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Hey guys, Chris fix here, and today I'm going to show you how to fix a flat tire. If you've ever been in a situation like this, you go out to the store, you come back, you go look at your car, and you notice, hey, look, I've got a flat tire. Well, it's not a fun situation, but it does give me a good opportunity to make a video to show you guys exactly what you need to do: every step on how to fix that flat tire.
The first step is you want to get home or to the tire shop, so we want to get some air in that tire. So let's pop the trunk and check out our three options for situations like this. First, we could use an air pump. Second, if your car has a spare tire, you could use that. And third, you could use one of these cans of air. If you need to, you could use one of these plug kits right now to plug the tire in the parking lot, just in case you're far away from home or from a tire shop.
Back at our flat tire, the first thing I like to do is try to pump up the tire with a portable 12-volt air compressor, because it's the quickest and easiest method. All you do is screw it onto the valve stem, then you get your cigarette lighter adapter and it plugs right in. Sometimes the cigarette lighter isn't powered unless you have the car in the Run position, so do that, and then all you have to do is hit the little on button and watch the gauge until it pumps the tire up to where you need it to be. For a tire like on the Mustang, it only takes about 5 minutes to go from deflated to fully inflated. It's supposed to be around 32 to 35 PSI. I pumped it up just a little bit more, so that we have some extra air for the ride home. Then, once you're pumped up, shut it off, unscrew it from the valve stem, and screw the cap back on. You can see how effortless that was. I didn't have to jack the car up, change tires, or anything. That's why I keep one of these 12-volt air compressors in my trunk right next to the spare tire. It'll pay for itself the first time you use it, and they're relatively inexpensive. I'll link one in the description, so if you don't have one, you could get one for yourself.
Now you just want to wait a few minutes to make sure the tire doesn't go flat really quickly, because then it's too dangerous to drive. In the meantime, I want to explain the two other methods real quick. If I didn't have an air compressor, or it didn't work, my next method would be using the spare tire. If you've never changed a spare tire, even if you don't have a flat, go change it in your driveway just to see the whole process and make sure you have all the tools you need. If you have a spare tire in your car, most cars will also come with a scissor jack and a tire iron. You want to make sure you have both of these, as well as a key for if you have any locking lug nuts, since you rarely use or even check the spare until you finally need it one day when you have a flat. Many times it's deflated, or you're missing the tools. If there's one thing that you learn from this video other than fixing a flat, I want you guys to go out there and check the pressure in your spare tire and make sure you have all the tools you need to put on your spare tire.
Finally, for emergencies, I do keep a can of sealer in all my cars, but I only use this for emergencies. All you have to do is take the cap off, and then this attaches right to your valve stem. Inside this can is compressed air and a liquid, and when the liquid in here comes in contact with the air, it solidifies, and hopefully that'll clog the leak. It does work for small leaks, and it will fill your tire with air, but the problem is this stuff that seals the leak also damages the tire, so you have to replace the tire. It also makes a big mess inside your tire, so tire shops aren't going to want to replace your tire, because they don't want to take that extra time to clean the wheel and get rid of all this stuff that solidifies. That's why I use it only in emergencies. It is good for a backup, but it's the last thing on my list that I would use to pump up my tire to get home.
So those are the three main methods that you could rely on. In this case, it's been a few minutes and the tire hasn't gone down in pressure. If, in the 5 to 10 minutes that you waited, the pressure goes down and your tire gets flat again, I wouldn't drive home. I'd use the spare, that's what it's for. In this case, we're good to go. It should be safe to drive home, and then I'm going to show you how to plug that tire so it doesn't leak air anymore.
All right, safe and sound at home, and as you can see, the tire is still inflated, which means we probably have a pretty slow leak. So now we want to remove the tire from the car. You can do that with the scissor jack and tire iron that come with the car if you don't have a lot of tools, but if you have a breaker bar, a jack, and a jack stand, it'll make this job that much easier. No matter what jack you use, if you don't know how to jack your car up, you could check out the owner's manual and flip to the back, where it'll show you exactly what you need to do to lift the car up safely.
So let's get started. The first thing you're going to want to do is break those lug nuts loose, because if you try to do this with the tire in the air, it's just going to spin. With all the lug nuts broken loose, now we can jack up the car. But before that, we want to block off our rear wheel so the car doesn't roll anywhere. Then we can place the jack on the proper jacking point and lift the wheel all the way off the ground. It's always a good idea to support the vehicle with a jack stand, and not just the jack. Now we could finish removing our lug nuts and remove the wheel. Once we have the wheel off, you want to make sure it's fully inflated so that you have air pressure, and now we're going to search for the leak.
The leak is most likely a nail that's in the tread area here, so just spin the tire and keep an eye out for any nails. Sometimes it could be difficult to find the leak, so I have a little trick, and that's using soapy water. All this is, is dish soap and water mixed together. What you do is spray down the wheel, and you want to keep an eye out for any areas that are bubbling up, because any air leaking out is going to cause bubbles. You can never use too much soapy water, so don't be afraid to use a lot. Oh, and you can see it right there. That's a perfect example of how much easier it is when you spray some soapy water. Look at that, it bubbles right up, and that just makes it completely obvious where your leak is. So I'm going to spray down the rest of the tire, make sure we don't have any leaks, and make sure the whole tire is coated in soapy water, and then I'm looking for any bubbles forming. The soapy water also helps you know when you search the whole tire, because the dry parts still need to get sprayed down and checked.
