I know they are some sort of nail, but I had one in my tire and at the store found a near identical one and now I'm beginning to think my tire guy is playing shell games. I mean, what are the odds?
this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2025
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What is this thing?
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Looks to me like a self tapping screw which had its head broken off / worn down. You probably just picked them both up from the same spot, double check your driveway / lot
Beat me by 52 seconds.
Self tapping screws with the head broken off
My vote is self-tapping sheet metal screw that had the end cut off because it was sticking too far into whatever it was screwed into.
Only the part of the screw that touches the two (or more) pieces of sheet metal actual does anything.
Person should have used a rivet.
Could easily have been stuck in the tire and then ground down on the road.
But the second one wasn't found in a tire. Someone probably cut off a bunch in the same place.
I think they are self drilling screws.
And the top half would break off if it was inserted into a tyre (accidentally or otherwise) and then driven on. Normally that half would be left in the work piece if it snapped from over torque.
The only actually correct answer here. These are not "self tapping" screws. These are indeed the snapped off points of self drilling sheet metal screws, easily identified by the... drill point... built into them.
Seconded. This one truck I was responsible for in the army eons ago had a screw embedded in one of its tores. Maintenance guys told me to leave it and let the tire burst, as extraction would likely damage the tire even more.
It looked like that after a while, with the head completely worn down. The tire wear wasn't sufficient for as long as I was there to push the screw all the way in, so it eventually became someone else's problem.
I only had one in my tire. The other one was on the shop counter.
Stop driving around the counter shop then
A lot of office buildings actually use metal studs, so these screws are used to attach them together. They're a common enough thing that I wouldn't be overly suspicious of anything.
Might be something about the self tapping head that makes them more likely to bite in a tire?? Just speculating there...