My old BMW 330i had a built-in toolkit in the trunk containing:
Had to replace the battery recently, but the staff at Wal-Mart were AWOL, so I had to do it myself in the parking lot. The toolkit saved my butt.
If you are interested in vintage racing, there is one near you 18-19 August in Mission BC. Several MGBs are registered.
My 2006 Pathfinder came with a pretty good first aid kit. It’s prescient, but probably a poor marketing tool. “And look, when your bleeding to death next to the road, we have this handy first aid kit!”
(And it’s a dam good idea). I must admit, I’ve used it.
When I had an MG Midget I always carried a can of spray starter. If the weather called for temps below 70, the damn car wouldn’t start without a nudge.
Fortunately, my engine is ‘new’ and the choke works quite well. 
I have a bunch of flashlights around the house. But of course I had to buy a new one for the MG. Two, actually. I’ve ordered two Mini Maglite AA LED ones, one red and the other silver. I’ll swap the ends so that one has a silver body with red ends, and one has a red body with silver ends. Nice MG colours. The former will go into the tool roll, and the latter will go in the glove compartment.
Some BMW’s have first aid kits, but unless you read the manual, you’ll never find them. Hidden in little spots in the top of the rear seat sometimes, or behind secret panels. Unmarked.
Several years ago I was planning a camping trip with my father and my two sons. We went up into the Cascades in Oregon to scout some camping sites. We were on an old logging road up on a mountains somewhere, miles form anywhere where other people might be, and suddenly the car just… died. It was a 1984 Toyota Tercel with a carbureted 4cyl engine. I realized, sitting on a strip of dirt on the top of a mountain, that we had no tools with us—not even a Leatherman. My dad’s theory was that it was simply suffering vapor lock so we popped the hood and let it cool for a while. After an hour it started and we quickly headed back down hill and back to civilization.
That weekend I went to K Mart and put together a toolkit to carry in the car. The basics are:
-a set of combo wrenches, SAE and metric
-Phillips and standard screwdrivers
I keep the tool bag in the back in an old milk crate, along with a 12v air pump, some armor-all, some windshield cleaner, a roll of paper towels, and some jump cables.
I actually had to use it for the first time just a couple weeks ago when the top radiator hose on my car (not the Toyota, that was at least three cars ago. This is an '06 Grand Prix) split. I pulled over, popped the hood, pulled off the hose, and called my wife for a ride to the parts house.
I still need to get a few other things that this thread has reminded me of. I need to get a Leatherman, the kind with the changeable driver bits, and put it in the glove box so I know I’ll always have that should I foolishly remove my tool kit and forget to put it back. I need to get a portable jump starter like enipla notes. I also should carry a blanket and a couple liters of water.
And since the milk crate tends to migrate around the trunk, I really, really need to find something else to put all this stuff in.
My first car was a VW Bug that I loved. It’s only problem was very soft wheels. If I hit a pothole, that tire would go flat due to a bent rim. I carried a little compressor. My routine was to quickly jack the wheel off the ground, hook up the compressor, then inflate the tire while I beat the rim back into shape. It happened maybe once a week.
My jack, ball peen hammer, and compressor were all I needed to keep that car going.
You might like this handy chart: https://farm1.staticflickr.com/978/41303889845_5c9019e273_z.jpg
Since my car is relatively new, my tool kit consists of a LED flashlight in the glovebox and a Visa card in my wallet. 
Toolkit in my Midget days was bus fare. Nowadays it’s the cell phone. As a hobbit, I never leave the shire anymore so I don’t need no satellite service. In 35 years I’ve only ever had one incident requiring a field repair. Wheel popped off the Pathfinder in BF Wyoming. Got it towed to a parts store (quite a long ride with me, the kids, and the ex-bride), replaced the brake disc, a few studs and a new set of lug nuts in the parking lot. The store lent me the tools. Still, the most important tool was that cell phone.
My car is so over-maintained that I really do not expect any sudden failure. I just changed the rear axles and axle bearings because I heard a slight squeak, yeah I am that guy. (it was needed, a bearing had gone). And it has its own special building fully stocked with every tool needed, I just need to get it home if something were to fail. So cell phone is the major tool I keep. There is not a lot of space for a tool kit.
But I do keep a few things in the car. An air compressor that has saved me and many other motorists and allowed them to get to a safe spot when a tire goes flat. It is pretty rare for a tire to get a hole so large that you can’t get a few more miles by pumping it up. And also a 4 way lug wrench for those times when a tire change is needed. The stamped metal lug wrench that comes with the jack on most modern cars are just pitiful and round out on a stubborn nut. If the car even comes with one and a donut spare, some newer cars don’t
And a backup power supply. A nifty little thing that is about one inch thick and the size of a cell phone, that has jumper cables and can plug into aux power supplies, that will actually start a car. Full charge will start a car, it has green and red lights that blink and after you have hooked it up for a few minutes it goes green and you start the car.
The air compressor kit is under the driver’s seat and the power supply is under the passenger seat.
Put me in the category of people who carry mostly consumables (water, coolant, oil, transmission fluid, fuses, spare oil filler cap, universal radiator hose, etc.) and “instant fix” stuff (electrical tape, duck tape, tie wraps, metal strap, etc.) Nearly every time I’ve broken down, I could patch things up and limp to the next place down the road or a shop. And, in most cases, I have lots of it (e.g., 3 gallons of water, 3 or 4 quarts of oil). I also carry a spare battery most of the time.
My car is only two years old and under warranty. But I ALWAYS have, and have in every car I’ve owned, a tire plug kit, a small air compressor that plugs into the cigarette lighter (or whatever they’re called now), and a bottle of Windex. If I hit a nail, and the tire is losing air, I can plug it and air it up. If I lose the nail, so I can’t find the hole through a visual inspection, I can spray the tire down with Windex, and look for bubbles.
As long as the hole is in the tread, it’s pluggable. Tire shops will tell you that patches are better, but I have never had a plug fail. I have gotten holes in tires miles away from anything, and been very glad that I didn’t have to actually change the tire, especially if I didn’t happen to have my full-sized spare with me.
This probably doesn’t matter for the OP, but for other people, I always get a full-sized spare for my cars. I don’t carry it all the time, because the donut will do around town, but if I go on a long trip on the highway, I throw the full-sized spare in the trunk. The donut spares are 50/50s-- 50 miles, 50mph. A full-sized spare can be a rim from a junkyard car, and a used tire. The tire may have been a 40,000 mile tire that has “only” 10,000 miles left, but that’s a lot more than 50, and you can drive 70mph on it. I’ve had to put full-sized spares on cars twice while on road trips, and was SO glad I had them.
I carry an air compressor that connects to the power port, a battery operated flasher thingie to warn traffic, jumper cables, water, snacks, cash, and in winter I add a blanket and extra clothes, ice scraper and kitty litter.
For an MG, really all you need is a gallon of British Green paint and a Leatherman that has a bottle opener on it to open the pints of ale you and your dearest friends will consume while pondering and pontificating upon your broken down vehicle.
My father could repair cars, growing up on a farm and all, but he didn’t pass that along. I have jumper cables and a Fix-a-flat. Since this is Taiwan, we’re never that far away from a repair shop.
Great thread. I have a 1963 classic that I’ll be taking next summer on a 5,000 mile road trip. I will need a good tool kit and a good assortment of spare parts.
I also carry an OBD reader, as my older BMWs are fond of occasionally throwing an engine light. I can determine if it’s something new and serious or old and familiar (the '02 refuses to believe she has new oxy sensors).
My X3’s is so secret I’ve yet to run across it. I should Google it . . .
Posted in 2004 in a forum:
