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Welcome to the Grok Shop! In this video
I'm gonna show how you can repair your
tire from a puncture caused by a nail or
a screw using a kit from Amazon which
costs about the same amount as it cost
to take it to the shop and have it
repaired there. So you can see a screw I
found embedded in one of my tires just
by random inspection. This is a great
example of why you want to be checking
your tires at regular intervals maybe
once every time you stop to get gas
or something like that, because if you
don't catch it in time, you will end up
with a flat tire and of course, more
headaches. So it is very much possible to
make this repair with the wheel on the
car, especially if it's one of the front
wheels because you can turn the wheels
out and rotate the tire so you can get
to the damaged area more easily. The rear
wheels are a little more difficult. My
puncture is actually on the front tire but
in the interest of better quality videos
I decided to take it on off. So here of
course I'm just loosening up the lug
nuts with the wheels still on the ground.
Next we're going to jack it on up with
our hydraulic floor jack and find that
nice flat spot on the frame. This is a
Honda Element and this is really the
best spot on these cars.
So now I'll just ease her on down onto a
jack stand, back out the lug nuts the
rest of the way and take the wheel on
off. Next just prop the wheel up on
something stable. OK, at this point we
don't want to completely remove the
foreign object but I'm just making a
quick check to see what I'm going to
need since it's a screw and in a lot of
cases you can just literally unscrew it
so here I'm going to just test it out
and partly unscrew it and screw it back
in a little bit. For this project I'm
trying out a new kit from Tooluxe. It's
pretty cool; it's got a rasp, it's got
some grease, the needle of course and the
strings and it comes with this case. Now
one thing the kit doesn't come with is
vulcanizing glue. Sometimes you may want
to add vulcanizing glue if you have a
particularly large hole or if you've
made a repair without the glue that
started to leak. If you're considering
buying one of these kits I think this
one represents a pretty good value. I'll
link it in the description below for you
guys. So in the first step we want to get
our rasp out and then optionally you can
grease it up by adding some of the
included silicone grease. It helps to get
it started, but the idea of the rasp is
you want to make the hole a uniform size
so that the plugs will fit in there well.
So I'm just going to rub the grease all
up and down the edge of the rasp here.
Next I'll go ahead and unscrew the screw
from the tire and I'll be ready as soon
as the screw comes out to insert the
rasp so I don't lose too much air
pressure & I don't need to re-inflate it.
In order to do the repair,
depending on the size of the puncture
you have, it might take a little bit of
elbow grease to get the rasp tool all
the way in. Once you get it in there you
just want to keep twisting it, moving it
up and down some, and you'll know when it
starts to get a little easier to move -
your hole is ready to go. Next up we'll be
using the needle or insertion tool. I
chose to add grease to this as well. It's
not totally necessary but it doesn't
really hurt anything and it may help
seal the hole up even better. Okay next
we're going to grab a string and insert
it through the eye of the needle. These
strings are super sticky.
If you scrunch flat one end of the
string, it'll help it to go in the needle
easier.
Pull the string halfway through the
needle so it's even on both sides okay
next we want to pull the rasp on out and
begin inserting our string. To get the
string in, we'll just push straight in
with the needle / insertion tool
until the strings about a quarter of an
inch sticking out of the tire. With these
strings that took a fair amount of force.
I found a little bit of slight twisting
action helped to get the string in more.
Of course, you want the string to be
tight in there anyway. If it's too
loosey-goosey and it goes in too easy,
it might not seal very well. By the way,
the little round disc on the insertion
tool - my understanding is this is to hold
the string in the tire. when you pull the
tool out, if the string has a tendency to
want to come out, you can use that to
hold the string in but I didn't have to
do it on this repair. If I have to do it
on any future repairs I'll post up in
the notes. Once your strings are set to
the right depth you just pull straight
out on the needle and it'll actually
release the string and leave it in the
tire.
OK next just take your favorite razor
blade and trim off any excess string
that's sticking above the surface of the
tire.
OK next we want to inflate the tire to
the proper inflation for your car. My car,
I have 35 pounds normally and so I lost
- looks like about five or six pounds in
the process here. Not too bad. So I'll go
ahead and inflate it back up to 35. OK
now with the tire properly inflated, we
just want to do a quick leak test. So
take some soapy water, put it in a spray
bottle and then just spray down the area
around the repair really well and look
for leaks. A leak will show up as large
bubbles if any. OK having seen no
leaks, I'll go ahead and mount the wheel
back on the car. OK for those of you
who know my videos, always use a torque
wrench for putting your wheel back on
always tighten in a star pattern never
use an impact wrench to tighten the lug
nuts only use the impact wrench to take
lug nuts off and of course check your
owners manual for the proper torque for
your wheel lug nuts.
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OK lastly you just want to monitor the
air pressure for the next few days and
after you've been driving around for a
while keep a check on it. This is what it
looks like after you've ridden the car
for a while.
It just sort of blends in with the tire
and so far, after several months, this
repair is holding strong. So that's it
for this video be sure to stay tuned for
more car repair and maintenance work but
as far as repairing a puncture and your
tire goes, that's how it's done
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