How to Fix a Puncture with a Tire Plug

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KuroNekko
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Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2012 5:08 pm
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Today, I had the TPMS warning go off on my way to work which prompted me to check my tires. The air pressure gauge read less than 8 PSI. I filled it up and then later noticed a Phillips screw in the tire. I carry a puncture repair kit with me for these occasions so I thought to do a write up since I took photos.

Warning: Before I even get started, I want to be clear that this repair is intended as an emergency repair only. The use of "string plugs" like these is not ideal for tires. I'm opting to use this repair method because my tires are old shitty OEM Dunlops and I just don't care about what's best for them. I just wanted to deal with this promptly so I took care of it in my work garage.
The best repair method involves removing the tire from the wheel and patching the tire from the inside while also plugging the hole. Obviously it's not an option in emergency repairs like this. This guide is intended only for DIY emergency repairs. If you want what's best for your tires, put on the spare and have the puncture professionally repaired.
Given our cars have TPMS, avoid the use of tire sealants which can damage the tire pressure sensors. In essence, the use of tire plugs is the best emergency tire repair for our cars.

About the kit:
These kinds of kits are sold in most auto parts stores and places like Walmart, Target, etc. They're designed to seal puncture holes from nails and screws with very sticky tar-like string plugs that seal up the hole. Since the leading cause of tire punctures are objects like nails and screws, these kits are good to have in your car as emergency repair kits.
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Tools you need:
- A puncture repair kit. The kit contains tire plugs and the tools needed to install them.
- A knife or razor blade.
- Your car's emergency jacking kit.
- An air pump.
- Pliers and screwdrivers are helpful for removing nails and screws.

Note: It's only good to do this repair when you have access to an air pump. This is because the process of repairing a puncture will cause most of the tire's air to leak out if it wasn't already flat. Unless you can pump it back up, it may not be worth fixing at the time. In this case, use your spare tire... assuming it's not flat from total neglect.

Getting started:

Step 1: Try to park the car on the most level surface available. Place the transmission in Park for Automatic or 1st for Manual. Pull up on the hand brake.

Step 2: Locate the nail or screw in the tire that is causing the flat tire.
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Step 3: If you can, chock the tire that is the diagonal opposite tire. For example, for removing the Right Rear tire, chock the Left Front tire.

Step 4: Using the emergency lug nut wrench, loosen the lug nuts, but do not remove them. Do this to all lug nuts before jacking up the car. Use the key if you have wheel locks.
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Step 5: Place the emergency scissor jack under the jacking boss location. Twist by hand until the jack meets the boss.
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Step 6: Attach the jack crank tools to the jack. The Kizashi's kit uses the hub cap pry tool and the lug nut wrench joined together as the jack's crank.
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Step 7: Jack up the car carefully until the tire clears off of the ground.

Step 8: Remove the loosened lug nuts off of the wheel and remove the wheel from the car.

Step 9: Inspect the tire and locate the puncture object. In my case, I located 2 objects. One was a screw and the other was a fragment of a nail. The nail was too small to cause a leak, but the screw was in there in all its glory.
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Step 10: Using the appropriate tool, remove the puncture object carefully. Screws like this one may come out easily by unscrewing them with a screwdriver. Nails can be pried out with a knife or flat blade screwdriver. If you have pliers, you can work the nail out easily.
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Step 11: Check the puncture hole to make sure it's cleared and clean. Allow the tire to deflate if it's not already flat. Flat tires are more flexible and easier to repair.
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Step 12: Insert the rasp tool into the puncture hole and move it back and forth a number of times. Make sure you can push the tool through the tire. This process cleans the hole and makes the hole bigger. It may seem counter-intuitive but the point is to make the hole bigger for the sake of the plug.
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Step 13: Remove a string plug from its packaging and thread it through the eyelet of the needle tool. Have the plug centered on the tool.
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Step 14: If you have cement in your kit, coat the plug with cement. My kit did not include cement so I did not do this step. My string plugs are super sticky with a tar-like coating so cement may not be necessary. I've used this kit numerous times before with no cement and it fixed the punctures fine every time.

Step 15: Push the needle tool straight into the hole. The plug should enter the hole. Do not twist the tool. Push until 2/3 of the string plug is inside the tire.
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Step 16: Pull the needle tool straight out. Do not twist. The needle tool's eyelet features a slit for the plug to slip out of. The remaining 1/3 of the plug should stay outside the tire once the tool is removed.
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Step 17: Cut off the excess plug with a knife or razor. Don't worry about getting it perfect as the road will smooth it out.
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Step 18: Inflate your tire to the correct pressure. It's 38 PSI for my Kizashi. For emergency roadside repairs, having an inflator is key. I'm using my jumpstarter/inflator I got from Costco that I always have in my Kizashi.
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Step 19: Mount your tire back onto the car. Replace the all the lug nuts on the wheel, but do not fully tighten.

Step 20: Lower the vehicle using the jack.

Step 21: Tighten the lug nuts in a star pattern. I believe the torque spec is close to 100 ft-lbs of torque. Unless you carry a torque wrench with you, you'd just have to estimate it. It's pretty tight, but nothing to go gorilla-strength on.
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Now you can drive off. Check the repair and air pressure the next time you stop.
From my experience, this method provides a permanent repair although it may not be the best kind. Your tire condition and driving situation should determine if this type of repair is appropriate. Regardless, it sure beats being stuck with a flat.
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2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS 6MT (Black)
murcod
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OMG you must have had time to burn with that repair and write up! :)

You're lucky you've got the TPMS in North America - times like that is when it can save you not only time, but possibly your life. (BTW I think North American model Kizashi's are the only versions in the world that have the TPMS.)

