When it comes to your Toyota car, you are going to want to make sure that you are never left without a spare tire. However, not everyone has a spare tire when it comes to an emergency. The good news is that they make tire plugs for cars. These are little kits that you can use to plug up holes in all of the popular Toyota brands, including the Corolla, Highlander, Supra, and many more.
The first thing that you have to do is buy one of these tire plug kits to keep in your car at all times. A lot of people like keeping these in the car anyway, because they are much smaller than a spare tire. Not only that, but they are a lot easier to use; meaning that just about anyone can use them. Something else that you may want to have is a can of compressed air. A lot of times, there are cans that you can buy that have compressed air in them with a solution that goes in the tire. Although this kind of can would not fix a big hole in a tire like a plug would, it would help a plug out. Not only that, but if you have a hole in your tire, you are not going to be able to drive on it after you patch it up, because there would be no air pressure left. These cans can put air pressure back into your tire to make it drivable again.
Steps to Using a Tire Plug
The first step is to find the foreign object that got stuck in your tire. It is a good idea to pull this object out with a pair of pliers. Make sure you do this in the same direction as the tire's tread goes. Next, you may want to use something to mark the spot of the hole so that you do not lose it. Next, you will need to jack the car up and remove the tire if the puncture is in a spot that is hard to locate. Also, you may want to do this so that you can move the tire to a safe location away from the side of the road.
At this point, you will want to take the rasp that is included in your kit, quickly insert it, and remove it from the hole. See, this is going to make the hole rough. You will want to do this so that the cement that comes with the patch kit can easily bond to the tire. Now you need to locate the plug that comes with the kit you have. You may also want to pull out the cement at this time. Put on the cement, and use the insertion tool to stick the plug into the hole. Be sure to leave about ½ inch of the plug still outside of the tire. After that, you will have to pull the insertion tool out very straight and very quickly. When you pull it out be sure to leave the plug inside.
After all of that, you will want to cut the plug so that it becomes flush with the tire and the surrounding tire tread. If you have removed the tire from the Toyota, then it would now be time to put it back on. After replacing the tire, you will want to read the directions on the back of the compressed air to fill back up the tire.
A Quick Note about Plug Kits
Please note that after patching up your tire you are going to want to get a new one just as soon as possible. Although plug kits work really well, they are not a permitted fix by any means to a blown out tire. Driving on them for long time spans is not safe. Be sure to read in your plug kit directions about how long you can drive on these plugs. Some of them only last long enough to get you to the store to get a new tire. There is no reason why you would want to take a chance at blowing out the plug while driving around for too long.
