Hi guys,
As you know, it's almost 1:30am in the morning (EST). I just came home from Southern NJ I got a flat tire earlier tonight.... around 10:30pm, without a spare tire Since a friend of mine had a flat about a month ago and had borrowed the spare.... I was stuck on the side of the road. Luckily, a nice person pulled over and offered to help me. Since neither of us has a spare tire, he went and bought a thing called "Fix a tire".

I've never hard of it, but it's where you spray the entire can into the tire stem and supposely it fixed the tire! I was able to get going without any further trouble. On the way home, I stopped to get some gas... and there was an overnight shift mechanic there. So I asked him if he could plug the tire, but when he took off the tire... he couldn't find any leakage... he looked for about 5 minutes and finally gave up. I mentioned to him someone who helped me earlier had put a bottle of "fix a tire" in it. The mechanic said that's why there's no leakage.... but since he's never used that kind of material... he doesn't know how well it'll hold.

Now the tire isn't leaking any air, probably the magical can coated the hole. There was no nails to be found on the tire, so I assumed the nail punctured in and out on the road. (Prior putting that stuff in the tire, it would deflate completely in about 3 minutes... but now it's perfectly fine.

My question to you guys is.... has any of you used it before? If so, is it only a temp thing and how long does it last before it starts to leak again...?

I want to get a brand new tire, but I want to ask for your opinions first.


Please help!
thanks!

 

yes its only temporary....they have other versions of this stuff....where you can spray the exterior of the tire and it will get u to the nearest gas station or tire replacement station...i would NOT use this as a daily driver...and would get the tire replaced ASAP.....but depending on ur tire wear...you might want to replace both sets of tires im not sure where ur flat was...but id replace the whole row if i were you...if ur tires are almost done anyways....but what this thing does is it sprays a coating of solution that plugs up the hole from the inside...leaving like a lining that is very thin...if u go over a bump...you can puncture it again and possibly risk injury to yourself....

hope this helps....

 

I had one experience with fix a flat in my GFs jeep. Sure it worked ok and got us out of logan airport with 10 degree temps in february, but later the tire guy said that since the product was used he could not patch the tire. I was not there and the tire was worn enough to warrant replacing it.

If you get a flat always have it looked at and checked to see if it can be properly patched. If not replace it...

 

it is temporary.
get to a facility that can repair (or replace) your tire.

pls be sure and tell the tire people what u used. some of these older "fix-a-flat" aerosols contained flammable propellants (butane/propane), and can cause severe injury to the tire repair person.

these cans work by sealing the puncture from the inside, so it will be very hard to find a puncture w/out removing the tire from the rim and inspecting it.

 

Ok, it was a MONTH and you did not get around to getting your spare tire back???

I carry fix a flat in all my vehicles, sometimes it will get you going fast under
bad situations.
It might be worth the price of a new tire...

I once had a car that had it in 3 tires for years, so it can work for a long time,
but its not a good idea.
The propellant is propane or something like that, which is a risk to the
people who fix the tire. It also makes a huge mess inside the wheel.
You can clean it up I suspect, but you would likely have to pay extra for someone
to do so.

Another problem is the propelant is not temp stable, in the winter, often the stuff
wont come out of the can, and in a tire, you would have very low pressure in a
cold tire, and could have VERY high pressure in a hot tire.


Brett

 

Thank you all very much for the replies
Well, I created this thread around 1:30am this morning before I went to sleep, by this morning... the tired had already gone flat. Apparantly the "fix-a-tire" can only works temporary.... so I had the tire plugged by a friend Hopefully that will work for awhile, if not, I'll replace the tire entirely.

thanks again!!

 

So this fix a flat thing expands the inside of the tire by itself? how does it know the PSI?