A tire pressure light comes on your dashboard while you are driving. You are not sure what that light means, so you pull over to the side of the road, and you look up the meaning of the flashing light. You read online that that light means that your tire pressure is low and you are in the process of getting a flat tire which means that you will need to get a tire repair in the near future. You realize that you are nowhere near an auto repair shop and you have read that driving on a flat tire will only make the situation worse. Now you are stuck and don’t know what to do next. Here are three steps of what to do next after you have discovered a flat tire.
Inspect the Tire
After you have pulled over to the side of the road or to the nearest gas station, you need to inspect the tire to see where the air is coming out of and how big the hole is. If the hole in the tire is small, then you may be able to save your tire by getting the hole plugged. If the hole is too big for the tire to get plugged, then you may have to come out of pocket to receive a whole new tire. The only way that you can really see what happened to the tire is to fully remove the tire off of the car.
Replace the Damaged Tire with a Spare
No matter how small the puncture may be on the tire, it was big enough to have the pressure decrease so now the damaged tire has to be replaced with a spare until you get to an auto shop to receive a tire repair. The spare tire is not a permanent replacement tire. It is only to be used until you are able to get your tire fixed. If you do not know how to take a tire off of your car and put a spare on, there are videos, guides, and tutorials online that you can utilize to help with this process. You would need certain tools to help as well.
Putting the Spare onto the Car
Majority of the cars that are on the road today has a spare tire in the trunk for situations like this. Some people call the spare tire a “doughnut.” The doughnut may have distance and speed limitations on it so be sure to pay attention. Some cars may come equipped with a tire repair kit. If you are lucky enough to have both things, then you are heading in the right direction. Like it has been mentioned above, once you have discovered those items, you can follow either the guides, videos, or tutorials on what to do next.
Having anything terrible happen to your car is unfortunate especially if you are alone. With these three steps, you should be able to assess the damage and be back on the road in no time.