The head of a nail sits dead centre in the tread and the answer is still no. That happens often enough to be worth explaining, because from outside it looks like the easiest repair in the world. What you can see is where the object went in. What decides the job is where it stopped, and something that entered the middle can be lying under the belt edge or poking into the shoulder an inch away from its own head.
An object travels because it almost never enters straight. Something lying flat gets picked up and driven in at whatever angle the tyre met it, and the rotation drags it further over as it goes. Once the tyre is off the rim the whole path is visible from inside: entry, direction and exit. That is when anybody can honestly tell you whether this is a repair or a purchase. It works the other way too. Punctures that look marginal from outside have often angled inwards and sit comfortably in the repairable band.
Screws and nails collect where traffic slows and stops, which in W3 usually means Uxbridge Road and the parking around South Acton. Pick one up and the only real question is whether it can be repaired. Where the puncture is in the tread area and the casing is undamaged, BS AU 159 allows a proper internal repair, and that is the quick and affordable answer: wheel off, tyre off the rim, damage checked from inside, mushroom plug fitted, wheel rebalanced, pressure reset. Where it is not repairable, and sidewall damage never is, you get told plainly and a replacement goes on from the van. All of it happens at the kerb, so the tyre travels no further than it already has.
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The estates around North Acton and Park Royal put a steady supply of screws, tacks and offcuts under the wheels of anything parked nearby, and objects lying flat like that are exactly the ones that go in at an angle. We take the wheel off wherever the car is and read the path from the inside before saying a word about repairing it.
A screw in a car parked near North Acton looked ideal for a quick job. Inside, the shank had run sideways and come out under the shoulder, which puts the damage in the part of the casing that flexes hardest. It was replaced, and both ends of the hole were shown.
A driver off the Uxbridge Road expected the worst from a nail near the tread edge. It had gone in at a steep angle towards the middle and finished well inside the repairable band. Sealed from the inside, rebalanced, back on the same afternoon.
A tyre losing air with nothing in it at all. Something had gone in on an estate road near Park Royal, worked through the rubber and dropped out again. The path it left ran at an angle, and that path told us whether it could be sealed.
Because the head is only the entry. Inside, that nail had travelled far enough sideways to leave the repairable band, and a patch near the shoulder lifts as the tyre flexes. You are welcome to look at the casing with the object still in it.
Not honestly. From outside you can see a head and guess a direction, and the guess is wrong often enough to matter in both directions. Getting the tyre off the rim takes a few minutes at the kerb and is the only way anybody gets a real answer.
It affects whether the repair should happen at all. Once an injury qualifies, a properly sealed one lasts as long as the tyre does, whatever line it took through the rubber. What shortens a repair is a hole that was never suitable in the first place.
It matters a great deal. While the object is still in place the tyre often holds most of its air and the damage stays where it began. Once the pressure has gone, the sides of the hole work against each other and the injury enlarges.
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