Liz Dobson: Tyre man bursts my bubble

Tyre weld foam isn't always the best option when a tyre is flat. Photo / Thinkstock

It was 9.30am on Monday. The downpour had just been turned down to a heavy drizzle; I had just dropped off my test car in Newmarket and was walking to my old runabout parked nearby.

Approaching it I noticed something was amiss - either it had shrunk on one side due to the rain - or it had a flat tyre.

Yip, the rear left tyre was stranded in a deep puddle and was very deflated - and suddenly I felt deflated too.

Fortunately just 800m down the road was a tyre repair store. But as my rubber was down to the rim, I didn't want to risk driving it - albeit slowly - to the garage. Nor, with the drizzle picking up pace, did I fancy having to replace the flat trye with my spare, especially in that puddle.

Fortunately I had a can of tyre weld (from $21 from Repco) in the boot.

The product is used fill a flat tyre with foam and allows you to slowly drive to get help.

Following the instructions, I warmed the can in my hands, shook it up, and then removed the valve cap from the flat tyre. I screwed in the nozzle of the can, snapped off the safety tag and turned the nob of the can 45 degrees. Within seconds the flat was being filled with foam and rising out of the puddle.

According to the instructions, I had to drive below 50km/h and the maximum distance of about 10kms.

So I slowly drove into the tyre repair shop, and told the repairman that I had filled it with the tyre weld.

He shook his head unhappily.

"But I didn't want to drive in on the rim," I protested.

"The problem is the foam fills up the inner tube, and if the object that caused the puncture isn't in it any more then we had to try to find the hole," he said.

"And people fill the tyres with it, and think the problem is fixed."

More shaking of head.

"Plus the foam can be caustic. But luckily the brand you used isn't bad," he said.

Nearly an hour late, the offending nail was located in the tyre, and the puncture was repaired. The only thing that was deflated was my wallet.