Nobody likes a tire puncture, but most people will get one at some point. Whether nails, screws, or something entirely unusual, tires aren’t impervious to sharp objects, and should the two meet, you may get a light on your dashboard that looks like a baseball bat in a punchbowl. Fortunately, there are ways to temporarily rectify a puncture, but what if I told you that the tire inflator kit in your trunk might not work on your factory tires?
In recent years, tire companies have been lining their latest high-end tires with acoustic foam. They go by different brand names — Michelin Acoustic Technology, Pirelli Noise Cancelling System, ContiSilent, the list goes on. However, they’re all more or less the same method of noise attenuation, using sticky-backed foam for marginal noise improvements.
While you probably won’t notice a difference between foam-lined and regular tires in something like a Jeep Wrangler, you might in a quiet car. That’s why luxury and electric vehicle makers from Tesla to Volvo have been using these foam-lined tires for years. Unfortunately, the appearance of foam-lined tires came right around the time spare tires were disappearing, and there’s a chance that tire mobility kits might not be able to handle small leaks in foam-filled tires.
It turns out that shooting tire sealant into foam-lined tires in the hopes of stopping leaks might not work so well. As per popular tire sealant brand Slime:
We do not recommend installing Slime sealant into quiet tires. The tread area of a quiet tire is coated with a layer of foam. If the sealant is installed, it will be instantly absorbed into the foam, rendering it unable to reach and treat the puncture. The sealant will also likely result in tire vibrations. Additionally, there is no way to remove the sealant from the foam and the tire will likely need to be replaced.
Wow, the foam used to keep tires quiet can act like a giant sponge. Who’d have seen this coming? Oh, and guess what: Fix-A-Flat’s website includes the same blurb verbatim. Making things more puzzling is the fact that most car manufacturers include some form of tire sealant in the trunk of cars without spare tires, meaning that the equipment provided by the manufacturer for emergency roadside tire repair might not be fit for the tires that are on the car. A noteworthy example is Tesla, a brand happy to sell you a replacement sealant-reliant tire inflator kit for cars with foam-lined tires.
Thankfully, there is one good old-fashioned method of tire repair that will get cars with foam-lined tires back on the road in a jiffy — tire plugs. These little pieces of rubber take some muscle to install, but so long as they aren’t in a sidewall or within half an inch of the edge of the tread, they usually last the life of the tire, require no dismounting, and require no re-balancing.
Tire plug kits are cheap, often priced at $20 or less, and they’re remarkably simple to use. Just pull the cause of the puncture out of the tread, ream out the hole with the included reaming tool, push a plug into place using the included plug tool, swiftly pull the tool out, and trim the excess rubber with a razor blade before re-inflating the tire.
It sucks that some automakers aren’t equipping their cars properly for roadside emergencies, instead hoping that a can of flat-fixer will play nicely with foam-lined OEM-spec tires. However, it doesn’t take much to be prepared. A jack, a lug wrench, and a plug kit could save you a lot of misery out on the road.
(Photo credits: Continental, Fix-A-Flat, Pirelli)
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How is this the first time I’ve ever heard of foam tires.
If your car doesn’t have a spare, these guys can hook you up. They even have the tools. https://modernspare.com/
Ok, we need to talk about the dichotomy in the comments section: apparently you are a person who gets flats all the time or almost never. There is no in-between and it doesn’t appear that strongly correlated to where you are driving.
My mind is somewhat blown! I figured 99% of people were like me and hardly ever got flats. I have not lamented the disappearance of spare tires because I figured the extremely infrequent inconvenience of needing a tow truck was an ok tradeoff for the weight and space taken up by a spare tire. At the ripe old age of early 40’s I have only once been in a vehicle that had a flat requiring a roadside repair (ie could not make it home or to a garage for the fix) and I have always driven at least an average amount per year for a typical suburban american.
I do avoid low profile tires like the plague, so that may have something to do with it, but I am fascinated by the significant chunk of commenters who seem to have flats all the time… what is going on? We must find out, for SCIENCE!
I potentially have your answer. I am a person who basically never gets flat tires, while my wife driving the same car in the same places gets flat tires all the time. Why? She’s constantly looking for shortcuts, driving on the shoulder, or just putting one wheel inches onto the shoulder because she thinks it’s “safer” than driving in the middle of the lane. In short, driving in places where all the stuff builds up just waiting to give you a puncture.
