Had a nail in one of my tires...

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FloridaSun

FloridaSun

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Yesterday, I noticed that one of my tires had a slow leak as the tire pressure was 10 psi lower than the rest of the tires. Last night, I closely inspected the suspect tire but initially could not find any objects in the tire. I inspected it again and found a nail in the center of my right front tire. The head of the nail was broken off, that's why it was hard to find. Luckily, I do have a compressor at home as also a tire repair kit, so I ended up pulling out the nail and plugging the tire with the tire repair kit. Inflated it back to the same pressure as the other tires and test drove it for 10 miles with no leaks.. Drove to work this morning and pressure stayed steady..
 
Just to mention it, there is a tire repair kit in the car. If it's only a small leak like yours, you can just inflate without using the repair kit and drive to a repair shop.

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Esprit1st said:
Just to mention it, there is a tire repair kit in the car. If it's only a small leak like yours, you can just inflate without using the repair kit and drive to a repair shop.

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Click to expand...
I'm aware of that.. I usually repair my own tires. The tire was not deflated to a point where I needed to inflate it. My tires are at 43 psi and one of them was at 34 psi, so I tried to figure out what caused the one tire to slowly lose pressure. Luckily I found the nail last night, pulled it out and repaired the hole. It has been holding the pressure so far.. Those repair kits are fairly easy to use and don't require removal of the tire. All I did was to rotate the damaged part of the tire to an accessible spot and then pulled out the nail. Also jacked up the car so that the weight of the car does not sit on top of the deflated tire. Once all the air leaked out, I used the repair kit to plug the hole and then used my compressor to inflate the tire back to the same pressure as on my other tires.. I run higher pressure for efficiency.. 43 psi.
 
Esprit1st said:
Just to mention it, there is a tire repair kit in the car. If it's only a small leak like yours, you can just inflate without using the repair kit and drive to a repair shop.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Unless no other option I would prefer to do a external plug like bluekona described than deal with the mess tire sealant introduces. Again its a shame no spare tire is offered. Here in Canada there are several months of winter that render tire sealant virtually useless, hard to dispense when very cold and it does not adhere properly in a cold tire. Probably ok for the folks in temperate coastal regions but good luck using it in Edmonton on a January morning,
 
apu said:
Unless no other option I would prefer to do a external plug like bluekona described than deal with the mess tire sealant introduces. Again its a shame no spare tire is offered. Here in Canada there are several months of winter that render tire sealant virtually useless, hard to dispense when very cold and it does not adhere properly in a cold tire. Probably ok for the folks in temperate coastal regions but good luck using it in Edmonton on a January morning,
Click to expand...
I personally always keep a tire repair kit in my car just in case.. If the tire pressure warning comes on, all I need is to make it to any gas station with a tire inflation station and do my repair right in front of the compressor so that when I'm done, I can inflate the tire back to where I want it. Of course, if there is major damage to the tire, there is no option but to get it towed or to get a spare. There is space for a spare if you remove the foam containers in the spare tire compartment. I removed mine but I did not use it for a spare. I keep some other stuff that I need in there.
 
That's mainly why I was mentioning it. No need to go to a gas station. The 12V air pump is included in the repair kit and can be hooked up to the car without the goo-repair stuff. Just inflate and your good to for another few miles.

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Jamas said:
I usually repair my flats at a local shop where they patch it from the inside vs. using a plug.
Click to expand...

Over the years, I've repaired probably 20 tires and none of my tire fixes ever had an issue.. It just takes too much time to drive to the shop, wait until they can work on your car etc. etc.. It's so much easier to just take the 10 - 15 minutes to do it myself..
 
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BlueKonaEV said:
Over the years, I've repaired probably 20 tires and none of my tire fixes ever had an issue.. It just takes too much time to drive to the shop, wait until they can work on your car etc. etc.. It's so much easier to just take the 10 - 15 minutes to do it myself..
Click to expand...
Same here. I always carry the plugs (and plugger), and they have saved me many times in the past. And never had an issue either with them leaking again at the spot. Of course, you can't do that on a sidewall, only on the tread portion.
 
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R P said:
Same here. I always carry the plugs (and plugger), and they have saved me many times in the past. And never had an issue either with them leaking again at the spot. Of course, you can do that on a sidewall, only on the tread portion.
Click to expand...
I did a sidewall repair once on my John Deere riding mower and it still doesn't leak but I wouldn't do it on a car.
 
I got "screwed" three days into ownership, and was kind of amazed when the
guy at the local shop could plug it from outside without dismounting.
I thought a "proper patch" had to be from the inside. He carefully ran
the tool in following the way the screw had, cut off the ends outside,
and told me I was good to go. Didn't even deflate it.

I ordered a donut-spare kit when I bought the car. One is available,
about $220 if I remember. Comes with the tire on a steel wheel, and
a scissor jack and lugwrench kit. DamifI'm gonna sit there and fool
with a goop kit on a winter night, I'm going to get a functional wheel
back on and get rolling. Especially if I have to get the problem tire
to someplace warmer and cleaner before dealing with it.

