Remyngton

I noticed today that I had a screw in my tire. I took it to Mazda and the looked at it, pulled it out and said that it didn't puncture through and the tire was fine. He did however, say that once a Z rated tire has had a screw/nail in it, it is no longer Z rated. I didn't know if he meant punctured all the way through, or any type of screw in the tread. Does anyone know the full story on that? Is my tire safe at high speed?

RX26b

To my knowledge, the puncture would have had to gone through, and subsequently been repaired (patched, plug & patch) in order for the speed rating to drop one notch (i.e. a Z-rated down to a V).

FWIW, I had a nail in one of my rear tires that was patched and have since driven over 120 3 or 4 times and countless times over 90. Don't know if you're asking about really high speeds (140 or 150, in this car) or just in the neighborhood of 100.

Remyngton

Thanks for the reply. I was mainly talking about speeds above 100. I'd like to have peace of mind at any speed though, even though I'm sure I won't go much faster than 100. I had my last 8 to 144, but that was just to find out where it topped out at.