Anyone have experience with tire repair kit?

Our son had a complete flat today; tire was concaved at the contact with the road. It was a nail, looked like a concrete ram-set nail, and it went in at a shallow angle. Was a real fight coaxing the plug in, but got there, it held.

Aired it up with a bicycle pump.

 

Sometimes, if you're in city limits, just pumping it up will give you enough range to get to the Tyre Service Centre - I've done that a few times.

 

How often does a tire sitting in the driveway that goes flat lose the bead? In my experience it must not happen very often. I've pulled cars out of barns and fields with flat, rotted tires that had lost their air long ago and been able to reinflate them without issue. But if you were really desperate you could always use a bit of starter fluid to seat the bead. Or a simple ratchet strap and your low volume 12v compressor, or since this is in your driveway just reseat it with your shop compressor. But if you didn't want to do any of that, your Toyota came with free roadside assistance and if you have full coverage your insurance is probably also providing you with roadside assistance so call either one and let them do it for you.

 

Like the ideas except the starter fluid one puzzled me--my starter fluid is a can of pressurized ether, and I am extremely cautious using it as ether is a highly flammable gas. I would be reluctant to try to inflate a tire with it for fear of explosion.
If bead is off the rim, I would also suggest jacking up the tire before trying to air it up with a high capacity air source. In my experience that has worked to pop the bead back into contact with the edge of the rim.

 

The "explosion" is exactly what you want. First video I found, but there are tons out there if you want to see it filmed better.

 

I forgot to mention:
4. Pressure sensor may need to be replaced. No idea how expensive it is.

 

In the UK the new gunge canister is about £50 GBP and the TPMS sensors are £75 GBP. A new Toyo Nanoenergy 215/45 R17 tyre is only £70. It's cheaper to damage the tyre than use the gunk.

 

I've had tire plugs last the life of the tire.

 

Yeah my oldest repair was in Nov 2012, over 30,000 kms back. Tires still in use.

 

The last few flats I've had, which were on my VW Golf with Continental tires, btw, the holes were too close to the sidewall for the tire shop to do a repair. The last one, it was actually in the flat part close to the curvature but they say is wasn't enough room around it for a patch, so they wouldn't do the repair. Do plugs work in this situation? If so, I'll have to get some.

I recently built a custom home in the mountains and there have been a lot of nails and screws on the property, I suppose. Still, that Golf TDi got more flats than any other car I've owned.

 

That's precisely why I got a kit. The punctures I've got were invariably about an inch from the tread edge. With the first one, I took it into the dealership, but they said they couldn't too close to the edge. They're probably right: the interior patch has a disc, and it's diameter would run it into the curve. But simple plug repair can get closer.

 

You can use plugs but.....

They'd probably work, but it's not a sure thing which is probably why they won't repair it. If it doesn't hold up they don't want any chance of being liable. Technically plugs (or anything else) should not be used on the sidewall or shoulder, instead the tire should be replaced, which in most situations also means replacing the other three as well. I've had plugs hold in sidewalls and shoulders just fine, if they fail your tire will go flat, but I suppose there's a possibility that if it fails the tire may fail before you have time to notice or react, then you end up like the minivan above.

For me, I'll stick a plug in any hole but primarily I'm try to just get home or to the shop. Then I let those guys with more experience judge my work and give me their opinion. I'm not sure how tight the budget would have to be before I wouldn't replace a tire that they told me needed it. My buddy ran for a summer with multiple plugs in a sidewall, he had no trouble but IMO he was taking an unnecessary risk.

 

I did not mentioned about re-balance the wheel because it is not directly related to repair kit usage - every wheel needs it.
However I have a question on how this wheels with aerodynamic plastic covers should be balanced - with or without cover.
IMO it must be done with cover - am I correct?

 

For a Prius you're incorrect, it does not have to be. The hubcap is centered and balanced (or close enough) so it won't impact your tire's balance enough to be noticeable. Old wire wheel hubcaps though, they are heavy and out of balance so the balancing of the tire should be done with that cap on.

Off the topic even more.... has anyone done mileage runs to see how much remove the hubcaps would cost in terms of MPG? I think I'd prefer to just have the alloys out and maybe make my own center cap but I bought this car to save gas. Anything that takes away from that gas savings I've been reluctant to do.

 

I don't think the wheel covers make any difference to a wheel's balance, too lightweight. Lots of owners take their wheel covers off, sure that's all they do. Same thing for a plug repair, if you were thinking about that.

 

I came across alanclarkeau post in other part of this forum:

<<My current car came with this - till the dealer explained it to me - then I bought the optional mini-spare wheel.
I can't remember the price of a replacement canister ($25??), but then he said that once it us used, generally the tire must be replaced, even if it would normally have been plugged. The LATEX sealant can't generally be easily removed by the tire guys. Similarly, the repair isn't going to work at all if the damage to the tire is more than a small plug-able puncture.>>

For the first 3 years I'd use road assistance and not this dangerous repair kit

 

What is road assistance going to do? A tow?

 

Strange I thought I had replied to that comment as I remember seeing it before. Oh well...

Unless Toyota is doing something differently than Dodge, which I doubt, it's a non-issue. I think I posted in this thread about having a tire go flat in the SRT, using the air compressor and goop Dodge provides, and then driving 600 miles to Denver. Discount Tire cleaned the tire out at $0 cost, TPMS was not affected, everything was just fine. Whomever told alanclarkeau that is either very misinformed or straight lied.

 

I think that your solution and cost in Denver may not reflect accurately what is available in other parts of the country/world, and that is the point people are trying to make with respect to your experience.