I use a two-speed upright bicycle pump for my inflation. Works fine,
works me a little, and doesn't deafen me like that idiot toy compressor
would. If you haven't tried yours yet it's worth doing just to see
how bad it is; bring earplugs.

60 PSI all round here, 5.5 mi/kWh...

_H*
 
hobbit said:
I got "screwed" three days into ownership, and was kind of amazed when the
guy at the local shop could plug it from outside without dismounting.
I thought a "proper patch" had to be from the inside. He carefully ran
the tool in following the way the screw had, cut off the ends outside,
and told me I was good to go. Didn't even deflate it.

I ordered a donut-spare kit when I bought the car. One is available,
about $220 if I remember. Comes with the tire on a steel wheel, and
a scissor jack and lugwrench kit. DamifI'm gonna sit there and fool
with a goop kit on a winter night, I'm going to get a functional wheel
back on and get rolling. Especially if I have to get the problem tire
to someplace warmer and cleaner before dealing with it.

I use a two-speed upright bicycle pump for my inflation. Works fine,
works me a little, and doesn't deafen me like that idiot toy compressor
would. If you haven't tried yours yet it's worth doing just to see
how bad it is; bring earplugs.

60 PSI all round here, 5.5 mi/kWh...

_H*
Click to expand...
Is that the spare for the Kona ICE shown here?
https://hyundaishop.com/2018-2020-hyundai-kona-spare-tire-kit-v028/
Not for the EV version, also shown on this ICE version:
https://www.hyundainews.com/models/hyundai-kona-2018-kona/features
and the EV version c/w no compact spare :
https://www.hyundainews.com/models/hyundai-kona-2019-kona_electric/specifications
Have you tried your compact spare kit yet? If one exists that works it would be nice to have .
Found this one for a Niro looks similar but would have to be checked (offset, lag bolt holes etc:
https://insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/kia-niro-ev-spare-tire-kit.6356/#post-71719
 
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Y'know ... I haven't actually tried mounting the donut, but the fact that your
link specifically says "does not fit Kona EV" makes me worry that the dealer
messed up and gave me an ICE kit that's too small. I did hold up the donut
to the regular wheel and eyeballed things and it *looked* right, but I couldn't
tell about brake clearance. Hmmm. on the agenda for tomorrow, esp. as
I'm going over to a [different] dealer in the morning to investigate that P0C17
resolver code I was chasing down.

_H*
 
... Aaaand ... now I feel like an idiot for not checking this sooner. The
donut actually clears on the front, barely, although the offset is about
an inch wrong. On the rear ... bam, it hits the two big bumps of the
rear caliper where the slide-pins run. So yeah, it was just plain wrong.
The donut is a 16" rim and the Kona EV really wants a 17, offset 50
if I'm reading the stock rim right.

It's unclear if anyone *makes* a 17" donut rim or a tire for it. I might
have to bite the bullet and construct a full-size (ish) spare. That will
probably fit less well, so to speak, in the half-well in the back ... the
donut slots in sort of diagonally, but clears the floorboard.

Both "hyundaistore" and "kiastuff" go to garveyauto.com. I called and
asked about this ... parts guy confirmed that they don't have a kit for
the EV, and *nothing* with a 17" rim. Meanwhile, my original dealer
is off researching options.

Eff. And here I thought I had a cute solution. The false sense of
security would have been worse up to the point of having a
rear-tire problem...

_H*
 
Last edited:
hobbit said:
... Aaaand ... now I feel like an idiot for not checking this sooner. The
donut actually clears on the front, barely, although the offset is about
an inch wrong. On the rear ... bam, it hits the two big bumps of the
rear caliper where the slide-pins run. So yeah, it was just plain wrong.
The donut is a 16" rim and the Kona EV really wants a 17, offset 50
if I'm reading the stock rim right.

It's unclear if anyone *makes* a 17" donut rim or a tire for it. I might
have to bite the bullet and construct a full-size (ish) spare. That will
probably fit less well, so to speak, in the half-well in the back ... the
donut slots in sort of diagonally, but clears the floorboard.

Both "hyundaistore" and "kiastuff" go to garveyauto.com. I called and
asked about this ... parts guy confirmed that they don't have a kit for
the EV, and *nothing* with a 17" rim. Meanwhile, my original dealer
is off researching options.

Eff. And here I thought I had a cute solution. The false sense of
security would have been worse up to the point of having a
rear-tire problem...

_H*
Click to expand...
Good think you checked , it would have been annoying if discovered when you really need it.
Back to the repair kit and sufficient jack for me.
 
I saw a notice that said,If you get a flat on the rear tire move the front tire to the rear and put the donut on the front. It is a pain , but the alternative is worse. I hit a piece of steel on the highway and blew my front tire out. A standard tow truck cannot tow an EV. You have to have a flatbed tow.Whenever you get out of an EV it goes into Park automatically. I'll take the donut. Also I have to wait 5 days for the Nexen Tire to replace because it has a 94v roll rating.I'm glad I kept my old truck.
 
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