Flat tire today on the way to work

[lcbjr77]

What a way to start the morning

Heard a weird noise going around a bend, said to my self "that must be the car in front of me", came to a traffic light. Green light, I take off and the truck is sluggish..."What the heck"... I pull over and my drivers rear tire is totally flat, thank god I just drove through the intersection before noticing. I called the local PD and asked if a cruiser could sit behind me while I attempted to change the tire on a fairly busy road (didn't want to become road kill). I started dropping the spare and getting all my tools together...Officer showed up and I got started, was like the pits at Indy, changed in like 5 mins. I had no clue where the puncture was and the officer pointed out I had a good size piece of metal in the inside sidewall (BOOO!!!!) I stopped at the dealership where I bought my 4Runner and the guy who I bought it from said the tire is shot because of the puncture was in the side wall, tires are only 3 months old so hopefully I wont have to fork out all the $$$ for a new one.

Good thing all new owners should do is get familiar with the tools and how to drop the spare, I had a Chevy TB prior to the 4R and the procedure for the spare was pretty much the same, problem I had one time with the TB was I never had to use the spare and the one time I needed it the mechanism to raise/lower the spare was frozen. Really sucked and ended up cutting off the old one.

All in all no one was hurt or too dirty... I was only 30 mins late to work

 

[ARunner]

Flats suck. Glad you didn't have any trouble with the change. As bad as it sucks to have to buy a new tire, the good news was it happened while they're all fresh. Would be really sucky to have 3 half worn tires and one new one. If it's truly in the sidewall there is no good repair. If it's in the tread but "close" to the sidewall you could possibly still patch or plug it. Might be worth a second opinion unless it's obvious that it was the sideall that was punctured. Just noticed you have an 07. Did the TPMS sensors not alert you to the fact you had a flat?

 

[lcbjr77]

Flats suck. Glad you didn't have any trouble with the change. As bad as it sucks to have to buy a new tire, the good news was it happened while they're all fresh. Would be really sucky to have 3 half worn tires and one new one. If it's truly in the sidewall there is no good repair. If it's in the tread but "close" to the sidewall you could possibly still patch or plug it. Might be worth a second opinion unless it's obvious that it was the sideall that was punctured. Just noticed you have an 07. Did the TPMS sensors not alert you to the fact you had a flat?

It happened so quick I had no time to even look, the light is on now that I have the spare on. At least its an original rim/ full size tire and no donut.

 

[m85476585]

TPMS only reads every few minutes, so the light might not have been on yet. the spare should have a TPMS sensor, too, but the computer expects all 5 sensors to read normal pressure, so if one is still flat you'll get a light until it's fixed.

Some places like Tire Rack include free road hazard coverage for some time, so check if you have that. Discount Tire sells "certificates" for road hazard coverage. It's about $25 a tire on $200 tires, but that's $100 total. I'd say there's less than a 50% chance you'll have to replace one tire in a set, so in the long run you'll come out ahead not paying for the extra coverage. You just had bad luck with this set.

 

[wnelax04sr5]

where'd it happen in CT? theres a few places i can think of where i would absolutely want an officer behind me lol

 

[lcbjr77]

It was in Plainville on Rt177, wasn't crazy busy being a Saturday morning but it was the drivers side so I was hanging out in the road pretty good while doing my thing.

where'd it happen in CT? theres a few places i can think of where i would absolutely want an officer behind me lol

 

[ben550]

You should be proud you are one of the few who can and actually does change their own tire... good on you.

 

[Sungod]

I call BS. Those things never happen unless it is pouring down rain or -5 degrees. At least for me anyway.

 

[lcbjr77]

LOL, that's how I felt trying to change the tire on my old Trailblazer only to find out the spare tire mechanism was seized and wouldn't drop the spare...UGH!!!

I call BS. Those things never happen unless it is pouring down rain or -5 degrees. At least for me anyway.