First flat in my 2012 prius plug in- Luckily in my driveway. But is there no spare at all? I thought it would be under the cargo area. Let me know if I'm missing something. Thanks.
sorry, no. the battery is where the spare would be. there is a fix a flat system under the drivers seat and under the hatch floor corner. many of us tie down a donut in the hatch. some don't tie them down.
Toyota says to call for a service when you get a flat. If you use the fix-a-flat kit, the tire is ruined, and then you have to get a new kit. It's only for dire emergencies.
Thank you so much for your prompt reply. I guess we will have to have AAA tow it to a tire place -- or I buy a donut now. Never even thought to look-- though the Toyota Sienna we had previously had the same issue.
happened to a lot of us though some were fortunate to find out before needing it. may be cheaper to have them remove the tire and take it locally for repair. if they do tow it, make sure it is a flatbed, and they put it in neutral, there are some real gorillas out there in the towing business.
Hopefully a repair will be possible, that's the cheapest route. I wonder, do some tow truck operators do on-site plug repair? That'd be old-school: outside-only plug repair is officially frowned upon. FWIW, I've done two plug repairs thus, on the OEM tires about 6 years back, and one on our snow tires, about 5 years back. The OEM's are finally being retired (pun ), and the snow tires are on the car as I type. For your case: shortest/cheapest (and 100% legal) route might be: 1. Remove the flat wheel in your driveway. Use the scissor jack, put the parking brake on solidly, and partially loosen the lug nuts all, before lifting. 2. Make an appointment and take it with an alternate vehicle to a tire shop, for inside/outside style repair. 3. Bring it home, reinstall lug nuts in a star pattern, just put a good push on each, final go round. Official torque is 76 foot/pounds, if you can procure torque wrench. Socket size is 13/16" roughly, I believe 21 mm is offical size. There's a chance the damage is not repairable, maybe too close to edge of tread, but cross that bridge when you come to it. FWIW I was told with our first flat by dealership, that it was too close to the tread edge. I gave it a try with plug repair (first for me) and yeah, no problems.
If you don't mind getting your hands dirty, I'd suggest using a plug kit. I've had three flats (one was just a slow leak) in the last 14 months. The first I removed to fix. Second two I fixed while still mounted to the car. Probably would have worked for first one too had I thought of it. It does take a bit of a push to get the plug in. Of course you also need to carry a compressor with you.
Yeah my Wife found out the hard way that there is no spare tire, she was 50 miles from home had a flat on the fwy used the useless kit to no avail then call AAA and was towed home. I have since purchased a donut spare from a regular Prius from a dismantler (wrecking yard) near Sacramento only thing is, and no one has mentioned this to my knowledge, a regular Prius tire size is R16 a plug-in is R15 here's the good news it does fit you should be able to get off the fwy or other situation.
Most plug-ins do not have spare tires. Normally, I would say *no USA plug-ins have spare tires*, but there are so many new plug-in models these days, I cannot say that for sure. But in 2012, no USA plug-ins had spare tries. Can anybody think of a plug-in that comes with a spare tire or donut in USA? I believe Leaf in Australia used to have the option, but not USA.
Some of the EU makers like to use the collapsible type spare tire, but I don't know how great that is vs. donut becuase the rim takes the most space.
I have "2D spare" on my list of things to invent. It would be about an inch thick and strictly only for emergency use to get to the next place of service.
i'll be following honestly, a well designed bicycle wheel would work for emergency low speed driving, but people would screw it up.
I use a donut spare purchased at a dismantler (wrecking yard) also, but I put it in a Christmas wreath plastic bag and put it behind the drivers seat. If I need to take more folks, I leave it out.