I think @Berck is correct about not being careful about where you drive. I used to live in central Florida where there was non-stop construction everywhere you look. Getting nails in my tires was just a normal thing and I was pretty good with a plug kit. It’s been years since I’ve had that issue once I moved away from there.
Bought a plug set from my cross-country trip in 2022. Happily didn’t have to break it out.
My sports car was from the beginning of the no-spare era. It came with the goo and a pump kit. The goo expired years ago, obviously, and I replaced it with a patch kit.
About plugging – lots of chain places refuse to do it anymore, you have to do it yourself, otherwise you are signing up for an inside patch. Nothing against them, but I always found them to be far more invasive (and more expensive) than a simple plug. To that end, you’re probably going to have to get the tire re-balanced afterward because few guys will take the time to mark the valve and/or weight locations before breaking the tire down.
When fix/flat first came out, the contents were flammable. Scraping the reaming tool around on those steel cords can produce sparks – some poor bastard probably found that out the hard way. We eventually started asking customers if they had used it before we’d plug. If they did, we had to break the tire down to release it, and also flushed the liquid stuff out of the tire for good measure (probably unneccesary)
I have plugged many a tire in my fleet and sometimes finding the leak is easy as there is a screw or nail head still visible, but if the item has come out or pushed far in finding the leak without soap spray or a dunk tank will be impossible. Then i find while insertion of the reamer and plug is difficult without some air pressure in the tire. In short i would not want to do this on an interstate with traffic thundering by. Thankfully all my rigs have donut spares.
FWIW, I bought a tire compressor off of an internet ad, which I’m embarrassed about, except that it was a great purchase. Now when I get a low pressure light I can pull off and maybe add enough air to get somewhere safe, instead of driving on the rim. If I’m away from the stations at home I don’t waste an hour looking for a working compressor at a gas station, and then for quarters to run it. Got one for each car now.
I check pressure often, and they’ve still come in handy (what an expression to write!) more than a few times.
That’s all good and everything, but how long can you drive on tires with just regular air in them. My car came with $900 nitrogen filled tires and the dealer said that it was a safety feature. I’m having trouble finding portable nitrogen air compressors. What should I do? /s
Air is 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen and oxygen is heavier than nitrogen. Over fill your tire by 22%, place the valve stem at the bottom and relieve the excess pressure. You should have nitrogen in your tires at this point!
Thanks man!!! That will save me hundreds that I can put toward buying NFTs and getting that paint protection package reapplied every year.
I love this/am going to use it from now on.
My father bought a new Jeep and asked me what the green caps meant. When I told him, he just laughed.
I consider myself to be a reasonably non-weak grown man. I work on my cars by my self, I’ve muscled off stuck suspension bolts with a breaker bar, I can get most jobs done without having to fight too hard.
However, the handful of times I’ve had to plug a tire are when I feel wholly inadequate as a man.
The plug kit that I have in all of my cars is the pack of four plug boogers a reaming tool and a tool that you use to shove the booger into the tire. Typically you gotta find the puncture and yank out the nail/screw, that part is pretty easy. Getting the reamer into the hole to clean it up is HARD. Keep in mind most kits have a reamer that has a screwdriver handle, but you need to push really hard while you turn in order to jab the reaming tool in and through the tire; don’t forget the steel belts you gotta push past. If you can get that done, now you have the real fun of trying to shove the plug booger into the hole which is far smaller than the tool plus booger. Again, you need to push and turn and you only have a cheap plastic screwdriver handle to work with. This will require 90% of your curse words. I have often resorted to wedging the handle into where the wall meets the floor and shoving the tire with all my might. That will usually pop it through.
Imagine you’re in a newish car that has neither a spare tire nor a jack/lug wrench. It’s dark/cold, heck maybe raining. Now you gotta try and do the whole thing while the tire is on the car. There’s just no way.
When I was at the car show this year, I made it a point to look to see what had spare tires. Nearly nothing. I think a Ford Bronco Sport had one, All large SUVs and trucks have them mounted underneath. Not a single sedan (for the few left) nor crossover had them except that Bronco. There’s certainly room because some had subwoofers there, others had a giant piece of foam that is the shape and size of a spare tire but just had the lame “mobility kit” pushed into the middle.
I know that fewer and fewer people know how to change a tire these days, but if you have a fancy whatever with a sidewall puncture, you really have to call a flatbed now? This seems terribly dumb.
