Prime tire repair kit!

Yes it has a tire repair kit. **One use only.***

I asked the parts department at my dealership to look it up, if I ever wanted to buy another one. It would cost around $110 dollars or so. Pretty much the cost of a spare tire.

A can of Fix a flat from Walmart (almost same function), about $10-20.

If the tire can't be repaired with either of the above, you get a tow truck :-/

 

It is located in the (rather small) trunk. Instructions are located in the manual.

 

Regarding being one-use, I gather that the Toyota version has two parts: A tire pump and the tire-repair material. I presume the pump is multi-use, but the repair material is not.

Anybody know whether the pump part can be used alone just to pump up the tires without "repairing" them?

Another question: I personally have never used "fix-a-flat" before; does it leave behind a dreadful residue in the wheel?


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For an alternative, that won't gum up the tire interior, and possibly clog the Tire Pressure Monitor Sensor, consider a plug-repair kit and a pump (either 12 volt powered, or a simple, decent quality bicycle pump). I have a temp spare tire on our 2010, but I still take along these two items. You can buy very cheap but effective plug repair kits. For a quality plug repair kit with a nice case:

Kt-340 - BlackJack Tire Repair

(Good Xmas or birthday gift )

 

The Toyota pump only works with their can of goo. It can't be used to top up tire pressure. I did use the kit and yet the tire repair guy was able to patch the tire and the TPM sensor still worked after all was said and done. I had a second flat and used a third party can of fix-a-flat and a third party pump and was able to drive 50 miles for the repair. The bad part was that i had driven too far on too low pressure so the tire was damaged enough to need replacement. So I never found out if the third party goo messed up the tire.

Mendel, I have never tried to patch my own tires. Is it that simple when you are on the side of the road at night? In my own garage, it sounds like a nice little morning project, but out on the road, I would be afraid of getting something wrong and having the tire blow out at high speed.

 

It is definitely easier with the flat off the car. For the two flat repairs on our Prius the flat has been off. In the first case it was a nagging slow leak on of the OEM's, and I plug-repaired it indoors while the snow tires were on the car. The second instance: we pulled into a store parking lot and noticed one rear tire (snow tire) near-completely flat. In that case I put on the spare, drove home on that, and again plug-repaired the flat indoors.

I've also done a couple of plug-repairs on tires on our son's Civic, in both instances the wheel was off. That's likely the best, much easier to put your weight on it thus, and safer. If you were do plug-repair with the wheel still installed, you don't have gravity working for you, and it's just much more awkward. Also, you really want to solidly chock the diagonally opposite tire (a pair of wheel chocks are a good addition to the emergency kit, plus a small square of plywood to act as sub-base for the scissor jack on soft ground). Even without a temp spare, I think I'd opt to jack it up, and take the tire off, then get further off on the shoulder to do the repair.

The two plug-repairs I've done on our car were both at least 3 years back, and both tires still in use. In the first instance, on an OEM tire, the problem was an embedded finishing nail, about an inch from tread edge. Dealership said it was too close to edge to do a "proper" inside patch, since it's disc would be running into the curvature at tread edge. I decided to get a plug-repair kit, which is is just a narrow/external fix, doable without dismounting, and can go closer to that edge.

Both plug-repairs I've done have held up fine. In all cases I've aired up the tires after with a simple hand-operated floor-style bicycle pump. It's a bit of a workout, takes maybe 5 minutes, but really not that hard.

One nagging issue: I find our wheels glue-on, even with pre-cleaning and a light application of anti-seize. This can make wheel removal "interesting" under roadside conditions. It seems like alloy rims are especially susceptable, maybe due to dissimilar metals? In my garage I smack them from the rear with a sledge hammer slid across the slab, but that's not practical along roadside, and I don't pack along a sledge hammer, lol. Still thinking about that.

