Is Toyota-branded sealant safe? Nail puncture, slow leak, Sat. evening.

Devoted car guy here, lots of tires, a few flats, always used to do my own work.

New tire, picked up a nail, it's Saturday evening. I can wait till Monday, take it off the car, then take it to be repaired. I'm wondering if using the Toyota branded sealant would allow me to use the car tomorrow.

My only experience (which had no issues whatsoever) with sealant was on my 2015 Leaf. Sealant is by Continental. It worked as designed: plugged the nail hole, I drove on it for 150 miles (neighborhood, not freeway), sort of as an experiment. No balance issues. Took it to Discount Tire. They removed the tire, flushed the sealant out with water, pulled out the TPMS sensor, flushed it with water, plugged the tire, remounted, balanced. I ran the tire another 4k miles w/o any incident, no balance issues, the TPMS sensor is still functioning today, 2 years later.

QUESTION, only for those with Toyota sealant experience. Did it foul up the TPMS sensor? Were there any consequences, other than having to completely remove the tire and clean it out?

Thanks in advance.

 

Wow...61 views, and no one has tried the sealant yet. I'm still curious about if it creates issues after use.

However, I'm a bit (or more!) of an idiot. My son's 2018 Prius Two is visiting us for a while. I...uhh...forgot...that in Toyota's wisdom, SOME of the 2018s have the sealant, SOME of them have the temp spare. SOOO...I can deal with the nail in the tire W/O having to use the sealant.

I'll discuss the sealant in full with the Toyota service department when I take the car in on Monday. I'm hoping to learn that the sealant is safe, for future use, in a real emergency. I hope I never have to learn the hard way, that it mucks up the TPMS, or worse, future balancing of the tire.

I'll post again when I learn more.

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm 65, I'm a pianist, and I'm finally learning that I need to protect my hands/fingers, so...no tire plugging for me. I've done it before, and it requires more effort than I'm willing to risk.
I won't hesitate to change the wheel/tire this morning. THAT I can do!

 

Did you experience this with one of your wheels/tires? There's a ton of alarmist posts on the internet that agree with you, but, IF the Toyota Sealant is water-based (which I believe it is) it will NOT "gum up the inside of the tire", nor will it incapacitate the TPMS.

Please, I would appreciate it if you would edit, or even delete, your post to reflect that you actually didn't experience this with the TOYOTA Sealant.

I think it is critical that this thread be 100% accurate, w/o any conjecture whatsoever.

Thanks.

 

I found this in another thread, posted by Rob43:

"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

SOOO...while he doesn't describe that he actually filled his tire with sealant, it's good to know the TPMS is actually sealed!

 

Here is what I've heard from Toyota:

Question: Is this sealant water-based? Will it foul the TPMS?
Product: 4260647160
Answer: It should not foul the TPMS sensor but that doesn't meant that it can't. When using the product they should clean the TPMS sensor after using the sealant to ensure it won't foul it. Thank you!

My dealership claims the sealant is water based. They agree with what I heard from Toyota. It can be cleaned from the inside of the tire, and the TPMS, with water.

My opinion: Although Toyota says to rotate the flat tire so the puncture is at 12:00, I think it might be more important to rotate the tire so the tire VALVE is not at the bottom, to avoid fouling the TPMS valve.

It's also critical (I think this is how users fail and gunk up the TPMS valve) that the car be driven, up to 50mph, to completely distribute the sealant inside the tire, and AWAY from the TPMS. The centrifugal force, and the heat from driving, will cause the sealant to thicken and plug the hole.

My experience with Nissan (Continental) sealant proved the above.

So, bottom line FOR ME (until I re-configure the trunk and install a spare!) is to USE the sealant if the circumstances require its use. For sure, I'll instruct my wife and daughter on how to use it, rather than waiting in a desolate area for AAA to show up.