I’ve also had to use plug kits a few times. I have found that the ones with the T-handles are SO much easier to use. If I’m doing it at home, I also do the reaming by chucking a reamer with the handle cut off into a drill.
Yup, definitely ream with a drill when you can!
Get a kit with a T handle on the tools. Also, use rubber cement on the plug and it slides right in, no turning necessary.
I’ve done probably 50 of these in my lifetime. It’s not that hard once you get the right tools.
As a former professional (AKA worked at a gas station garage a couple decades ago) I may be able to help you for future tire plugging. First thing is the “reaming” process – this should be done with a lot more wiggle than just a simple “in/out” – you’re trying to create space in that tire to accept the plug. I would always place the top of the reaming tool into the base of my palm and rotate my whole arm to do this. We used to put some lube on those plugs too – we never plugged dry because the thing wants to stick. That lube was some clear/white goo that came in a little jar, but I imagine that a touch of dishwashing liquid or even some spit would do the trick. Yes, I mentioned plugging, in/out, reaming, and lube. Get your damned minds out of the gutter and let me help this person.
You can lube the plug with rubber cement.
Yep, that would work too, provided you plug quickly after applying and don’t take a call or talk to a neighbor, etc. We had rubber cement, but only used it for surface prep on inside patches.
One of my first jobs was a Shell garage off the highway. I always used rubber cement for lube. Always aired up the tires real high too, to help with reaming and jamming the plug in.
Open Auto Club app on phone. Send out the Bat signal. Play Sudoku until truck arrives.
I was doing some maintenance on my mom’s Kia Niro. She smartly had bought a tire inflator. I decided to check on the spare and do a little reorganization of the storage. Nope, there was a round, tire shaped depression in the floor pan and had that stupid mobility kit in one of the styrofoam compartments wedged into the tire spot. After 5 years of ownership, my mom now has learned she has no spare tire. On a car that travels coast to coast and back every year.
Does anyone know how to source a donut spare for cars? I like full sized ones, but hey, donuts get you to the next town when out west.
How often do people usually have punctures? I’ve had to change one tyre in 25ish years of driving, and that was due to a dented rim*. I’ve helped a few people with punctures, but it seems to be a once-per-decade problem as far as I’ve seen.
*My fault, I forgot it was icy and slid straight into a kerb.
Lucky you. Once every year or two for me. Usually nails. Often roofing nails.
I keep a patch kit and an air compressor on in each of our cars. And I’ve used them all.
Maybe every 2-3 years. 10 blocks of city driving then 30 miles of interstate x 2 each weekday. Low profile tires, which don’t help. No spare tire and no room for one. My assumption is that’s to improve EPA mileage rating as much as to save cost.
With cell phones now, and GPS on them, I’m just calling insurance to come find me, and not even thinking about getting my body anywhere near fast-moving traffic. I don’t mind sweating, I mind getting hit, and if there’s not enough room on the shoulder to leave a good margin then I’m leaving the car and getting well-away from the road.
Sometimes I feel like my tires have magnets in them. I typically get multiple punctures a year. It’s not like I’m driving around construction sites. A few weeks ago I was visiting a friend about a mile away in our small town. All in-town driving, all decent roads (for Michigan). When I left to drive home around 11pm (in the sleet), one of my tires was completely flat.
Maybe there are just a few of us out there picking up all the nails as an unconscious public service.
I’ve gotten more punctures than I can count. I used to get them more frequently when I worked in an industrial area. I hate the fix-a-flat foam as I’ve yet to find a shop that will clean it out and fix the puncture.
There is something to be said for run-flat tires.
If you are in a neighborhood with a lot of construction/renovation work a nail will find your tire.
I use the tire plugs, when it’s a screw or something, and the slime, when it’s a slow leak around the rim or valve. Sometimes a combination of both, if I’ve done a crappy job with the plug 😉
It’s not hard to use the plugs for me, as I’m a bit handy, having owned over 40 old cars and do servicing and repairs myself. But if you are a “regular person”, I think it can be a bit much to get it right. Most people can’t even change a wheel.
The plugs sets are really cheap on the China crap sites, but the glue dries after one use, so buy extra of those. It’s the same one as in bicycle repair kits.
Can we get airless tires already?
It’s the one thing automotive wise I’m excited for in the future. No TPMS. No flats.
