Flat tire replacement

Just to verify: where is the nail? At edge of tread, or into sidewall? Any tire shop can usually repair a straight forward nail-in-tread, if it's at least a thumbs-width away from edge of tread. They do inside-and-outside repair, with a disk on the inside that will be running up the sidewall if they repair too close to edge of tread.

FWIW, I've had tire shop balk and doing repair on one of our OEM's, that they deemed to close to tread edge. Got myself a plug repair kit (Blackjack brand), did it myself. This is an outside-only repair, easy to do, frowned upon by regulators and tire shops, but never had a problem personally.

Had another similar bolt in tread, with one of our snow tires, fixed that one too. That was 6~7 years back; no problems since. The second tire I repaired is on the car right now.

With a plug repair kit and just a simple floor style bicycle pump, it's easy to DIY these.

 

If you can plug the tire, that's going to keep all four tires at the same tread depth plus save quite a bit of money. If you can't do it yourself, just jack up the car, take off the wheel, and take it to a tire shop. Cheaper, safer, and easier than replacing it.

If you must have a new tire, get the same brand and tread as the others. If they are well worn, get two new tires and put them both on the back. This will help traction in hard braking.

 

Yeah DON'T get comfortable with that lol; it'll likely destroy the tire and may damage the rim, or worse. You may also get pulled over by the police, for driving an vehicle not roadworthy.

Your car has the temp spare? Put it on. That's step one. Then you've got lots of options. A tire shop may be able to do an inside-outside repair, for $20~30. If too close to tread edge for them, DIY old-school outside-only plug repair has never let me down.

 

I thought c’s had spare??

 

Ok, gotcha. A tow truck driver can put on your temp spare, for maybe $50.

 

See post 6...unable to remove rim themselves.
Local tire shop is a good option...maybe (maybe) they can pickup, remove, deliver re-install just your wheel IF you need a tire or possibly for a "plug" repair.
Maybe if the nail is still in the tire, buying a pump and inflating the tire may make it drivable to a shop.
Whether plug, one or two tires we do not have enough info to answer.
Good luck.

 

Good point. I didn't mention it, but it's a possibility. I did that with my last puncture. The tires had a road hazard warranty so I just drove to the shop.

 

IF.....this is for your C, I'm pretty sure that my C's have all had compact spares under the hatch floor.
Have you looked ??
If you do not have a spare, why NOT ?
NOW might be a good time to get one.

Unless it is a really NASTY hole, there is no good reason it can't be patched with the relatively new combination plug and patch piece.

Then, if you must replace it, it would be best to match the other 3 tires as closely as possible.

 

One of these was under the tree for me, an update to my old Schwin (sic) pump. A simple floor-style bicycle pump is surprisingly effective, you can inflate even a totally flat tire (bit of a workout), and no worries about running down the car battery (with a 12 volt pump):



If you don’t mind me asking: are you physically disabled, just all-thumbs mechanically, something else? Changing a tire is good to learn, for when you’re in a jam. And again, doesn’t Prius c have a temp spare??