Flat Tire

C

claydoctor

New member
If you have not familiarized yourself with how the spare tire and jack system works, you might take the time to do so or you may repeat my experience. I have a 2006 Sport with 4500 miles on it. Last week my wife and I left for a 2 day vacation. A half hour into the trip, on one of the busiest sections of I-95 North/South, as it went through a busy metropolitan area, I picked up a nail and blew the driver's side rear tire. Interestingly, I never felt anything in the steering wheel or the seat of my pants, just this noise getting louder and louder.
I pull over and the shoulder is about 10 feet wide between the guard rail and the right hand lane. On the other side of the guard rail is a snow covered ravine and then an 8 ft high fence. So I'm looking at this flat tire which is only 5-6 feet away from cars coming by at 70 MPH or better. Did I mention it was about 35 degrees. My mind is racing, the nearest exit is a mile away. I called my insurance company, as I thought I remembered, they had 24 hour roadside assistance and start listening to the voice prompts, I get to the one about "if you are in a dangerous area or need the police, press 1" I do that and then I'm on hold for a good 5-10 minutes because of "an unusually heavy call volume" so much for being in a dangerous area. I remember Dangerfield's line, "I don't get no respect. I called suicide prevention and they put me on hold". So anyhow, they say they will send a tow truck to change the tire. It will arrive "within an hour". I might have thought about changing it myself had the tire been on the inboard side but no way I'm gonna grapple with that thing 6 feet from 70 MPH traffic. It took 45 minutes for help to come during which time I read the manual about how to assemble all the gear to winch down the spare. It's not rocket science but it's not the kinda thing you want to learn about under stress. You have to aasemble all the rods a certain way to form a handle to get at the spare. The pictures in the owner's manual are of marginal help. I still don't know how to get the jack out.
So if you've never done it before, you might want to do a dry run when you're not dealing with a nervous wife and you don't have in the back of your mind how many troopers have been killed when someone plowed into the back of their patrol car stopped on the shoulder- and they had flashing blue lights! I also now have my insurance company's emergency number on my dashboard. Merry Christmas.
 
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Hey great advice. It was one of the first things i did when i bought my 05. It is interesting enough that many people do not familiarize themselves with how their spare works. I know everybody thinks it won't happen to them, they have a new car and it only happens to old worn tires. Well here you go, a nail or sharp object does not care what drives over it, yugo, volvo, t4r, presidents motor cade ( i think he has run flats), a tire is just a tire and all are prone to flats. Now if you do get a flat....
think about safety, as claydoctor did. Do not try to change it if it is unsafe, do not pull into the median if you can help it, and do not get the whole family out of the car to stare at a flat tire. Everyone is usually best left in the car, seat belts on or high up on the right shoulder well away from traffic. Sorry for my speech i just get tired of picking up the pieces of a bad crash when safe thinking would have avoided it. Ok i am done now.
 
I am glad you and your wife didn't get hurt. I remember being stuck in the right lane of Route 9 and I was scared watching the cars fly by me. I thought changing a tire on the 4Runner was not too difficult until my tire pressure light went on and I had to fill the spare tire with air. That is definitely not something I would want to be faced with in the middle of a busy road. It took me quite a while to lower the tire and I didn't go through the trouble of unhooking it!

Why do these things have to happen at the most inconvenient and frustrating time? :confused:
 
Mark's post reminded me of something. How do the low tire pressure sensors work? I never saw the thing until I got the car stopped but I'm trying to figure it out. We put the spare on and i continue on my trip. The dash light is still on. I'm thinking, OK it's still on because the blown tire is in the back cargo area and it somehow senses that tire is flat. The next day I dropped it off to be plugged. Now I have 4 tires on the ground all normal pressure, no spare and the light is still on. Turns out my tire was destroyed so they mount a new one which I put back on the car and return the spare to it's original position under the cargo area. I go to drive off and notice the low tire pressure light is now off. As the punch line of the old joke goes, "how do it know?"
 
All the tires have a TPMS so your truck new there was a missing sensor and kept the light on. When your truck got its spare back, everything was roses.

The jack is held in because it is slightly extended, wedging itself into the compartment. If you compress the jack slightly by turning the knob then it will compress itself enough so that you can wiggle it out of its compartment.
 
Thanks for the heads up on how the sensors work. I sorta figured that's how the jack probably was removed but didn't have anything handy with which to turn the knob.
 
Everyone should check the rod assembly to lower the spare before you actually need it. It's painted with the screws in place and can be frozen. You need a screwdriver to break it free.

There is a TPS in each of the 5 wheels. When one is low, you get the TPMS light on your dash. Once all 5 sensors are back to regular pressures, the light will go off.