I WANT MY TWEELS!
Or… Just give us a spare freaking tire
I like spares too, but they require a lotta space and add to the vehicle’s weight. So I understand why they try to engineer around not having them.
Save the spare tire! They save time, full size is better but space saver is OK.
$20 for a plug? I think it cost $15 (maybe it was $20) a few months back to have a Firestone shop put in a plug.
I imagine it’s $20 for a kit including a tool, several plugs, and maybe co2 cartridges to inflate.
I’m pretty sure it’s one of the fundamental laws of the universe that tire punctures occur in the sidewall or shoulder of the tire and cannot under any circumstances be patched.
Sigh this is true… One of my tires thankfully could be patched but the other one while it the puncture was on the tread, it was just close enough to the sidewall that I had to buy a new tire.
I once got three flats in one day- roofing nails right after the neighbour had their house shingled, and I made the roofers buy me a new window as a shovel came off the roof and went through mine, coinicidence ? methinks not
Fix-a-flat sucks and shouldn’t be used in any tire. It has NEVER worked for me,. It always pissed out of the hose.
Slime is much better. The green shit is awesome and actually works.
Those foam tires are stupid. Maybe they’re quieter, but it still sounds stupid. Just use regular tires lol
Check out FlatOut. I use it in my tubed eBike. I pull nails out every few months and they seal up instantly.
Yeah, Flatout is good too. Project Farm did a test n a bunch of them, and all of them worked except Fix-a-flat LOL
Will there be a recall? Pretty sure there’s a safety related rule causing all these companies to always include something, and a remedy that’s specifically precluded with the OEM tires seems noncompliant. Won’t be fixing this over the air either.
Sure is a good thing no lawyers drive Teslas….
For the whopping price of 39 cents per month I have roadside assistance on my cars. I think it’s actually free on my Capitalone card. Anyway, I’m not going to mess with a can of slime, a patch-kit, or the notoriously worthless jack while I’m on the side of the road.
I use those plug kits for lawnmower tires. I’m not going to trust them while I’m driving down the road at 75 mph. In my car, not the mower.
I’ve been buying and or making aftermarket spares for almost 20 years now. They are a pain to carry around in cars not designed for them, but I’ve also used them at least 10 times over the years —and in each case, it saved me from a long, painful wait for a tow truck, and then as much as several days of being without a car while getting the tire sorted.
I’ve also used plugs probably half a dozen times, and they work great. Stupid cheap, convenient, and way better than buying a new tire.
I recognize I get way more flats than most people I know. I can’t explain why. But I’ve never been sad about having a spare or a plug kit when I’ve needed one.
Why buy an aftermarket spare when you can motor over to your local salvage lot and find a completely unused donut spare that fits your vehicle for ten or fifteen bucks?
That’s been my experience. One salvage lot I used to visit (now closed) used to give away the donut spares to anyone who asked because they had so many of them and didn’t want to pay tire disposal fees.
Depends on the car. Some vehicles (eg the Tesla Model 3 and S) didn’t have OEM spares, so you needed to get creative. But at least for those other makes would fit, if you were careful (eg the Genesis has a spare that’s compatible with the Model 3). Others do have spares but they’re uncommon. And some (Porsches, eg) have really uncommon bolt patterns and there just aren’t a lot of options.
But yeah, eBay and the dismantlers are always my first stop.
The plug kits work fine for a nail or screw that gets into the tread of the tire, but not the sidewall… I always keep them in my garage, and have had great success, again, as long as the puncture is in the tread. They last as long as the tire does. No worries. (And I also have a Cap It Alone card.)
Those 12 volt air compressors are crap.
Get one of these https://www.amazon.com/MOHEGIA-Bicycle-Inflator-Pressure-Schrader/dp/B09TVFQ9QR
In the time you get the 22 volt thing hooked up you will be done. Bike tires need 110psi or so, car tires maybe 32.
Wait, is that bike tire pump better than other ones or something? Last time I tried using a bike pump to inflate a car tire, it took like twice (?) the time of a good 12-volt air compressor and I felt like I went to the gym after. lol
Edit: Or was it 4x the time? I have no idea, but the bike pump was a waste of time. My idea was that a bike pump was a pump that didn’t need electricity, but it didn’t work.
It doesn’t need electricity, and it will work eventually, but it suuuucks. I’ve inflated a truck tire (235/75R17) from 20 to 32 and it took probably 15 minutes.
