Flat Tire – Not a Well Grounded Situation
A flat tire is a condition when the air inside the tire leaks out due to various reasons and the vehicle sinks down slightly. Flat tires account for a large percentage of breakdown assistance sought by road travellers. When one experiences a flat tire, the common next steps are to guide the vehicle to a safe area and replace the flat tire with a spare tire that one must be carrying, or get the flat tire itself repaired using common techniques. There are some classes of tires that allow one to drive even with a flat. These are called “run flat tires”.
The most frequent reasons for a flat tire is air leak (also called puncture) due to a small nail or a screw getting into the tire. The other reasons for getting a flat tire can be: the valve of the tire becoming faulty allowing the air to leak, the tread of the tire may have worn out resulting in air loss or a defect in the rim of the tyre or general wear and tear.
Unless one is having a run flat tire, it is impossible to drive a vehicle with a flat tire (in Denmark we call that Har du brug for hjælp med et fladt dæk). Driving so will cause a vehicle to wobble, lose control and an accident may happen. Therefore when one has a flat tire, one has to stop the vehicle, move it to a safe zone, and use the appropriate process to fix the flat (removing the tire, finding the leak, fixing the leak, putting the tire back on and inflating the tire to the specified pressure). Sometimes, though people have all the tools, they may not have the knowhow to fix the flat. It is advisable in this case to seek roadside assistance and get the replacement tire fixed and then take the flat tire to an auto garage to fix it. Improper techniques to fix the flat tire will cause the tire to lose its speed ratings or reliability. Also, tire manufacturers normally recommend any puncture up to one-fourth inch diameter to be fixed via puncture fix techniques. They do not recommend any repairs caused due to tread punctures, shoulder punctures or sidewalls.
Repairing of a flat tire is commonly done using patch repair method. To do this, one has to remove the tire using the tools available in one’s car – a jack, a lug wrench, a hand air pump and a spare tire. Then the puncture is identified, marked and a patch applied. Another quick way to get a flat tire fixed is to use a sealant. The sealant is stored in a compressed format in a can. The can’s nozzle is attached to the valve and releases the sealant into the tire. The liquid forms a layer inside the tire and blocks the puncture. This is especially useful for smaller punctures.
A flat tire may happen even without having a puncture: wrongly inflated tires will lose air, weather conditions may cause air to be leaked and sometimes a faulty valve may cause air to leak and also a tire can fully deflate with no outside intervention.
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