When you have a tire changed, make sure the guy changing the tire knows the sensor is there (attached to the inside of the valve stem) or he might break it and getting it replaced is a major PITA. Each sensor has a serial number that is programmed into the DME and can only be done at the dealer.
 
claydoctor said:
If you have not familiarized yourself with how the spare tire and jack system works, you might take the time to do so or you may repeat my experience. I have a 2006 Sport with 4500 miles on it. Last week my wife and I left for a 2 day vacation. A half hour into the trip, on one of the busiest sections of I-95 North/South, as it went through a busy metropolitan area, I picked up a nail and blew the driver's side rear tire. Interestingly, I never felt anything in the steering wheel or the seat of my pants, just this noise getting louder and louder.
I pull over and the shoulder is about 10 feet wide between the guard rail and the right hand lane. On the other side of the guard rail is a snow covered ravine and then an 8 ft high fence. So I'm looking at this flat tire which is only 5-6 feet away from cars coming by at 70 MPH or better. Did I mention it was about 35 degrees. My mind is racing, the nearest exit is a mile away. I called my insurance company, as I thought I remembered, they had 24 hour roadside assistance and start listening to the voice prompts, I get to the one about "if you are in a dangerous area or need the police, press 1" I do that and then I'm on hold for a good 5-10 minutes because of "an unusually heavy call volume" so much for being in a dangerous area. I remember Dangerfield's line, "I don't get no respect. I called suicide prevention and they put me on hold". So anyhow, they say they will send a tow truck to change the tire. It will arrive "within an hour". I might have thought about changing it myself had the tire been on the inboard side but no way I'm gonna grapple with that thing 6 feet from 70 MPH traffic. It took 45 minutes for help to come during which time I read the manual about how to assemble all the gear to winch down the spare. It's not rocket science but it's not the kinda thing you want to learn about under stress. You have to aasemble all the rods a certain way to form a handle to get at the spare. The pictures in the owner's manual are of marginal help. I still don't know how to get the jack out.
So if you've never done it before, you might want to do a dry run when you're not dealing with a nervous wife and you don't have in the back of your mind how many troopers have been killed when someone plowed into the back of their patrol car stopped on the shoulder- and they had flashing blue lights! I also now have my insurance company's emergency number on my dashboard. Merry Christmas.
Click to expand...


This reminds me. Anyone know if you can purchase run flats for the 4runner? They are a God send on my Sienna...
 
I guess run-flats are the wave of the future but my brother who is into Corvettes and Vipers says his tire dealer refuses to mess with them, too much hassle.
 
I'm sure they will add a non-functioning side wall for marketing purposes. Then again, you may see advertisements while that tire spins...
 
Runflats are a real PITA to work on since the sidewalls are extremely stiff making it that much harder to get off a rim. Most places will charge extra for working on runflats.

The Tweel has been around for a couple of years. The problem I see with it is that it requires special wheels to mount on and the open sidewalls can trap debris which would cause wheel balance issues.
 
Everyone should show their kids, wives and significant others how to change a tire on the vehicles they drive. My kids think I'm a little retentive on things like this but their friends have been amazed that they've been able to take care of flats and other car stoppers that a with a little knowledge keeps you going. They have got more than a few of thier friends going and embarrased a few young men along the way. Teaching them where to safely pull over with trouble is part of it too. A drivers side flat can be very dangerous because of traffic. Pulling off the road to the shoulder can be dangerous at anytime visisbility is impaired. The smart way to handle it is the safe way. Make sure your brood has the tools and knowledge to be as safe as they can.
 
I would not just learn how to put the rod together to lower the spare, I would also recommend that you actually lower the spare tire because the rod does not go straight into the hole in the back. There is a slight angle needed to make it work and it took a couple of tries to get it right. Not something to deal with and learn on a road somewhere when you got enough things going on.

Also lock up those spares, my buddies was stolen a couple of months ago on his 2003.
 
Talk about a PITA tire. When visiting Bobby at his shop we were talking to a service rep for Bobby's new tire machine (amazing machine). He told us about his experience with the new Michelin "PAX" tire system on the Honda Odyssey. How about a tire system that uses special rims, can only be repaired by an authorized mechanic, on a special machine that only the stealer has. They don't even have snow tires available for this system. Talk about STUPID!
 

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while we are on this spare tire change topic:

1. where do i position the jack to lift the vehicle - for left front, right front, left rear, right rear? this info should be in user's manual, right?

2. i think there're specs how much/tight the nuts should be placed on - in terms of torques. for most of the tire DIY work, hand tight is good?
 
i forgot where but i've actually read some sienna owners dislike the run flat arrangement - i thought toyota used run flat on AWD Sienna because the AWD system took the room that would have been used by a spare. many'd rather have a full sz spare than using run flats.
 
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