At the worst of times I’ve been in functionally decent shape, but that was a 90+ degree June day and I’m a profuse sweater.
It’s also a handy piece of diagnostic information if you’re filling or should be filling a tire quickly, vs. filling it below/at/near the rate of the leak and making no progress.
I’m not anti-bike pump, it’s saved my butt a few times, it’s just more than a matter of fitness and time. There’s fitness for purpose, too. I’m too lazy to do the maths, but even a 235/75 is considerably higher volume than a 205/55.
https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-calculate-the-volume-of-a-tyre
Uh, car tires may not be anywhere near the air pressure of bike tires, but they are about 100x the volume of bike tires. Those bike tire pumps put out a measly amount of air per stroke. You’ll still be pumping away on one tire in the time it takes to inflate all 4 tires with a 12v electric pump.
“In the time you get the 22 volt thing hooked up you will be done.” This statement clearly demonstrates… you have never used a _good_ 12V compressor or a bike pump to fill a flat car tire.
I’ve done both (My spare is a “space saver.” It has to be inflated to use.) The bike pump is an absolute last resort option. It’s an issue of volume…not pressure. It takes _forever_ to pump a car tire with a bike pump.
You want a twin cylinder 12V compressor. Much faster than a single.
Something like this: Amazon.com: GSPSCN Silver Tire Inflator Heavy Duty Double Cylinders with Portable Bag, Metal 12V Air Compressor Pump 150PSI with Adapter for Car, Truck, SUV Tires, Dinghy, Air Bed etc : Automotive
Best option? Use a plug kit unless it’s in the sidewall.
I have a 12v Slime air compressor in my trunk. It’s worked fine for me. It worked slowly when I had a leaky tire, but it worked.
I keep a portable 16V compressor with a lithium battery in my car. I bought it after having a few flat bike tires but I’m pretty sure it could fill up a car tire faster than my old 12V cigarette lighter one. No fumbling with the 12v cigarette lighter plug or the cord, either.
I have that exact bike pump and had to top off a car tire with it once. The next day I went out and got an 18V pump that works with my power tool batteries and I just keep that in the car at all times. While the bike pump did work, it was slow and that particular pump is a POS.
Silly as it may seem, an actual spare tire was one of the things on my checklist when I bought my Focus. She’s a 2010, just when more and more cars were switching to no spare/just a spray can of fix-a-flat.
This way, I can split the difference when I get punctures – get home on my own but then get the flat properly patched at a shop.
Step one mark the area of the puncture.
Then follow the rest. Those plugs work great but not on totally flat tires you need some resistance.
Plugs also can develop a slow leak when the weather changes… best to use a patch if possible. But plugs are clearly a much better DIY solution when you need something to get you where you are going.
Yes can’t patch on the road, don’t need to dismount and mount. And a butane lighter on the exposed plug melts it to stop leak.
I hate when I go to a tire shop to patch, and they just plug anyways…
From experience plugs work just fine on “totally flat tires.”
Fix-a-flat can make an unholy sticky mess inside a tire, and the gas mixture it dispenses is, or at least was, flammable. I’ve always kept a decent plug set, some additional adhesive, and a small compressor in my trunk since the 90s. Kind of nice when a flat doesn’t ruin your day — instead, just a few lost minutes, and a repair that lasts.
Sorry plugs don’t work without the ability to reinflate the tire. So flat on the interstate you are still stuck but the fix a flat will reinflate the tires if it doesn’t patch them
Like I said — the road kit has a small compressor as part of the package.
Missed that I went with the $20 plug kit is good but not all empowering.
Sam’s Club sells a good jumper box with a decent air compressor for about eighty bucks. I keep one in all of my cars. It also has USB outlets to charge your phone (which you would probably never use), a light and you set the pressure digitally.
Now I should toss a patch kit in the trunk to keep it company.
I got a small wire/nail in one of my tires and when I went to a shop to get it plugged, they checked and the puncture was within 2 finger widths of the sidewall. They recommended the tire to be replaced, but would plug with a warning that it might not hold. It has for the two weeks since it was plugged.
Just a quick safety note about installing tire plugs. If you buy a cheap kit like those from Harbor Freight, wear thick leather gloves and please be very careful with the tools as the plastic handles often snap under force which can then cause some really nasty gashes on your hands.