After checking the entire wheel, it looks like we only have one screw right there that needs to be removed and plugged. This is most likely our only leak, and I'll show you how to repair that. But before we do that, we want to check where the rim and tire meet. On some wheels there could be corrosion, which could cause air to leak out, so just spray around the whole wheel and check for bubbles. This side looks good, so do the same thing on the other side. That side looks good as well. The last thing to check is to unscrew the valve stem cap and spray right in the valve stem and look for any bubbles, because that's another common area that could leak and cause your tire to go flat. I don't see any bubbles, so we're good. But if there's any leaking from the rim or valve stem, you need to remove the tire from the wheel to fix it.
One thing to be mindful of is if there's any damage to the sidewall or the shoulder of the tire, you can't repair the tire. It has to be replaced, because those areas are a structural part of the tire. But with that being said, this is the only damage to the tire, so let me show you how to remove the screw and then plug it so it's leak free.
Now that we've found the leak, we're going to move on to our next step and plug the leak. To do that, I'm using one of these plug kits. It only costs a few bucks, and it comes with everything you need to plug the tire. Before we go and remove the screw and air starts shooting out, we want to get our plug ready. So we want to grab our plug pusher and some plugs. This plug pusher tool is what we're going to use to slide one of these plugs into the tire. Get your plug. It should be sticky and malleable, so flatten down the end and slide it through the slot in the plug pusher tool. Once it starts coming through, you want to pull it halfway through, just like that. With our plug ready, you could set that aside. Then you want to grab your reamer from the kit and set that aside. If your kit comes with rubber cement, you want to set that aside as well, but you don't need rubber cement to do this job. It's just an extra piece. If you have it, you could use it. If you don't have it, you don't need it. It's also a good idea to use some eye protection so nothing shoots out into your face.
Now we want to carefully remove the screw. This is actually a really tough screw to get to because it's worn down. I'm trying to use my flathead screwdriver to pry it up a bit. Good, and now hopefully I can get these side cutters in there. Now that I've got it out a little bit, I think it's better if I use pliers and just unscrew the screw. There we go. All right, I'm going to remove this quickly, and it's out. Then I'm going to grab my reamer and force the reamer into the hole. This can be difficult, so make sure you get a kit that has a reamer with a T-bar handle like this, so you can really push on it and get a lot of leverage. I'm really pressing hard, I have most of my body weight on this, and this isn't going anywhere. There we go, that wasn't going in easily. Now you're going to move the reamer up and down. It's also a good idea to twist it side to side, and then again move it up and down. What we're doing is prepping the hole for our plug. We're removing any loose rubber that'll cause air leaks with the plug in there, and we're also smoothing the hole so the plug seals it.
If your kit comes with rubber cement, or you buy some extra rubber cement, you want to add some to the reamer and in the hole, and you're just going to work that rubber cement in there. Good. If your kit doesn't have rubber cement, don't worry, it's not necessary to complete the job. Now you're going to get your plug tool ready. Again, if you have the rubber cement, you could apply some directly to the plug. This is going to help lubricate it so it pushes in easier, and it's also going to help seal the hole a little bit better. Now you want to remove the reamer and quickly insert the plug. This can be a little bit tough, so again the T-bar is going to help, and use your body weight to really push it down. After you push the plug through the tire, you want about a quarter of the plug sticking out, and then you're going to give this tool a firm pull. The tool is going to come out, but the plug material is going to remain in the hole to stop the leak. Once this completely dries, we're going to cut it, but let's give it about 10 minutes to dry and seal up perfectly. You can see how that works: the plug sits right in the plug tool there, but when you pull on it, the plug slides out of that slot and the tool gets removed from the tire.
After about 5 minutes, nice and dry, you could grab your side cutters and cut off the end of the plug. I want to get it flat and even with the tire, so I'm going to use a razor blade. Good. Now add air to the tire to the recommended pressure, and in this case my tires get filled to 35 PSI. All right, I got it on the first shot. Before we go and mount the tire, you could use your soapy water to make sure that it's completely sealed and not leaking any air, and I don't see any bubbles, so we're ready to mount this back on the car. I like to use my feet to help me mount the tire, and then snug up all the lug nuts. Remove the jack stand, drop down the jack so the car goes onto the ground nice and smooth, and then tighten down all the lug nuts in a star pattern. I like to use a torque wrench to make sure they're evenly tightened.
All right, that is everything you need to know on how to plug a leaky tire. For the next few days, you want to keep an eye on the tire pressure and make sure that plug stays leak free, and you're good to go. Quick note: technically, plugs aren't permanent. What you're supposed to do is go to the tire shop. They take the tire off and patch it from the inside. I've driven on a plugged tire for a while, and I'm sure people will comment below sharing their experience with plug tires, but I just want to mention that if you go to the tire shop to get your tires put on, a lot of times they'll patch it from the inside for free. For now, you're good to go. The tire is plugged and leak free, and you're back on the road. As always, any products I used in this video will be linked in the description. Also, I hope the video was helpful, and if you're not a subscriber, consider subscribing.