Rft - Inner Ring Damaged - How?, Run Flat Tyres - Damage to inner ring Options

[KathyP]

I have just encountered my first puncture in 34 years of driving! Typically, it had to be on a Run Flat Tyre on my Rav4 T180 Called RAC, they found a nail and removed it and plugged the hole and reinflated, then followed me to my nearest Toyota dealer that deals with RFTs (43 miles away from my home) - Toyotaworld in Newport, Gwent (very good service by the way). They have an arrangement with a local garage to repair or replace RFT's on their behalf, so duly someone arrived to take my car away. Then the phone call came that the tyre was repairable (good news), but the ring was damaged and needed to be replaced (not so good news).

My question is how does the ring get damaged? The nail that was removed from the tyre was about 1cm long - surely that could not have caused the damage? If the tyres are designed to allow you to drive for 50 miles at low pressure, how can it get damaged when I drove not quite that far, but with the tyre inflated (it had not gone down at all by the time we arrived at the dealer). I want to know, in case this happens again, to know what I should, or should not do.

I know there is loads of stuff on the forums about RFT's and I have been dreading the time that I had to get one or more tyres replaced, or repaired. I am even more unhappy now that I know that the nearest place for me to get these done is 43 miles away.