I used to work in tire repair and plugged hundreds of tires using real tools so the first time I used a HF kit I was not prepared for said danger and got cut. Be safe out there.
Safety Seal FTW
Is it true tire techs get annoyed repairing tires that have been injected with fix a flat?
In all honesty, I don’t ever recall having to deal with it myself due to my advanced age. Fix-a-Flat was fairly new then and already had a bad rep so we just didn’t see it much. I think maybe we had one once but we refused to fix it and just replaced the tire probably because it would be such a pain. So I’m gonna answer, yes, it’s true.
Thanks. I vaguely recall a comment from a tire shop long ago. Never used the stuff since. I must be out of the loop because this article surprised me that new cars come with a can in lieu of a donut.
JRITS would say it’s a total mess. Many photos of techs with green crap all over their shoes and the floor when they haven’t been told that it was used.
Also, I understand it will typically ruin the TPMS sensors since they’re not made to get soaked in liquid goo made of weird chemicals.
Local tire shop I use charges a cleaning fee if you used tire sealant.
Fwiw every time I’ve replaced a punctured tire, it’s come up that they appreciate that I didn’t try to fill it with FaF. I’m not 100% sure how that stuff remains on the market – how many times can it let how many people down before they call it quits?
Yes, some… maybe a lot… do. Because there’s some amount of extra cleanup involved. Fix-a-Flat dispenses a thin sticky foam that typically needs more than just water or soapy water to get out.
Slime and similar sealant products leave a liquid residue (That’s what holds and releases the fiber-based seal at the site of a puncture) so it needs to at least be hosed off with water.
Automotive tire shop crews A) Don’t want to spend time dealing with the extra mess and B) If they have to use water or solvent to get the stuff off of the rime and tire, everything has to dry before the tire can be re-mounted. (You don’t want water/excess moisture trapped inside, which can accelerate rim corrosion.) It’s nothing that a typical in-and-out automotive tire shop wants to deal with because time is money, and lost time is lost money. It doesn’t matter to them that using sealants might keep you out of the shop more often; they just don’t want to deal with the cleanup if you do use them and then come in for new tires or repairs because it messes up their time/profit calculations.
My suggestion — if you use Fix-a-Flat, especially if it came with your car, then take the car to the dealer service center to get it patched. When they bitch about the Fix-a-flat, remind them that it came with the car. They can still complain, but hey, they can go complain to the car manufacturer not you. If you want to use a sealant, then take your tires to a shop that deals with fleets as well as passenger vehicles. They’ll have dealt with the stuff before. They might still complain, but they’re probably less likely to take it out on you with extra charges on the bill. Or if they do, it’s more likely to be a standard line-item added change and not something made up on the spot based on the shop manager’s annoyance factor.
Tire sealant manufacturers like to talk about how fleets and industrial users swear by their products — and that’s true. But fleet/industrial shops have the time to deal with cleaning rims and tires if they have to change or patch them, and using sealant keeps more tires out of the shop long-term, so it’s worth it to them. Truck tires in particular run at high pressures, and nobody really likes dealing with them more than they have to for safety reasons. So if sealants reduce how much the shop guys are dealing with mounting and safely inflating tires, it’s a good thing. And anything that reduces the chance of a high-pressure tire blowout is also a good thing. Sealants also reduce the chance of slow leaks, which lead to under-inflation while running, which causes heat buildup — which is what makes retreads fail and come off, which can cause damage and road hazards. So again, from a fleet perspective, sealants make sense.
I got a ~$20 kit from Amazon with metal handled tools. I’ve had to use it a few times and it has worked out great.
One hint for people wanting to try this, add a piece of chalk or wax pencil to the kit to mark the spot where the nail/screw/whatever is before you pull it out. You’ll also want pliers to pull that out.
Smart! On both suggestions. I should get a metal set now that I’ve pontificated.
As a young man, my eyes could spot the holes with no aid, but last time I did a plug I lost the hole for a time because I didn’t mark it. Great advice.
I mean never mind that some flats are just not repairable by a can of fix a flat and a harbor freight 12V compressor. but then their is the fact that fix a flat has a shelf life and that kit is pretty useless in 3-4 years of ownership.
In my cars that lack a spare there is an expiration date on the sealant canister and a timer in the car that goes off when the time is up. In the owner’s manual it explains how to change the canister and reset the reminder.