Take the tire off the car, fill a spray bottle with water and a little dish soap and squirt it around until you find the bubbles (leak). If it's on the sidewall chances are you need a new tire. If it's on the tread they sell the sticky string patch kits at any auto parts store for cheap. Keep it in your car with a can of fix-a-flat and you can get yourself out of a jam pretty quick. I had a sizeable screw stuck in the car yesterday and we were back on the road in five minutes.

Fix-A-Flat will ruin your rim if you don't get it cleaned out asap.  Aluminum rims will be a gonner very quickly, steel will start to rust after the fixaflat eats up the paint/powdercoat.

Take the tire off the car, fill a spray bottle with water and a little dish soap and squirt it around until you find the bubbles (leak). If it's on the sidewall chances are you need a new tire. If it's on the tread they sell the sticky string patch kits at any auto parts store for cheap. Keep it in your car with a can of fix-a-flat and you can get yourself out of a jam pretty quick. I had a sizeable screw stuck in the car yesterday and we were back on the road in five minutes.

I wrench for a living and started from the ground up fixing and changing tires.  Plug kits and the use of fix-a-flat are some of the worst things to use on a tire you plan on keeping and using for 20k miles or more.  I have noticed more tire separations in time when these methods are used.  The preferred method of repair is using a plug patch  that most tire shops are currently using.  In my personal vehicle I will slap on the spare if need be.  The only time I would ever consider using a plug is if I am stuck behind the mountain on a trail in the boonies and my spare is flat because I neglected to check it prior to leaving the house.  If I used the plug as my only need of repair I would head straight to a tire shop for the correct repair.

At my current job we still use Tech Tire plugs on the fleet.  But being these vehicles only see off road use, tires only last 2k miles, and speeds of up to 30 mph, using plugs are the cost effective measure of repair here.  I have had tires here with as much as 15 plugs, but the sad part is the tires are bald within 2k miles anyway.

Sorry, I leaped to the possibility that the WA in FATMANWA referred to the state.  Not the first time my leaps landed me on my butt.

You would actually be right and I stated so on a previous forum about what my name means. But it is my home state and not where I currently reside.

Take the tire off the car, fill a spray bottle with water and a little dish soap and squirt it around until you find the bubbles (leak). If it's on the sidewall chances are you need a new tire. If it's on the tread they sell the sticky string patch kits at any auto parts store for cheap. Keep it in your car with a can of fix-a-flat and you can get yourself out of a jam pretty quick. I had a sizeable screw stuck in the car yesterday and we were back on the road in five minutes.

Yea I found the piece causing trouble a few days ago, and could of fixed it myself if I really wanted to (used to be a mechanic). But I am to lazy to go down to the hobby shop on base and take off the tire and use a good plug/patch. Plus I got the warrenty from Firestone so that saved me an extra $30 to fix it.

BTW, does anyone know of a school localy that has a autoclass? Might let them work on some small things on my car if the school lets them.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm glad all my DIY jobs are on crappy old ones so far. Still it would be nice to make sure the guys you are paying to do things the 'right' way are actually going through all the motions in the video below.

Still it would be nice to make sure the guys you are paying to do things the 'right' way are actually going through all the motions in the video below.

 

Look at the bright side, if it fails you know who to blame/sue...... if you survive the wreck.