Flat tire...what should I do?

Someone on the highway dropped a wood board filled with nails...I wasn't able to avoid the driver side tire from hitting them...: (

Now the front driver side tire is completely flat...I was wondering if i can try to re-inflate them and drive to costco etc to get the tire changed? (or some shop where they might patch it?) It would be less than 5 miles...

Would that be safe to do? or just have the car towed?

Thanks!

Jack the car up on the wounded corner, take off the wheel with the damaged tire, and let that corner back down onto a jack stand. Use another vehicle to carry the wheel to the repair shop of your choice.

dyyuan said:

Someone on the highway dropped a wood board filled with nails...I wasn't able to avoid the driver side tire from hitting them...: (

Now the front driver side tire is completely flat...I was wondering if i can try to re-inflate them and drive to costco etc to get the tire changed? (or some shop where they might patch it?) It would be less than 5 miles...

Would that be safe to do? or just have the car towed?

Thanks!

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Call AAA and let them take care of it. Go grab some tea while they come and fix it.

Driving 5 miles on a flat/blow-out will ruin the rim for sure and you will might get other damage depending on what your roads are like. Doesn't Nissan have some sort of Roadside Assistance that is included with the Leaf? I thought it was when I bought it, but I didn't care because we have AAA on all cars (for pretty much this reason).

Nissan's Roadside Assistance will generally only tow the car to a Nissan dealership, where the prices are...noncompetitive. AAA generally wants a spare tire to work with. For that reason and others, some of us have opted to sacrifice a bit of space in the back, and carry a spare. There are two or three topics here on this.

LeftieBiker said:

Nissan's Roadside Assistance will generally only tow the car to a Nissan dealership, where the prices are...noncompetitive. AAA generally wants a spare tire to work with. For that reason and others, some of us have opted to sacrifice a bit of space in the back, and carry a spare. There are two or three topics here on this.

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AAA will tow you anywhere you want (even a residential driveway) within so many miles of where you called. Since all of our cars are Japanese and super dependable we have yet to need AAA for an actual tow. My mom and sister have used them to open the car when they locked the keys in it, and the rest of the time we use it to just tow cars back forth between houses for free.

dyyuan said:

I was wondering if i can try to re-inflate them and drive to costco etc to get the tire changed? (or some shop where they might patch it?) It would be less than 5 miles...

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If it was a slow enough leak, I would do that. But if it's leaking too fast to make it that far, then pull the wheel off and carry it/hitch a ride to costco.

LeftieBiker said:

Nissan's Roadside Assistance will generally only tow the car to a Nissan dealership, where the prices are...noncompetitive...

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FALSE

In my experience, both are TRUE...

DaveinOlyWA said:

LeftieBiker said:

Nissan's Roadside Assistance will generally only tow the car to a Nissan dealership, where the prices are...noncompetitive...

Click to expand...

FALSE

Click to expand...

DaveinOlyWA said:

LeftieBiker said:

Nissan's Roadside Assistance will generally only tow the car to a Nissan dealership, where the prices are...noncompetitive...

Click to expand...

FALSE

Click to expand...

My own personal experience says that this statement is TRUE, not false. I had a blowout flat on my then-new 2012 Leaf on a Sunday morning at 1am. Seeing as it was really late at night, I just wanted to get home, but Nissan Roadside would only tow me to a Nissan dealer. I said fine, take me to the dealer nearest to my house and I'll get a ride from there. When the actual tow truck driver called me 45 minutes later to say he was near, he told me that only the car was being picked up (!), I was being left on the side of the road to find my own way home. It turns out that the car was actually being taken to the tow truck lot until Monday morning, when it would be dropped off at the service dept of the Nissan dealer I had chosen. The driver then offered to tow me for $80 to a nearby (about 1 mile) road with a number of 24hour tire repair shops. Ultimately, I had a friend with AAA meet me and let me use his account to tow the car to the nearest tire repair place, where I bought a new tire for $200 at 4am.

Bottom line, become a member of AAA!

TomT said:

In my experience, both are TRUE...

DaveinOlyWA said:

LeftieBiker said:

Nissan's Roadside Assistance will generally only tow the car to a Nissan dealership, where the prices are...noncompetitive...

Click to expand...

FALSE

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Click to expand...

I have been towed 3 times due to flat tires.

once to the dealership (only because it was the earliest option for opening since the incident happened at 4 am)

once to the firestone dealership (only because it was during business hours and I could pick anywhere)

and once to my driveway.

Thanks for all the help guys!

I actually have towing from 3 different sources, Nissan, AAA and my insurance...never thought i'd need them, but you never know : )
I called Nissan roadside last night, and the really nice lady told me they can only tow it to a dealership...so that's out of the window...

