Ambient temperatures, elevation, and just time can all cause a tire to lose or gain pressure, and when it does so, it can harm your fuel economy, handling, and performance. Use it to check the pressure of your tires once a month, and adjust them to factory-recommended settings if they’re off. And that capability makes it a unique tool in your arsenal-one that can come in handy for even complicated repairs where it’s not safe to to try and remove a wheel or where gaining the ability to roll the car a few hundred yards can make the situation much safer (think: a steep slope off-road or the side of a busy highway, with trucks rushing past just feet away).Įveryone should also carry a quality tire-pressure gauge. Fix-a-Flat includes both a sealant and compressed air in a single can, allowing you to take care of the kind of small punctures caused by a screw or nail without even removing the wheel. I also stick a can of Fix-a-Flat in every car my family owns, plus those of most of my friends. It plugs into your cigarette lighter (or 12-volt outlet), so you don’t even need to open your hood. You don’t want to rely on something like this if you’re regularly inflating oversize off-road tires, but that’s a story for another time. If all you need is an emergency option, one of these $23 Slime compressors is perfect. That’s what you’ll use to reinflate your tire after you fix the puncture, or how you’ll air back up to road pressures if you’re airing down for off-road driving. Like other kits, it includes rope plugs and the tools you need to install them, but this one goes above and beyond by including items like needle-nose pliers, spare valve cores, and a folding razor blade. The best tire-repair kit I’ve found is made by Boulder Tools and costs $38. There’s really no excuse for not carrying this stuff in your car or truck. And they’re hundreds of dollars cheaper than calling for a tow.

The tools you should have to fix a flat tire yourself don’t cost much more than getting a tire plugged at a tire shop. And man, that’s going to cause a big problem if you’re not prepared or if it happens somewhere you can’t easily call for help. You should avoid using a space saver on a dirt road or trail if at all possible.Īnd even if you have a full-size spare with a matching tire and wheel, it’s still possible to puncture more than one tire at a time. Space savers, or donuts, are only designed to get you a very short distance at very low speeds-across town to the tire shop, basically. It’s become less and less common for new vehicles to come equipped with a full-size spare tire.

Flat tire fix