Prime tire repair kit!

Another thing you can do with a sticking wheel, IF you're in the comfort of a garage with a slab, and have the tools on hand:

Have the car raised enough that the tire is just clear of the slab, say 1/2" or less. Reinstall the top nut of the pattern only, very loosely. Put a wood block (a piece of 4x4 is ideal, or a pair of 2x4) against the inside face of the tire. Take a large sledge hammer, lay it on the flat on the slab, near the middle of the car, and slide it through an arc, smacking the back of the wood blocking and tire. With a moderate effort, it'll break the wheel loose.

Is it just me, or was life simpler with steel rims? Cheaper too.

 

Someone, @ChapmanF maybe, had another method: use a pry bar, through the spoke opening, lever against the brake caliper.

 

Prime tire repair kit ? .. bleh ...its better than nothing but Expandable / Inflatable Spare Tire ? YES .. this is genius .

I did not know it existed before I came across this video :

 

Yup, that's mine; my tool bag has some vinyl-covered-handle wire strippers, good for sticking a handle between a spoke and the caliper bracket and easing the wheel off without marring it.

I pry against the caliper bracket—the beefy part, that doesn't move.

-Chap

 

That's something that could work by the side of the road too.

 

Ok I had to use the tire repair kit with the sealant. Worked great and ordered a replacement bottle for future. Only thing is now is how do you get the old bottle off?

 

From page 676 onwards in Owner's Manual might show, not sure.

 

I relay this story because I think it may help. Many years ago, I ran over a nail or something on a construction site. I could not get the alloy wheel off and finally decided to call AAA. The tow truck operator also could not get the wheel to come free, so he lay down on the ground on his back with his feet on the wall of the tire on each side of the wheel. Then he kicked at each side a few times and the wheel broke free.

I thought it was a pretty cool trick but I would not have wanted to do it wearing business attire.

 

I owned a 1977 Mercury Cougar XR7 years ago and was going on a trip to Pennsylvania from Indiana and the car needed tires. I went to the local Montgomery Wards and had four put on and made my trip. On the way home I was in the mountains on curvy roads and the car was not handling well at all, it was in the evening on a Sunday night. I thought I had a low tire so I stopped and did a walk around the car and found the left rear wheel only had three lug nut on it and they were loose, the other two had sheared the studs off. I jacked the car up and tightened the three remaining lug nuts and found a place for the night. After replacing all the studs and lug nuts on that wheel I went to Montgomery Wards to complain. The manager said those wheels are known to come loose because of corrosion and we should have told you to check them for tightness after 50 to 100 miles.
They were the optional turbine wheels I ordered for the car.

 

So I looked in the manual. No Info on how to get the bottle off

 

I have ordered Prius w/o spare tire and wondering what is the total cost to fix a flat tire with Toyota repair kit.
1. The hermetic canister can be used one time only and a new canister must be purchased imitatively. Anyone knows the price?
2. The tire must be brought to service for final fixing and it is going to be more expensive then regular one because injected hermetic must be removed from inside the tire.
3. Ordinary tire place most likely will not be able to do the job due to Toyota proprietary components and premium payment is expected.
Should anyone has experience with this please share your feelings and expenses.

 

Replacement cannister is $60 from this online retailer (good info source btw):

Sealer - Toyota (42606-47160) | Toyota Parts

The only way these cars will get a spare is if nobody buys them.

 

Hi. I've bought recently used Prius III gen. from Germany. Really nice car to drive and kept as clean and tidy as only they can do. However, instead of spare wheel I found infamous repair kit. I decided to buy spare but was hoping at least to be able to use air pump which seemed to be of decent quality.
Unfortunately I found it simply didn't work without engaging the milky substance from the container. I wasn't going to do that mess. Instead I unscrewed the black plastic cover of the container (four screws). And here comes the good news I want to share with nice and helpful community of PriusChat.