This morning, i inflate the tire up to see if it'd leak fast or slow (and so I can move it out of my driveway which is a bit slanted to a flat surface), it leaked pretty fast...went from 40psi to flat in about 10 min.

At this point, I am not sure if the tire can actually be patched, as the board I ran over at 60mph was full of nails...the tire might just have too many punctures...

From experience, tire shop usually try to sell you tires in pairs right?

I think I'll have AAA come today and tow the car to either costco or america's tire to get two new tires...


Thanks.

dyyuan said:

Thanks for all the help guys!

I actually have towing from 3 different sources, Nissan, AAA and my insurance...never thought i'd need them, but you never know : )
I called Nissan roadside last night, and the really nice lady told me they can only tow it to a dealership...so that's out of the window...

This morning, i inflate the tire up to see if it'd leak fast or slow (and so I can move it out of my driveway which is a bit slanted to a flat surface), it leaked pretty fast...went from 40psi to flat in about 10 min.

At this point, I am not sure if the tire can actually be patched, as the board I ran over at 60mph was full of nails...the tire might just have too many punctures...

From experience, tire shop usually try to sell you tires in pairs right?

I think I'll have AAA come today and tow the car to either costco or america's tire to get two new tires...


Thanks.

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well that is questionable since I did not have towing on my insurance until I got the Corolla and I have never had my 2013 towed so I think it is truly up to the tow truck driver when they arrive because they always asked me where I wanted to go

Ahh, dealing with flats ... more complex and a bigger PITA now that many mfg's have designed out carrying around a spare (even the compact doughnut-style ones); we have AAA which towed my former smart '08 coupe to my home as the wife ran over one of those road reflectors that popped out and looked like a prison 'sheave' that stabbed the tire so bad it needed to be replaced (yes, smart gives you a can-o-goop to fill 'small' leaks, no spare). The nice thing about AAA is they flat-bed it so no worry on damaging it.

As others have said, dealing with it depends on how bad the leak is, how old your tires are (if relatively new and its needs to be replaced, just the one tire is OK, well worn ones need at least the pair); how far away from home or your dealer you are and if you yourself are prepared to 'store' the car in your garage while farming out replacing or repairing it. Slow leaks give you more options, totally flat tires less so -- I will say though that some mfg's have kept full-size spares and even though you're carrying around more weight, it gives you some piece of mind. My main long trip car (VW Touareg) has a full-size spare + we have AAA as well as VW roadside assistance (no stipulation on distance to dealer) so no worries being 500 or more miles from home if we get a flat. Our '12 LEAF is due for new tires soon, so if we did get a flat, it would be towed to my guy who does the routine maintenance (again, its a commuter car so never too far away).

I was called Nissan once, early on before I took flat fixing in to my own hands, and was told they would tow me ONLY to a dealer during business hours. After hours only, they would CONSIDER towing me to another business or home. I used my Triple A coverage. Many have reported similar experiences. Perhaps it is an L.A. thing...

DaveinOlyWA said:

I have been towed 3 times due to flat tires.
once to the dealership (only because it was the earliest option for opening since the incident happened at 4 am)
once to the firestone dealership (only because it was during business hours and I could pick anywhere
and once to my driveway.

Click to expand...

TomT said:

I was called Nissan once, early on before I took flat fixing in to my own hands, and was told they would tow me ONLY to a dealer during business hours. After hours only, they would CONSIDER towing me to another business or home. I used my Triple A coverage. Many have reported similar experiences. Perhaps it is an L.A. thing...

DaveinOlyWA said:

I have been towed 3 times due to flat tires.
once to the dealership (only because it was the earliest option for opening since the incident happened at 4 am)
once to the firestone dealership (only because it was during business hours and I could pick anywhere
and once to my driveway.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

ya, looks like its totally up to the tow truck driver. the one time I had it towed to the dealer was not during business hours but the tow truck driver was familiar enough with the dealership that he said that would be the fastest service and he was right. I had new tires by 8 AM. Now that I have a car I deem "less reliable" I have added towing to my insurance and have used it on the Corolla twice now in the last 3 months. My 2013 has yet to be towed and wondering if Nissan did not quietly improve the quality of the tires?

AAA came within 30 min, towed it to America's Tire, they found and fixed 3 punctures...I now have my car back!

Been driving and watching the tire psi on LeafSpy, and it seems to be ok so far.

thanks!

I'm glad you didn't have to buy a new tire.

Punctures in the tread are generally easy to patch. Assuming they did it correctly, you should have no problems with the tire.

Problems arise when you get a puncture in the sidewall, or a lengthy cut anywhere.

I think I'd still replace the tire at my leisure, with several punctures. If there is lots of tread left, sell it on Craigslist, and mention the patches.

buy an Altima spare donut and keep it in your trunk (or some people here have great mods for spare tires). I refuse to have no spare tire !

S