Good morning all.

I did a qucik search and found a lot about removing the spare but not too much on anyone's real world experience with the canned fix a flat.

I am thinking about removing my spare. I figure it's no good on the back tires anyway and it' not particularly easy to get at. it's also adding weight and god knows my chubby hawaiian butt isn't helping the "lightweight" nature of the car so why not cut where it's easiest. Should I have a bad blow out, i'll call AAA and have them flat bed the car.

that being said, i would feel a little more comfortable with something in the car. You know, just in case.

watching motor trend tv the other night i thought about the fix a flat spray cans.

has anyone used this product or one like it? any thoughts? any negatives?

all insight/opinions welcome.

 

The tire you use it in will be ruined, so it's a desperation-only solution. I've been running without a spare since I got my car in November, but I signed up for AAA the day I removed the spare (which is pretty useless anyway).

For peace of mind, I have the Smartire monitor, which monitors tire pressure and temperature and warns of impending problems. It provides peace of mind, for sure. I check the pressures while I'm driving whenever I want to. I've discovered that pressures are amazingly stable.

 

I used a can of fix-a-flat on a left front tire of a Nissan 1982 280ZX. I had a slow leak and it happened to go flat when I was parked. Yes, it did get me on the road but ... .

I never took the tire in to a service station for a "real" repair (plug) since the leak stopped. About three weeks later I'm driving on the highway around 70 MPH and I come up on a Porche 928 and I accelerate to get a better look. The driver must've spotted me in his right side mirror because he suddenly takes off like he's offended by me coming up on his right. Well, I was younger and stupid(er) so I tried keeping up with him. As he disappeared down the road, going at least 150, I think my speedo pegged at the 120-ish marker limit just about the time that left front tire blew out. It made for an interesting few seconds while I got to the side of the road. The tire was totally shredded but the wheel mostly survived. Later, the guy at the tire store gave me a dirty look and charged me extra after he noticed all the fix-a-flat spray gunk all over the wheel.

 

I carry a portable air compressor that plugs into the lighter socket. Haven't removed the spare yet. Figure I might need it at the track one day if I mess up one of my wheels.

 

I run with the (almost useless) spare for now. But I take it out for track time.

The real issue with sprays like this is that hey create an unholy mess inside the tire and that stuff is NASTY! I agree with Rick, they should ONLY be used in desperation.

 

thanks for the input so far.

i would only use the spray stuff in a desperate situation. AAA gets (and has for the last 13 years) a nice chunk of $ from me every year and I never use their services so I'll have no qualms about having them flat bed my car.

any other thoughts.

Rick-

i've never heard of Smarttire. can you elaborate a little? Is there a web page or someplace you can refer me to so I can check it out?

thanks everyone.

 

Here's some info and a review from Tire Rack:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/pre...uremonitors.jsp

Ted

 

much mahalos Ted. (many thanks for those of you who haven't visited Hawaii)

 

I had an interesting experience with a spray can when I was travelling round the world by motorcycle in the late '70s. I was on a corrugated sand/gravel road crossing the border between Niger and Nigeria after coming south down through the Sahara.

I had my first flat after 18 months on the road in the middle of no mans land (exited the last town in Niger and the Nigeria border town was about 3 miles down the road). I started to notice the back of the bike weaving, first gently, then violently - a sure sign of a punctured tyre.

I stopped the bike and there was no one round for miles - just this old tribesman about 150 yards away. He arrived on the scene and started gesticulating wildly at the bike trying to help me. In my best "superior white hunter" style I brushed him off and thought, " no worries mate" here is my opportunity to show these primitives a thing or two about modern technology

I rummaged in my luggage and pulled out this can of type repair (it was called zsshh if I recall correctly) . After checking for the cause of the problem (I pulled out a rather large nail ) I applied the can to the valve and up went the tyre much to our tribesman's amazement.

At this point I figured I was pretty cool so I packed everything up, hopped on the bike, started up, waved goodbye and proceeded off down the road to Nigeria. Well I got about a mile and a half down the road before the back end of the bike started dancing round on me again. I pulled over and there was my rear tyre again flat as a pancake.

I had no choice but to push the motorcycle the rest of the way to the border town. Well the fact that this was the southern sahara, 90 degree + heat under a blazing sun in the middle of the day didn't help but the embarassing part was that the tribesman slowly caught up with me.

He kindly helped push the bike to the border time for me but boy was I embarrassed and eating a fairly large slice of humble pie

The aftermath was that the puncture was fixed for me but the tube was totally ruined (tubeless motorcycle tyres didn't exist in those days) from all the crap swimming around inside it. Fortunately I had a spare tube with me (but no pump) and the local tyre repairer used this to get me going.

The morale of this story - don't look down on those who you may need help from later - and those cans are a waste of money!

 

Da Hapa,

Here's the Smartire site:

http://www.smartire.com/fl/na/products/

Basically, sensors go in the wheels. They tramsit a radio signal to a receiver/monitor in the car, which provides read-outs of the pressures and temps in each tire. You can set the system to provide visual and audio alarms when the pressures fall below a certain level. It's about $300 from the Tirerack. I think it's a great investment.