How long can you drive on a low/flat tire?

On a lower profile tire one rotation flat and I'd toss it. Cheap insurance and not worth the uncertainty. From a purely technical point of view, your description makes me think that the tire is significantly compromised. Toss it.

 

I used to work at a service station, doing this kind of thing all day... thanks for reminding me of how much i hated that job....

On the other hand; In all honesty you have to pull the tire off the wheel, as it depends an how much is chewed up on the inside of the tire. DO NOT drive on the tire while it still has a nail in it, as it will chew up your side walls. Put your spare on. Since you had to refill it twice while you were driving home it is probably chewed up pretty bad already but you might get lucky be able to still use it even as a spare for the very least.

 

It's junk, get a new tire. When you take the old one off, you will see the damage to the inside of the sidewall.

The tire is expensive? I don't think so, lets say it blows out, totals the car and kills you, well you did save $300. I don't skimp on tires. They are one of the main factors that allow you to have control over the car.

Having come from a racing background where you go through a couple of sets of tires in a weekend, I am always surprised when people don't want to replace tires. They will have a $400k car with 15 year old tires, and are reluctant to change them because there is still tread on them!

 

+1, replace your tyre.

This happened a while ago to my brother when he was driving, only thing was is the he didn't notice the tyre was flat and continued to drive until the rim wore through the sidewall of his tyre and fly out in front of the car, he said the tyre was that symetrical that went it flew off ahead of his car he thought the whole rim had fallen off his hub until he braked and got out to inspect, he said the beads didn't even break off his rim too just the treaded part of the tyre wore off exposing the inside of his rim with the side walls still attached, how crazy was that

 

Agree with the others. Tire is trash now. Sidewall damage has likely already occurred and the fact that the tire was hot is evidence that you drove on it completely flat. Chances are likely that, when you dismount the tire, the inside rubber casing has begun to disintegrate (the hot steel belts and the rubber starting to flake away/delaminate from those hot belts.) Think of it this way: Would you trust that tire again if you were driving at triple digit speeds? The $200-$250 you spend for a new tire is cheap insurance for your life.

Bob

 

If there is evidence of damage can you post some pics of the inside sidewall when you get it replaced Greg?