the fitter can study the liner: a Digbeth screw lodged within the tread's central band, the hole 6 mm across or smaller, earns a patch-plug bonded from within before the tyre goes back on, balanced. Shoulder or sidewall damage, or a liner shredded by a lap of the Middleway while flat, means a new tyre. Give us the size anyway; the price for either outcome is confirmed on the call.
A Moseley or Handsworth kerb, a supermarket car park in Selly Oak or your own space at Aston University will do. Inside the ring road choose a side street or a hotel forecourt; New Street, the bus lanes and the Queensway tunnels are out.
| Main roads | A4540 Middleway; A38(M) Aston Expressway and M6 J6; M42 J3 to J6 |
|---|---|
| Typical arrival | A long run from London: allow 2 to 3 hours |
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Until the fitter reaches you, leave the car on its Selly Oak kerb or drive and resist squirting aerosol foam in, because that goo coats the liner and can stop a BS AU 159 patch bonding. Do not pull the nail or screw out. Note where it sits: close to the edge of the tread, towards the shoulder, points to a new tyre rather than a repair. Find the locking key, and inside the Middleway name the side street or hotel forecourt where the car waits.
Birmingham punctures repaired to BS AU 159 at the car, from Handsworth across to Hall Green.