Do you get a full size spare wheel in NA? That's the one good thing that Suzuki Australia did spec for our models.
David
bootymac
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Thanks for taking the time to document this and share with us. I have the same kit but have never used it. Good to have but unfortunately not very useful in emergencies without a compressor :/

We get a donut spare here that should be inflated to 60 PSI
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KuroNekko
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I try to make tutorials my main contribution to this site. When I was a car noob starting out my own work on cars, I found tutorials on forums to be among the most helpful guides. I still refer to them frequently for things I'm not familiar with, especially for the VW camper.
I'm meticulous and often involved in the technical training of others at work. I try to make my tutorials detailed as I appreciate detailed tutorials when I seek help.

TPMS are both good and bad, I guess. I think they are more good given you don't always notice a flat tire, especially if it's on the other side from your driver door as in this case.

You're lucky to have a full size spare. Very few passenger cars have those in the US. I think only VW offers those for cars though most trucks and SUVs offer them. Most cars have "donut" spare tires that are much smaller and only intended for temporary use. They are usually spec'ed to 60 PSI and are not intended to be used over 55 MPH.
I'd rather have a full size spare any day in a car like the Kizashi, even if it compromised trunk space.

Some cars are now not even offered with any form of a spare tire. For them, these kinds of emergency repairs are imperative and many even come with inflators and plug kits if they don't have run-flat tires. Otherwise, you'll need a tow even for a nail in a tire.
2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS 6MT (Black)
murcod
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KuroNekko wrote:
Some cars are now not even offered with any form of a spare tire. For them, these kinds of emergency repairs are imperative and many even come with inflators and plug kits if they don't have run-flat tires. Otherwise, you'll need a tow even for a nail in a tire.
I had that in my last vehicle with no TPMS. I pulled up at work one day and heard a strange hissing sound - it was a "jobber" drill bit through a rear tyre :o . It was lucky I heard it on the way into work and didn't find it when it was time to go home. I quietly disappeared from work and got the tyre fixed (using another vehicle for transport)- I didn't want to test out the cans of goo.

I've also had a space saver spare in the past and replaced it with a full sized tyre as I was doing a lot of interstate trips at the time.

Local magazines tend to comment negatively on vehicles with space savers. Ironically, I believe Holden (GM) has started fitting space savers in the locally produced Commodore - you have to pay extra for a full size spare! :roll:

I think Suzuki would be in the minority as they supply a full sized alloy wheel - not a "same sized" steel rim.
David
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Woodie
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KuroNekko wrote:TPMS are both good and bad, I guess. I think they are more good given you don't always notice a flat tire, especially if it's on the other side from your driver door as in this case.
While the concept is good, the added cost and aggravation involved far outweighs the advantage.
I'd rather have a full size spare any day in a car like the Kizashi, even if it compromised trunk space.
And you can. I just bought a replacement wheel and put my curb rash wheel in the trunk as a spare. It's the factory 235/45-18, biggest tire they come with. You have to remove two huge chunks of styrofoam, one under the spare, and the big black one on top of the spare which holds the jack and the tools. The full sized wheel/tire fits in there perfectly, I just put a towel in the dish of the wheel and laid all the tools inside that.
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bdleonard
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KuroNekko wrote:Some cars are now not even offered with any form of a spare tire. For them, these kinds of emergency repairs are imperative and many even come with inflators and plug kits if they don't have run-flat tires. Otherwise, you'll need a tow even for a nail in a tire.
Some cars, like the 2013 Kizashi. For the 2013s they ditched the doughnut spare, and include an inflation kit with a 12V air pump and a sealant canister.
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KuroNekko
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bdleonard wrote: Some cars, like the 2013 Kizashi. For the 2013s they ditched the doughnut spare, and include an inflation kit with a 12V air pump and a sealant canister.
I thought I read that somewhere before.
I'm not sure if the sealant canister is the way to go with TPMS-featured cars. I've read that sealants can mess them up.

I hate the idea of a car not having a spare. In some cars, it's understandable due to limited space and to save weight. However, this is really only excusable in Sports Cars. In a car like the Kizashi, it just screams desperate move to save costs.
2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS 6MT (Black)
bdleonard
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Joined: Mon Apr 22, 2013 4:39 am

KuroNekko wrote:
bdleonard wrote: Some cars, like the 2013 Kizashi. For the 2013s they ditched the doughnut spare, and include an inflation kit with a 12V air pump and a sealant canister.
I thought I read that somewhere before.
I'm not sure if the sealant canister is the way to go with TPMS-featured cars. I've read that sealants can mess them up.

I hate the idea of a car not having a spare. In some cars, it's understandable due to limited space and to save weight. However, this is really only excusable in Sports Cars. In a car like the Kizashi, it just screams desperate move to save costs.
Of course, sealant and an air pump is utterly useless if you have a blowout, which describes the 2 flats I've ever had (#1 road debris just over a crest on the highway, #2 a similarly hidden pot hole). For my own piece of mind, I grabbed an appropriate sized doughnut spare shortly after I got the car, and rearranged things to fit it in the spare tire well. I am similarly apprehensive about the use of sealant, but I would certainly try it if I was stranded and had no other options available.
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KuroNekko
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Location: California, USA

Yup, you're SOL if you have a blow-out as those can't be repaired. Only a spare tire will keep you going.

I've had 2 blow-outs before. One was from running over a construction warning sign laying on the ground that I couldn't avoid and the other was from the tire being old and its sidewall cracking.

However, I've had way more flats from punctures caused by nails and screws so I think kits like these are still good to have around for emergencies.

I've tried sealants before and wasn't that impressed. I think tire plugs are much better and more effectively seal the leak. Many people, including me, find plugs serving as permanent repairs in actual usage despite being intended for emergencies.

A spare tire is really the best back-up though.
2011 Suzuki Kizashi Sport GTS 6MT (Black)
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