Down Pankhabari Road - with a nail in the tyre

4.30 am in Darjeeling is not a pleasant time to wake up - any time of the year. Even if you do manage to do this seemingly impossible task, the sleepy hotel boy will just unlock the main gate and let you out but not give you even a cup of tea, let alone breakfast. You are supposed to have settled the bill the previous night. Otherwise they won't even let you out.

But we had to do precisely that because we were going to drive back to Kolkata and that 700 km stretch is an old highway - not the four-laned golden quadrilateral. So driving time would be easily more than 14 hours (subsequently it took us 17 hours).

Apart from the less congested road a side benefit of waking up early in Darjeeling is you are more or less assured of a view of the majestic Kanchenjungha rising above the cloud.

So here we were - me, my wife and four year old daughter driving down the pleasant hill road of Darjeeling, with Kanchenjungha as the only witness behind us.

We were driving gingerly down the snaking road. The world was perfectly at peace with itself. We even stopped near a stream to wash the car and in fact Monisha was so excited and happy she offered to do the job while my daughter and I happily pointed out all the dirt on the windscreen.

Just before Kurseong I spotted the narrow Pankhabari Road and took the diversion.

Those who don't know - Pankhabari Road is notorious for being narrow, extremely steep with bad surface and quite desolate. Vehicles are known to stop and slide back near those bends, unable to climb up.

But it goes through a beautiful desolate forest and some of the most well known and picturesque tea gardens in the world like Castleton and Makaibari.
Normal drivers avoid this road. In fact the administration has banned up traffic on this road. You can officially only drive down. Private vehicles do take this road because it cuts the distance to Siliguri by some 20 km. I took it because it goes through beautiful country.

Just after the Makaibari Tea Estate, there is a small grocery shop that also sells warm tea. So we stopped. Parked the car by the side of the road and were enjoying the warm tea when a brilliant idea flashed through my mind - let me check the tyre?

The steering was turned to the right and so the back portion of the front left tyre was quite visible outside the wheel arch. I just had a cursory glance at it and "oh my God - what is that shiny little thing stuck there?"


I realised it was the head of a very small nail. The nail was sitting pretty there, almost smiling at me. Neatly stuck. It's really a small nail. The size that street side cobblers use when your sole needs to be kept in place.


My first reaction was "Monisha give me those pliers. Let me pull it out." The pliers came out in a flash and I was about to start work on pulling it out. Suddenly a voice inside me said "don't". I was too scared to even check the pressure. But the tyre obviously didn't look flat.

Those who don't know - Esteems now come with tubeless tyres and I don't have much experience with tubeless tyres except that last time when I discovered a flat I had to junk the tyre and get a new one.


I thought probably the nail was so small that it has not been able to penetrate the rubber completely. I had and still have no clue how thick the rubber was or is in these tyres.

Anyway, I kept on driving and enjoyed the road immensely but with that constant prick of the nail at the back of my mind. After reaching the plains I mastered enough courage to look at the pressure. It was about 28. Perfect for the warm tyres. I checked the pressure once again after some distance and it had not gone down one bit. I was fully convinced that the nail was indeed too small to penetrate.

Finally the day after reaching home I called up the Maruti mechanic (my only guide with cars). He said what's the worry? pull it out and see what happens. So I did.

And hissssssssssssss. All the air came out.

I took out the tubeless repair kit. Smiling. Now is my first chance to use this gadget that I bought the day I took delivery of the car but could never use it. Remembered the advice of the guy who sold it and started to work on making the original hole larger with the needle like thing. It just wouldn't go in. I almost stood on the damn needle in an effort to push it in. It wouldn't budge. So I tried to hammer it in. It was just as useless and the needle started slipping away. I gave up the dream of fixing my own tyre. Certain things are best left to the people who know how to do it, I finally realised.
Later the tyre repair shop owner told me if you see a nail stuck in a tubeless radial let it be there. (Please cross-check this with someone you trust before ever actually doing it.)

By the way - one thing I realised. The lever that comes with the jack from Maruti these days is hopeless. It is so small that it is virtually impossible to use it. It took me close to half an hour to raise the vehicle two inches off the ground. Maruti is taking cost cutting to ridiculous heights.

I used to replace tyres in my 2002 Zen in 15 minutes flat (pun intended). The lever with which you turn the jack used to be much longer, giving you better control.

Anyway. I hope you guys enjoyed reading it and learnt a few things about tubeless tyres. I am glad I listened to the inner voice in that desolate place.

This write up was originally posted for fellow drivers on the forum of www.team-bhp.com .