a small nail punctured one of my rear tire in between the treads . is it possible to fix this with fix-a-flat ? the nail looks like it only went in about maybe a cm . is that deep enough to flatten the tire ?

 

You can't fix a tire with fix-a-flat. The purpose of fix-a-flat is to let you get where you're going. The tire is basically garbage from that point on, since it fills the tire with goop on the inside.

As for whether the nail punctured the tire deep enough to flatten it, check the pressure in it over the next week or so. If it's losing air, then you will need to repair it properly, either with a plug, or a patch, or a combination plug-patch. If it's not losing air, don't worry about it; that means it probably didn't go all the way through.

 

Go to a tire shop such as les schwab. It's $5 or $10 for them to repair it. Better safe then sorry.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nsxtasy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">As for whether the nail punctured the tire deep enough to flatten it, check the pressure in it over the next week or so. If it's losing air, then you will need to repair it properly, either with a plug, or a patch, or a combination plug-patch. If it's not losing air, don't worry about it; that means it probably didn't go all the way through.</TD></TR></TABLE>

ok, i aired up the tire to 40psi . so if the puncture is deep enough and is causing a leak . how much of a loss in pressure should it be in about a week when i go to check it ? would it be a big difference or only a small amount ?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tonezilla &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ok, i aired up the tire to 40psi . so if the puncture is deep enough and is causing a leak . how much of a loss in pressure should it be in about a week when i go to check it ? would it be a big difference or only a small amount ?</TD></TR></TABLE>

It depends. A slow leak can cause you to lose as little as 3 pounds in a week, or as much as 20.

Also, keep in mind that pressure is higher at higher temperatures, without changing anything. The Tire Rack says that the difference is around 1 psi for every 10 degrees F in temperature. So if you see the pressure drop 3 pounds in a week, it probably has a leak IF YOU'RE CHECKING THE PRESSURE COLD (meaning that the car has been sitting in the shade or in the garage for several hours) AND AT THE SAME TEMPERATURE. If you check it at 70 degrees F, and a week later you check it at 40 degrees F, you would expect the pressure to go down by 3 psi even without a leak. Hope that makes sense.

 

I would take tire in just in case to be on the safe side. Say for example if its loosing air slowly, its going to start damaging the sidewall of the tire on the inside of the tire.
Than the tire wouls be useless!!

 

don't put fix-a-flat if the guy who repaired the tire for you didn't clean the inside of the rim and the tire, it would build up. Not only that, that stuff stinks too and it would be hard for them to take it off the tire to put a patch on it. Make sure they patch it up and not put one of those plugs