In the trunk Fix a Flat...WARNING
 

Hey.. So i have a little story to share here. I have to say i am disapointed with the results of the fix a flat in an emergency I was driving along RT 16 in Medway Ma.. when the car in front of me last minute swirved around something which i was too late to do the same. I hit a small mudflap with three bolts in the road which punctured my front passanger tire. ( a winter tire) .. it gave me an immediate flat tire..

So i was really upset.. ! Stuck in the road.. no one to help it sucked. Anyway.. a nice guy came by and helped me remove the mud flap using a pry bar.. and i remembered the fix a flat tire repair that came with the car.. so i got out the manual... and the compressor.. and the blasted jug of fix a flat... and proceded to fill my tire... It worked.. filled my tire with enough air to get to the closest dealer about four miles away..

The dealer then threw three plugs into it being it was the end of the day.. they told me to go to the place where i bought the tires to have them clean out the fix a flat.. and have the tire repaired from the inside.. Made sense to me..

So i went to Town Faire Tire where i bought the rims and snow tires.. adn they said that the amount of holes ( 3)and their location ( inside.. and one about 1 inch from wall) and the fix a flat has compromised the integrity of the tire and they will not replace the tire back onto the car after it is removed and cleaned. It was junk!

I had never heard of that.. i could have just towed the car the four miles and pluged it and at least had one full season out of the tire.. but since i used the fix a flat it, melted the inside of the tire, and threw off the balance i need to have the entire tire junked.. i will NEVER USE THAT STUFF AGAIN! >..

They told me the fix a flat melts the rubber causing it to seal the holes... RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR WHy would anyone use that ! Never again... I ruined a 300 dollar tire.. It could have been saved for at least the season... has any one else had this issue?

I am thankful it got me off the road.. buy a tow truck could have saved the tire... Fix a flat shouldnt be an option... it ruined my tire..

Re: In the trunk Fix a Flat..WARNING
 

withdrawn comment after further research

Re: In the trunk Fix a Flat..WARNING
 

The way to avoid this in the future:
Put into your car a good pair of needle nose pliers and a tire plug kit.
If you have an object puncture your tire simply remove the object with the needle nose pliers and proceed with the instructions on the tire plug kit.
These kits generally come with six or more plugs and the tool and cement to insert them. After the roadside plug repair use your air pump to fill the tire and then head to a facility to have the tire inspected or possibly patched from the inside.
That FIX A FLAT crap is the end of a good tires life.

Re: In the trunk Fix a Flat..WARNING
 

i am not sure the tire i bought.. but it is only a winter tire.. not an all season.. and i think its a bridgestone... blizzack? i cant remember... i kinda want to just have them all the same.. and i am hoping that TFT will be fair in the pricing.. i know they mark all their tires up... the guy there said that it might be hard to find being the end of the season... OH IT CANT GET BETTER THAN THIS!!!!

I went to TFT because i didnt know that much at the time about tires... or rims.. and i could have bought them online if i was more educated... Im getting there.. learning the hard way

Re: In the trunk Fix a Flat..WARNING
 

Re: In the trunk Fix a Flat...WARNING
 

letter withdrawn

Re: In the trunk Fix a Flat...WARNING
 

My apologies to Town Fair Tire. Fix a Flat has been withdrawn since Feb 1999. because it contains a chemical more explosive than gasolin. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT FORMULA MB/CHRYSLER USES or do we have a bomb in our trunks? Also found theautochannel.com was this article:

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas--Jan. 30, 2001--A woman who was maimed when a can of Patch-a-Flat exploded said today that Dollar General, the largest retailer of the product, "has a bomb on its shelves" and urged the store to stop selling the product. P. In June 1998, Melissa Elizondo, then 18, lost her right eye and almost lost a leg when a can of Patch-a-Flat, used for repairing flat tires, exploded while in use. Robert Perez, then 19, received severe burns and broken hands in the explosion, making it impossible for him to continue his work on an oil rig.
On Saturday, the couple was awarded $80 million by a jury who found Patch-a-Flat unreasonably dangerous and defectively designed and that Tradco, which manufactures Patch-a-Flat, was liable for selling an unsafe product.
"Patch-a-Flat is terribly dangerous," Elizondo said, speaking from in front of the Dollar General Store at Parkdale Plaza at 4100 S. Staples Street in Corpus Christi, Texas. "It is less expensive than similar products only because it is so dangerous. Dollar General must pull this bomb off its shelves. If they don't, more people will be injured. More people will be killed. And Dollar General will be to blame." She also read from a letter she has written to Cal Turner, Jr., CEO of Dollar General Corporation, urging him to pull the product.
Elizondo's attorney, Anthony Constant, noted that Fix-a-Flat, a more popular flammable tire sealant, was withdrawn from the market voluntarily by Pennzoil in 1999 because it posed a danger to consumers and replaced it with a non-explosive formula. Other similar flammable tire sealants have also been withdrawn.
Safer, non-flammable products like AirUp and RepairSafe are now available, Constant said. "But those non-flammable tire sealants and inflators cost a couple of dollars more, and Dollar General targets lower-income customers."
Dollar General operates approximately 5,000 stores nationwide. There are eight Dollar General stores in Corpus Christi. P. Anthony Constant is a partner in the law firm of Constant and Vela, which also represents the family of Earl Shinhoster, former acting executive director of the NAACP, in their suit against Bridgestone-Firestone over a defective Firestone tire which led to Shinhoster's death last summer in a Ford Explorer rollover in Macon County, Ala.