Not a Prius, but same idea:

 

Another full spare wheel is good option....
I always find the place for ....if I'm going places far away or some long trip
Use of roof rack is handy

Much faster and easy to do...
No ill effects unless you didn't rotate puncture to ground while you did this
Necessary step you need to follow
In my experience I call AAA or Toyota corporation in my Prime this is included
And make sure that you have pressure up to spec.

 

I was thinking I could move the car enough to get good leverage on the nail or screw. Upon removal with needle-nose, vice grips, the tire would deflate. Then I would follow the plug repair instructions and re-inflate the tire. But this is not something I've had to do before.

Other than a cuppa coffee and pleasant surroundings, did I miss something?

Bob Wilson

 

Well shaking from blowing wind when big Truck pass by is definitely something to admire on highway and you are stranded on emergency line to play with this little tire
Definitely more safe than replacing tire


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The easiest position for plug-repairing is to stand the tire with the repair zone at the top, straddle and steady it with your legs, and lean on the tool while pushing the plug in. Also, especially if the tire's pretty flat, it will tend to belly-in as you push, so pinching with your knees helps a bit. It takes a moderate effort to push it through, just a lot easier thus, compared to lying on the ground pushing laterally/up. And safer.

I've seen it done in videos, with the wheel still on the car though.

One more tip, if the nail is preventing air coming out, at least partially, you want to minimize the time nothing's in the hole: prepare the plug, and have both the plugging and reaming tools completely at the ready, so as soon as the nail is pulled you get something else in there.

 

If the nail is still in the tire, chances are good that the leak is slow (the last one I had was losing about 1 psi per day). Air it up and drive to a tire shop and let them patch it. Don't do goo or a plug unless it won't hold pressure long enough to get you anywhere.

 

Yes, certainly don't use the goop unless you have to. I keep a 12V tire pump in my Gen-2 for exactly that reason.


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Does anyone know if AAA has any tire plug kits or the like on hand? Or will they just offer to change a tire if you have a spare or tow you?

 

Thanks to all the tire patch fans for your experiences and methods. I will probably never have room for a spare (roof rack with tire on it sounds like a serious blow to good mpg) and performing the full tire removal, repair with a patch kit, and reinstall on the side of a remote road or even a heavily travelled interstate is entirely too exciting for the likes of myself. The road service deal is great if you're in a place that has it, but try getting a tire fixed in a small town on a Sunday and you discover that either you use the Toyota kit and drive to a bigger town, or you get towed to some place and wait until Monday to get back on the road.

As lame and as costly as the Toyota repair kit is, it's probably going to be my go-to solution for the time being.

 

PSA - Please note when removing a nail or anything that caused the flat, wear safety glasses. The tire is still under pressure and the nail CAN go flying and may end up where you don't want it to. I've fixed at least 15 flats on my cars using plugs, but lost control of the nail only once. I was lucky, but it only takes once to be not lucky.

That said, It is MUCH easier with the wheel off the car, for the reasons Mendel has already stated. I tried doing it once on the car (repairing a flat ). Couldn't get leverage, the weight of the car forced out too much air, and I had such a hard time getting the plug inserted into an empty tire that I had to remove the wheel and pump air in before I could get the plug in.

Edit: for clarification, it's not so much the tire pressure that is a safety hazard, but when you're pulling the nail out, the tire is holding it in and the air pressure is pushing it out. But when it lets go it's mostly your pulling effort that suddenly sends the pliers and the nail toward your face. Like playing tug of war and just letting go so the other guy goes flying back...

 

I've only removed the tire when finding the puncture proved difficult. Otherwise, I just jacked the car up in order to spin the wheel around to reach the puncture.

You can release tire pressure if worried about the nail or whatever flying free.

 

I did the same. I had a slow leak but dumped air into my tire to keep pressure up and drove to the dealership the next day for tire repair.

It took a couple of hours since I didn't make an appointment... but they did find TWO nails/screws in my poor tire. Geez. After they patched it up, the tire holds pressure fine.