It happened. Flat tire. No spare.

nah, that was the eggnog talking.

 

Ah man...

 

no worries, i'm still in love with my pip. may be the longest i've ever owned a car. put 30 ev only miles on her yesterday in the 30 degree snow/slush/freezing rain. no heat, manual windshield defrosting. puts hair on your chest.
not that i need anymore than i already have.

 

Just saw two cars stranded on the side of the highway. Both had hoods open and four good tires.

 

Comment: I had a 2006 Prius that I drove 120 miles round trip to work for almost four years. No flats. I was mostly on interstate highways. I am on my fourth Prius now, only one flat -- my 2010, when I ran into a curb. It was driver error.

 

Sudden flats? Tires that go flat with no warning and are gone within seconds or minutes?

I've driven more than 400,000 miles without a single one. My wife hasn't ever had one either with similar miles driven. I have had numerous (probably close to 10) slow leaks and she's had a few too. But I catch those when inspecting the car and I get them fixed long before they leave me stranded somewhere. Most of them result in a leak rate of about 1psi per day.

 

You're describing our last flat: smallish bolt in the tread, tire completely flat in a matter of minutes. It was one of the snows, on rims without tpms. I'm not sure what your point is, I guess that spare tires are passe?

 

My point is, sudden flats are very rare and spare tires are only good for that one type of failure. For the myriad of other things that can leave you stranded, most people have no spares. So why is having a spare for one type of rare event absolutely required but having no spares for all the other events (some of which are more common than sudden flats) no problem?

 

You're invested in a car without spare, so you care, I understand. I've got my preferences, that's all.

 

My other two cars have spares, and every other car I've ever owned had a spare. I checked them before every trip and twice a year beyond that.

And they've never left their homes on the cars to do anything else.

Sure would have liked spare hoses and antifreeze the three times I've had radiator hoses fail. Sure would have liked a spare radiator when my radiator cracked. I had to rush down to a store from work when my wife locked her keys in the car. My 2004 wouldn't start once when the 12V gel cell battery failed. When the ECU on my Mazda failed, I was stuck at home.

All my properly cared for spare tires never helped with any of that.

 

August last year, we picked up a big bolt in the HOV lane of I-405 in Renton (across lake from Seattle). TPMS warning was the first sign, and it was down on the rim by the time I could get down the very next exit ramp. Too big to plug.

Spouse had a blowout on the first Subaru coming back from a group day hike in the mountains. And my Accord once had no choice but to come home on the spare tire.

Though I guess all our other flats (adult era, not some with the hand-me-down cars when still living with parents) were roadside repairable / limp-able with an air pump.

 

Yes, it looks very easy.
~30 years ago I had a nail in a tire and drove to the closest gas station (they had tires for sale) and asked to buy a new tire. The guy said he could fix the tire in 5 minutes for $5. I was amazed as I watched him plug it so quickly.
Since then I've carried my own plug kit and never needed it till ~10 years ago. I yanked out the nail (be sure and have pliers or vice grips) inserted the plug and refilled the tire. Easy. But I did this on the tire after I put on the spare and mostly deflated the damaged tire since I wanted to be careful in case I made a mistake. I inflated it at a gas station, then jacked up the car and switched the tires.

Then about 2 years ago I got a nail so I tried to do it in place. Much harder to position myself for the rear tire. Much harder to insert the plug...a very tiny nail...I couldn't force in the plug. But now I was committed. Air was leaking and complete failure seemed probable. The plug kit awl was useless...I bent it trying to ream out the hole. Luckily I was at home. So I partially re-inserted the nail. Then I got a power drill and made the hole bigger. With the plug in place I attempted to use the 12v air compressor to refill the tire. Failure...maybe got to 20 psi. (probably started at 19). After a few pumps with my good bicycle pump I gave that up and got my full size shop compressor out and finished the job. 10k more miles and that plug is just fine.

YMMV

Mike

 

Last plug repair I encountered, the nail had gone in on a very shallow angle, that was a pain. We had the wheel off (another car), it was pretty much completely flat, and kept caving in as I tried to push the plug through. We finally got it, son squeezing the tire sides to prevent caving, but it was a fight. Got new tires soon thereafter, it was maybe the third plug repair on the set of tires, and tread getting low.

 

Not if you have an engine problem, as these people did.

 

Some tires can't be plugged and wheels get damaged and the whole wheel needs to be changed.

A pare tire is like an insurance polich, you hope you never need it. Lol

 

Some of us have used it numerous times over our driving lives, and are thinking about how each of those situations would have been different without it.

Am I ready to start going bare, without that insurance?

Nope.

 

Guys, Can you please tell me if this part number is correct for a Spare Tire for Prius Prime Advanced. There is no picture and says Spare Wheel. Is this a complete spare wheel or just a rim? Says that it is about $80. I am preparing for a long drive and having a spare seems like a better option, and a good investment.

Wheel, Spare
Part Number: 42611-47630