Pennzoil-Quaker State Company Announces Withdrawal of Its Fix-A-Flat(R) Tire Inflator Products.

From: PR Newswire Date: February 18, 1999 More results for: fix a flat tire repair pennzoil withdrawal | Copyright information COPYRIGHT 1999 PR Newswire Association, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.
HOUSTON, Feb. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Pennzoil-Quaker State Company (NYSE: PZL) announced today that it is voluntarily withdrawing all of its Fix-A-Flat(R) tire inflator products. The company is immediately withdrawing the products because it recently learned of a tire safety issue involving practices that are inconsistent with safe automotive tire repair procedures and contrary to explicit warnings on each Fix-A-Flat(R) automotive tire inflator product label. Reformulated Fix-A-Flat(R) tire inflator products will be on store shelves nationwide within a few weeks.
In rare instances, an explosion may occur if a tire repaired with the Fix-A-Flat(R) tire inflator product is ...

Ever wonder what's in fix-a-flat? The February 2007 issue of wired tells you!
"Amorphous polyolefin - In the can, this shapeless mass of polymeric olefins (low-density plastics like poly-propylene and poly-ethylene) remains dissolved in the heavy aromatic naphtha. But once Fix-a-Flat is sprayed into the tire, the plastics coat the inner surface and plug the leak. Then the sticky aromatic resins keep them in place. The TFE dries the resins and poly-olefins, and you drive to the nearest service station to get your tire repaired. " - More... & also check out the "Big Questions" Wiki from Wired, lots of good questions everyone is asking in science.
Update: Make reader Rostov writes in - "You should also mention that naphtha, a relative of gasoline, is highly flammable. Mixed with the air in the tire, it can explode. Many tire repair facilities refuse to work on tires that have been patched with fix-a-flat. Don't ever take a tire with fix-a-flat to be repaired without informing the workers, as it can be dangerous."

Re: In the trunk Fix a Flat...WARNING
 

Haven't used mine yet...I'm throwing my crap out of my trunk tonight and putting in a simple awl/tire plug kit. Haven't heard one good thing about it the fix-a-flat.

Re: In the trunk Fix a Flat...WARNING
 

hmmm i replaced mine with speakers, but now im deaf! lol but all kidding aside thats not fixaflat in that can its more like tire slime if youve seen that, thats why it doesnt have its own propelant.

Re: In the trunk Fix a Flat...WARNING
 

My car came with a Mercedes item called Tire Fit. I've used it twice. First time I drove it for a few months without worrying about it, then my low pressure lite went on. I tried to add air and the valve was stuck. The dealer replaced the valve under warranty and fixed the tire no charge. The second time, once again the valve went bad. I drove it that way for a year without any pressure change or problems. When I replaced all 4 tires, the dealer replaced under warranty the valve one more time. He said that technically this was not a warranty issue, but would take care of it this one more time only. He had no comments about the Tire Fit causing this though.

Re: In the trunk Fix a Flat...WARNING
 

As Irwin said, that is not Fix a Flat in the Xfire trunk. Just an air compressor & tire slime.

Two weeks after I bought my Xfire, on our first road venture, I hit a pothole, cracking & bending the RR rim. It was about 1/2" from the tire - beat the rim back with a big hammer to where it was close, and that stuff pumped the tire up ( Front was also bent, just not as bad and didn't lose air).

The rest of the story is that this was in the mountains of NC, Friday evening, getting dark & no cell phone coverage. I had basically railed against that compressor & tire slime, but MB has a pretty good system that worked and we were able to wobble our way home.

