Slow leak – 1
Me – 0
After ruling out that someone was out to get me Sunday morning at church, I determined a slow leak must be the cause of my almost flat tire in the church parking lot. We drove to the convenience store on the corner and the ‘pay’ for air machine was out of order. On a side note, I need to add that I despise the idea of paying for air, someone got rich on that idea, I’m sure. Having a near flat, I would have paid the price, but I’m thankful it was broken. We drove a few blocks farther and found a convenience store that actually provided complimentary air. BONUS!  We aired up and were back on the road.  I might have just changed the tire, but (stay with me on this):
- I have not had a flat tire in years on any car
- A couple months ago, I discovered I had 2 flat tires on my riding mower
- I needed 2 jacks to jack the mower up to get the 2 tires off
- The mower has 4 good tires now
- 2 jacks are on the shed floor next to the mower with 4 good tires
- 0 jacks are in either car I own, including the one with the flat
My best bet on Sunday was to air it up and hope for the best. Of course, as soon as I got home, I put the jack and all the paraphanelia back in the trunk. The tire in question held up until this morning (Tuesday), I went out to leave for work and had to air it up. Then, tonight, after driving out to the boondocks to do some work, I wandered around town finding some cheap dinner, then on the way home, I had the thought that I should check the status. I’m glad I did because it was nearly flat again.
The leak is gaining on me, it only held up about 12 hours. I was actually nearly in front of church, coincidentally, so I whipped around and headed back to my convenience store of choice, with the free air, and filled ‘er up again. At that point, I decided it was time to bite the bullet and change it, but I knew by the time I got home, it would be dark. So, I changed the tire right there in the parking lot.
I learned 2 things during that experience.
- I had a brand new, full-size tire in the trunk, not a little donut, a full-size tire, brand spankin’ new! I had no idea it was in that condition.
- If a lugnut is stuck and you turn it hard enough, the lug breaks off. (I don’t even know if that’s what you call them, but it would seem to me that the lugnut is the nut that goes on the lug)Â Regardless of the name, I broke one off and I’m sure that translates into more money out of pocket for me.
It figures that I would get a flat at this point, not only being jackless, but I only wanted 5000 more miles out of my back tires and was going to replace them. I’ve got 2 new tires in the front and on the next rotation, I was planning to rotate a couple of new ones in.
At this point, I’m thinking of buying 1 tire to match the spare and put the 1 tire that still holds air in the trunk as the spare because I don’t need a brand new tire as a spare. If I make it as long between flats, I’ve got another 10 years or so before I’ll need it, which means it won’t be for this car anyway.