Last updated on February 8, 2012
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En route to Cap N Cork after work I was about to cross Hayes (on 21 Mile) when I heard a thunk similar to a rock hitting my wheel well. Perhaps half a mile I found myself pulling over and getting out of the car to confirm that my tire is flat. A quick change later and I was on my way, but the nail-sized puncture hole will require some patching work. Hopefully Discount Tire or another local shop will be able to sort it out tomorrow. It looks to be a best-case-possible patchable hole.
Since I was out along side the road I had to use the trunk-mounted screw jack. This worked pretty well, except the thread on the main screw is rather fine pitched, which meant it took quite a few turns to get the vehicle off the ground. This is probably a good feature overall because it means that less effort is required to lift the vehicle, but tonight it meant a good bit more time spent out in the cold.
It’s also probably a good thing that I had one of my bicycle tire pumps with me. I checked the spare before putting it on, and it was about 20psi low. Whoops.
(Note that the second, bottom hole in the photo is not damage but instead one of the places where a stud could be fitted. My snow tires are clearly not studded.)
UPDATE: Fixed for free by Discount Tire. From what the guy at the shop said it was a screw, and a broken off part of it was left inside the tire. I suspect the THUNK sound I heard was the outer part of the screw breaking off, and that would then explain the non-immediate deflation.