1stGOAT

On vacation this weekend in San Francisco with my wife. My itinerary had me leaving on Sunday and on to next stop in San Luis Obispo. Valet pulled the TDI up from the lot and I had a flat tire.

Uh, I have triple A but I only have the mini spare in the trunk which has some miles on it already. So that can't be driven the 350 miles to my next stop and not more than 50mph really.
The tire has a huge nail in it on the outer edge of the tread, tire shop won't patch it.
All tire stores in SF were either closed or didn't stock the Michelin 4S AS tires in my size.

Thought I was going to have to spend a couple more days in SF.

Then I remembered I had backed a little kit in the spare tire area when I bought the car almost 4 years ago. I had a plug kit in there and the hotel had a tire compressor. Fixed it myself and drove off, AAA pulled the wheel off for me and remounted it. Love AAA;

I don't condone the use of these plug kits except under emergency situations. They do work however. Used them a lot when I was much younger.

Anyway tires will get replaced tomorrow which is the proper safe remedy when a tire can't be properly patched.

Thought I would share my harrowing story of almost being stuck in San Francisco and having to pay for a room in San Luis that I couldn't get to. Rough life.

OberklasseA8

Nice!! I should add a plug kit to my roadside tool kit as well. On a DYI note, I just performed a windshield Repair and re-glued some rubber weather striping around the door frame today.. It went really well.

1stGOAT

Hmmm, think I will check my weatherstripping, car is now moving toward being 8 years old.

KnappAttack

I install plugs in all my own tires ALL the time. Last one I did was just also on the edge of the tread or even beyond, don't like it on the edge like that, but I did it and ran on forever. I've had nails and all kinds of objects in my tires and never had one I couldn't run for tens of thousands of miles on when done properly. I had one hole large enough I had to use two plugs on and even it did fine. It's "supposed to be a temp fix" but knock on wood I've had great success with just normal old tire plugs and rubber cement. Plugs don't bother me in the least anymore, takes me just minutes to make a repair at home and be on my way.

1stGOAT

Good to know. I used to use them all them time when I was younger and never had an issue with them either.