Of couirse, a real tire would have been better.

Re: In the trunk Fix a Flat...WARNING
 

Tow trucks pose a whole different threat.

You drove over three screws and still made it to a dealership. The tire slime did it's job. Now lube up for replacement tire. ;)

Re: In the trunk Fix a Flat...WARNING
 

The 'Fix-a-flat / Green slime' didn't ruin the tire - unless you have some very illegal substance in it.
Possible the closeness of the 3 holes ruined the tire.
The 3 screw may have bend the steel wires.
Did you get a second opinion?

Re: In the trunk Fix a Flat...WARNING
 

All the more reason to buy hazard insurance I say ! It is a 300 by-god dollar tire after all ! :rolleyes:

Just my Dos Centavos !

Re: In the trunk Fix a Flat...WARNING
 

Here's the deal, the stuff in the trunk is a Mercedes tested product...it won't kill you or explode. I happen to have done business with Town Fair Tire in the past. Not saying that this is the case but I think if you went to another Town Fair location, they might treat you differently. It all depends on the management. They give you a warranty with your tire purchase and it has a road hazard rider with it. You hit a road hazard and were out of luck for some immidiate help. The tire was punctured to the point that it was not repairable (the sidewall). Once that occurs, no matter what you do to get back on the road is irrelivant. They should replace the tire with the same one. Tell them that if they don't they have lost your business. If need be, call the corporate office and tell them of your plight. I think you will get a new tire for little or no money.
Good Luck and don't be afraid to mention that you have a load of friends with the same car and they could loose not only your business but a whole bunch of crossfire owners.

Re: In the trunk Fix a Flat...WARNING
 

This is a bike patch kit from Monkey Grip that I keep on my Dual sport and Harley.

I also purchased one for the Crossfire. Easy to use and store, good to have on hand.

Re: In the trunk Fix a Flat...WARNING
 

I read in the manual that as soon as you have pumped that stuff into the tire you need to get driving to evenly disperse the product, and you should keep it under a specific speed. Maybe you waiting a little to long before heading down the road?

Re: In the trunk Fix a Flat...WARNING
 

I have to say, that when I first heard about the tire patch procedure that Crossfires use, I thought it was pretty mickey-mouse.
But after hearing from people on here who have used it, and looking at the bottle of TireFix that came with my car (I pulled out the cover over the tire jack, and the TireFix equipment and jack had never been removed from the rack. The TireFix bottle was still in the original sealed plastic bag and was still liquid, but I am going to replace it with a new one.) and reading the instructions, I have a lot more confidence it would work OK.
It is made by Dunlop, and they make the Dunlop tires I use on my Harley (Best motorcycle tires I have ever had) and I think they know what they are doing. So my confidence was greatly increased.
But I am also buying a tire plug kit (The same as the one I carry on my Harley) as they have saved my bacon several times. Just one more thing to add to my spare parts and tools that I carry.
I need to find a small box or satchel bag I can velcro to the side of the luggage compartment, so it is out of the way.
That's my next project.

Re: In the trunk Fix a Flat...WARNING
 

:) Hey BR, there are a number of folks (members) who advise NOT TO USE THE BOTTLE at all, the pump still works separate from the bottle so you can still pump up a flat after the 'repair' (as far as I heard, mine is still back there almost 15 years old), maybe I should 'break it out' to become familiar with it? It is told/posted many times (never compared how many one way or the other), if you use the bottle, it'll muck up the insides and is quite a mess that I bet too many shops will not want to deal with. Not to mention (but I will) that TPMS on the rim might be ruined. Just an FYI, the membership experiences are quite wide ranged, and what they have contributed, is a suggestion to never use that bottle if you want to keep the tire afterwards. I use that tire 'plug' kit, if I ever get a flat (never used since buying my 08 brand new), that plug would never render the tire a mess. Good luck! :)


.

Re: In the trunk Fix a Flat...WARNING
 

Well, my plan is to use the plug kit first, and then resort to the TireFix as a last resort.
The manual says the TireFix compound can be simply peeled out of the tire and discarded. I would assume it can be peeled off the tire sensor head as well.
I haven't had any experience with the TireFix kit, but figured it was a good option to have as a backup.
I think using "Slime" or some of the other products might be a problem with the tire sensors, but from reading the manual, there should be no problem with the TireFix liquid. They don't say it on the canister, but I suspect it is a water based material, especially since they say the material can be peeled out of the tire and discarded when the tire is repaired with a patch from the inside.
When I get my new bottle of TireFix, I will open the old bottle and experiment with the material and see just how it behaves.