Yesterday as I was returning from work the low tire warning appeared - said to brake carefully. Unfortunately I had to pull over on an extremely busy highway with a very narrow shoulder. And of course the tire was completely flat - not sure if at this point the status of the tire - probably toast. The tire inflator combo sealer unit supplied by Mini was of little help and in my opinion a little chinsey. I understand that dependent upon how bad the tire failure no tire sealer would work. With no spare I had to wait almost 2 hrs for a tow. Being Friday evening my mechanic won't be open until Monday so I won't know the tire status until then. I am thinking of ordering several tire inflators that I have seen advertised and am also thinking of a some sort of spare. I am sure others have experienced flat tires/failures. Of course in addition to the spare I would need some sort of jack - not sure I want to deal with that. What have others done?
Found on ebay: this F54 Clubman Compact Spare Tire with Jack for $375 (free shipping). The Clubman is a few hundred pounds lighter than the heaviest of F56 MINIs, the SE, so you might prefer to have a more sturdy jack. I have a compact electric 5-ton jack from Amazon that I showed in the recent Jack thread in this forum.
I carry the tools and an electric air pump to plug a tire on the side of the road. But if you don't feel comfortable with that, I would buy AAA or add towing to your car insurance.
I purchased a spare tire from MINI Mania (https://www.minimania.com/part/G3NMK7610/Spare-Tire-And-Wheel-W-Storage-Bag-15in-5-Lug-Gen3-Mini-Cooper-And-S-F55-F56-F57). My dealer provided a jack for free with the car. I carry the tire with me when I drive. Instructions with the tire say that it can only be used in the rear. So, if I get a flat on a front tire, I have to put the spare on the rear first, and then use the good rear tire on the front.
Runflats are another option, you can drive up to 50 miles on a completely flat tire. They're not awful, with the drawbacks primarily being: stiffer ride, more tire noise, a drop in range for the SE. Before I got my SE I had runflats on every MINI I owned. It is great peace of mind if you drive long distances.
Add a piece of 2x4 -12” long bc if you are on soft ground your jack gonna sink to a ground and you stack anyway
My BMW I 3 and Mini SE total driving 9 years never get a flat tire and bc my sits are down from first day I own them I carry full size OM tire but when sits are up a wheel is not fitting in that space behind sits .I have also in that small space full set plugs if a hole in a tire is pluggable ,12 V. Compressor ,tire gauge,tork long wrench,scissor jack from old Toyota,first aid kit from Lexus and fire extinguisher to help some gas guzzlers in case of fire bc I run away from my SE in case of fire bc you can’t extinguish EV with 2 lbs. fire extinguisher you need minimum about 3000 gallons of water! 4 lifting point on my SE are installed permanently to prevent any damages to battery shield
Thank you all for your suggestions. I already have AAA so I'm covered there. After thinking about it I am going to invest in a better air pump for those times that the issue is just low air pressure. Possibly run flats when new tires are due.
Thank you for your service. You've taken the flat-tire hit for the rest of us who have been lucky for years. However, now that you're on the other side of the statistically rare flat tire, you're now immune from another one--skip the clunky, low-range run-flats.
My son borrowed my car 2 weeks ago. Didn't tell me the low pressure warning came on. Left for work in the a.m. and had to use my stock compressor and sealant kit. Got me to and back from work. Once home, I was able to extract the screw he ran over and properly plug it w a rubber plug.
