Saturday, January 18, 2014

Emergency Tire Repair

After going through a terrible freeze-thaw cycle the roads in Toronto were more dangerous than a 1980's Afghan minefield being completely and utterly littered with potholes. Now hopefully this does not give you the impression that Toronto's streets are normally smooth and a joy to drive on but this instance was truly an exception. Needless to say I accidentally ventured into one of these cavernous pits of doom resulting in a rather flat tire. Here are some takeaways from my adventure.

1) Fix-A-Flat (Spare in a can?) - A can of fix flat could be a good quick fix if you don't live in Canada and its not -20 Celsius outside. Given the fact that the can is most likely to be in the trunk - don't count on it working if its cold outside. In fact the can was so cold that fluid and gas were not even coming out, only after an evening of being inside my house was it working properly. Also consider if you have a burst sidewall or

2) Run-flats Don't Equal Immunity - Don't think you are immune from flat tire woes if you are running run flats. Yes with ultra rigid sidewalls I may have not had a sidewall burst but where would all of that energy gone? Most likely I could have ended up with significant damage to the suspension components.

3) BMW Road Side Assistance. I was fortunate enough to get my flat close to a public parking lot where I parked my car and came back later with a proper jack, tools and a fresh tire. But had it been somewhere more remote the annual price of this service, which surprising not a lot of owners know that BMW offers is pretty cheap at the price.

4) Must Have Tools - If you are an urbanite and lucky enough to be able to pull into a parking lot or somewhere you can leave your car safely for a couple of hours feel free to cut the middleman (tow truck and the like) out of the equation by having a very basic set of tools at home.
  • Jack
  • Breaker bar
  • Jack pad adapter
  • Appropriate socket for your make of car
  • OPTIONAL but a huge help especially if you are doing the job solo - a wheel hanging tool





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