Tire Shop on Dbayyeh Maritime road (Not the one I went to)
After I damaged two of my tires on Monday by falling in a pothole on the Dora highway, I remembered an incident that happened to me few months back that I had forgotten to post about.
I was on my way up to Ghazir to meet a friend when a van passed me on the right, hit me and kept going. I felt my right front tire got damaged so I didn’t bother following him but instead headed to the nearest tire shop to have it checked. Once I got there, the guy took out the tire and after inspecting it and cleaning it with water, showed me that it was punctured in 5 different places and that I needed a new one.
Punctures were 3 from the outside and 2 from the inside in the same area. That’s not my tire but just to show you a close up picture
I found it weird that the punctures were in different places and in this specific area (as shown in the picture), so I asked the guy to keep my damaged tire in the trunk and put a used one that’s not so expensive (He wanted to keep my tire). I paid him 20$ and headed to the tire shop I usually go to in Jounieh. After checking the damaged tire for few minutes, my guy “M3allim Zakhia” got pissed and started cursing the other guy so I was like what’s wrong? That’s where he showed me a needle that tire shop owners are using to puncture tires in sensitive areas and force people to buy new or used tires.
Apparently, there are several tire shops on the highway that are using this method and you can’t really see what they are doing because they take the tire inside the shop. So whenever you have a flat tire, I recommend you call your insurance’s tow truck or take it to a trusted tire shop. Fortunately, I was able to fix my 200$ Michelin tire and threw away the used one.
PS: The pothole on the Dora Highway was closed only yesterday.
The van hit you and only damaged your tire or scratched the paint too?
They slightly damaged the front but I was turning right so it might hit the tire.
The question is why would your buddy zakhia have the same needle too?!
Good Question!!
Zakhia AKA CSI Jounieh 😛
It has different uses not just to puncture tires 🙂
Sometimes it’s more convenient to just go to the closest tire shop. What you should do is always keep a constant eye on your tire, if they’re taking it to the back, you ask them why they’re doing that.
I live close to the Adlieh roundabout where you have at least three tire shops. We always had metal screws in the tires in the family, which somehow brings me to the conclusion that someone (probably one of these tire shop owners) was spreading them all around the roundabout (Sami El Solh). I think so because a lot of people cross the roundabout on a daily basis (there’s like five or six ministries or daweyir dawle in the area). We always had these problems, and were sometimes lucky that the screw was not deeply “screwed” in the tire, making it possible to still use the tire and not have to change it. Of course it’s a wild guess, but I cannot dismiss the likelihood of it happening…
Its not just on the highway Najib ,it happened 2 me 2 but didnt get scammed