I have to deal with a flat tire about once per year, it seems. Of course, I’m responsible for maintenance on 5 vehicles that are all driven daily so my sample size is large. It’s always one of 2 things 1) road debris; or 2) sidewall damage due to hitting curb or pothole. I don’t think I’ve had a manufacturing failure since recaps were a big thing 20 years ago.
I checked “within the last 8 years,” but that’s probably not quite right.
One of the wheels on my previous car (a 2001 PT Cruiser) became a bit bent due to a pothole, and would slowly lose air – except that, on occasion, it would rapidly lose air. I had to inflate the tire a few times, and actually put the spare on once, but that may have been closer to 10 years ago.
I haven’t had to address a flat tire in my current car (2012 Mustang); in fact, the car doesn’t even come with a spare tire! It has a little compressor, and a can of sealant, but that’s it.
In the last month my wife’s car suffered a nail in a tire twice. Fortunately, both were in the inter-tread space, where they can be removed and plugged. $30 and an hour wait each time.
The last one was about a month ago when my daughter called me that she’d had a flat on her way home. She had it jacked up and the old tire removed, but the retaining bolt on the spare was corroded and she couldn’t get it loose. Applied some lithium grease to the threads for moisture protection when putting everything back.
Prior to that I managed to clip a curb while navigating the DFW airport about a year ago and discovered my donut had low pressure. Had to call their service line to get someone out with a compressor.
The last time I remember changing a tire was somewhere around 2000.
I suppose there’s an asterisk; when I had a tire with a slow leak in 2013, I figured it was time to replace all four tires (which came with the car, in mid-2009). I had replaced all four on my earlier car about three years after I bought it, but I bought high-mileage tires and never had a problem with them. Usually, when I had to change a tire, I noticed that the steel belting on the inside side of the tire was beginning to show.
I have been carrying a 12V compressor in my car for years and years. Have used it now and then, but not lately. A few years back, we had a low tire, so we put some slime into it, added pressure, and all was peachy for the next ~7K miles of our trip. Tirewise, anyway. That might have been the year we dropped the tailpipe off the manifold going down the highway. Fun times.
If the internal belting is showing through the shoulder strip and sidewall the tire is well past the point of needing a change. That is a dangerous condition.
Stranger
In March of this year, I changed the right rear tire on our F-150 in the parking lot of a garden center (turns out I’d driven over the blade of a utility knife, as shown to me by the shop that replaced the tire later that day). I hadn’t changed a tire previously in probably 15 years.
It took about five minutes to actually change the tire, but only after about half an hour of figuring out how to get the jack out of the cab of the pickup and remove the spare underneath the bed. Part of the problem was that I didn’t have my reading glasses with me, and I had a really hard time reading the manual.
I really should have been more familiar with the process, I know – I was very lucky to be able to change the tire in a non-busy parking lot and not, say, at the side of a highway during rush hour.
Three repairs/replacements in the last 12 months, one of them literally today. I work near a metal recycling facility and around other industrial processes. It’s a regular occurrence for me, though three in a year IS a higher rate than usual - I typically average a nail/screw every other year.
Thankfully all three of these recent ones were slow leaks and didn’t require tire changes in the field. Sadly one did require tire replacement due to the position on the edge of the sidewall and a developing blister. But I’ve changed many a tire in the parking lot at my job.
Blowout on the interstate about 7 years ago. Luckily there was a tire shop open at the next exit since we were still a couple hundred miles from home. Since then I’ve had to put in some plugs but in the comfort of my own garage. Also had a nail through the sidewall but the tire held air long enough to get it to a shop.
Hey, they were applauding that you didn’t come over and ask for help! Just take your bow!
I had to have a slow leak repaired a few months ago, but the last and only time I had to have the spare put on was a few winters ago. I misjudged a snowy granite curb and ripped a hole in the side of the tire.
I do know how to change a tire! But my (male) co-worker did it for me, I think out of a sense of duty.
- The doughnut which was supposed to be 60 PSI was at 20.
- Did I mention it was in a snowstorm?
- I went to one gas station and the handle of the air pump had been cut clean off.
- I went to the next gas station and couldn’t get the air pump to work.
- Did I mention it was snowing heavily?
- I finally limped to the tire place and got a new pair of snows, which luckily they still had since it was early spring.
- I got an air compressor thingie after reading about it on the Dope so maybe I will be able to fill my own spare next time! (I also have AAA.)
I had three flats in quick succession (two in a weekend.) The problem turned out to be defective valve stems.
A month ago a valve stem failed. I was lucky that the car was already parked in the garage, the tire was flat as a pancake; it was tricky to even get the scissor jack under the car.