What I found is that air line inside goes through the milky bottle. Two rubber hoses are connected to the bottle. They are meant to fill the tire with mix of air and sealant. Now, it is perfectly safe to disconnect them from the bottle (no leakage involved). When you connect them together by means of small plastic pipe you get a perfect air pump with good quality gauge. You can save the bottle for tire repair and reconnect it when necessary from outside (though I will rather choose tire plugs when in emergency).

Here is picture of my pump with bottle pulled outside and hoses about to be connected together with small white pipe:

 

^ Post of the day.

 

I have not even looked at the tire repair kit that came with my Prime, but my feeling is that it is probably not very powerful. It may serve the purpose for an emergency, but it looks to be very similar to ~$15 air compressor you can pick up at any hardware store like this one.

I carry Viair P70 portable compressor with direct battery connection alligator clips.

This model cost only $32 at amazon, but much more powerful than ~$20 cheap portable compressors. Although it comes only with cigarette lighter plug for 12v power, it draws too much current for most of cigarette lighter plugs in passenger cars. I don't know how many times I had to change fuse before I realized the easiest solution is to buy alligator clip extension cord to directly connect to 12v battery terminals.

 

I'm aware that you guys from the other side of the ocean get different repair kits and even slightly different cars. German version of Prius III got it neat. Today I tested pump when inflating 215/45/R17 tire from flat to full (2.3 Bar) and it took about 3-4 minutes. Pump didn't get even close to that hot I would make myself when doing the same with hand pump.

By the way I used to be a tram driver in my younger years. When I hear this gentle whizz of Prius regenerative braking it reminds me of my youth. Trams also have regenerative braking but they return power to the power line. However sound is quite similar. So maybe a streetcar instead of a golf cart...

In Poland this car looks (and is) rather pricey. In my million city there are only 1400 hybrids for 760 000 registered cars. We have more cars per citizen than Berlin or Vienna. Did I buy it because I need it or rather like it? To register my car I travel by bicycle. On my way back license plates jingle in the backpack. I miss regenerative braking.

 

What's really going on here is Toyota ran out of room for a spare tire with the bigger Hybrid battery, they want you believe this is a good thing for gas savings and it is, but is it really, if you never have a flat tire it's a win win. Lets digress.

Why would I want to pump all this goop inside my tire, I have read this ruins the tire? So let's analyze, I saved some money by not having the spare tire weight to transport on a daily basis, that's a good thing right? But now I have ruined a 125.00 Michelin tire plus the cost of the repair kit goop 135.00 MSRP it can be had for 96.00.

96.00 repair kit + 125.00 tire + maybe 15.00 mount and balance + tax= 254.64 OMG. I was a farm kid and handled flat tires on a weekly basis plus I worked in my teens at a tire repair shop. Almost all flat tires are what we call slow leakers might take 1 to 3 days for it to go flat. All you need to do is get some air back in the tire and drive it to the repair shop. Yes it might be a larger leak and then you would need to call in help but I would never put this goop in my tire unless It was an emergency and I really needed to get to where I'm going.

Ask yourself this, did you save 254.64 by not carrying around the spare tire weight? Not in a million years (miles) will it pay out. Also for the environmentally conscious you just created a junk tire and the goop bottle that will need disposing of, not good. For 35.00 plus tax you can buy a 12 volt air compressor at Harbor Freight that will inflate a totally flat tire in 3 minutes and then drive it to the repair shop. The air compressor comes in a nice storage bag with it's own gauge, AND IT"S REUSABLE and transferable to your next vehicle. The toyota kit cannot be used without the goop bottle connected, BAD DESIGN. https://www.harborfreight.com/12V-100-PSI-High-Volume-Air-Compressor-69284.html

 

Which is exactly what my Toyota salesman told me. Don't use the repair kit, call AAA. Big repair bill otherwise, likely including the <way overpriced> TPMS sensor.

 

I would disregard what the "salesman" told you...

I bought my own tpms sensors & personally installed my tpms sensors into my 17x7" wheels, Toyota tpms are fully sealed. So any type of tire sealant or goop won't affect them. Worst case scenario, you clean that sticky gunk off when the tire comes off for a repair or replacement.


Rob43