Puncture that required you to change a wheel at road side?

[Deep Thought]

As per the title, over the last 5 years, how many times have you actually had to change a wheel at the side of the road away from home due to a puncture?

Its come up on another forum. Curious as to see how much of a thing it still is, or has TPMS and electric pumps in cars reduced this significantly. Appreciate someone may get a sudden blowout that thus necessitates a change of wheel.

[_Hoppers]

Once but that s not an option on the poll

I had a broken spring but didn’t realise it was rubbing on the inside of the tyre! I was on my way to my mate’s who has a ramp where I could replace the spring. It was a bit scary being stranded on a busy road, a courier nearly ran into the back of the car despite me waving at people to warn them.

Edited by _Hoppers on Wednesday 24th June 18:06

[Quattr04.]

130k driven and not a single one that’s needed changing there and then. Always repaired

[Glosphil]

Once, but due to a tyre damaged by a pothole.

[cptsideways]

Last one on the motorway in Scotland thankfully late one evening with almost no traffic still scary though. Live in the middle of nowhere in Scotland so getting the AA out can take days literally.

[_Rodders_]

Changed a couple but carry a plug kit now and the last 2 I've repaired without even taking the wheel off.

Done and dusted in less than 10 mins.

[Rich Boy Spanner]

I had a wheel damaged and a tyre depressurise at the top end of the M5 N/Bound just before it meets the M6. The huge gap / pothole / damage at one of the expansion joints did it. Lucky i had a spare although I did callout the RAC as the hard shoulder was narrow. Also put the spare on 2 cars in car parks. So far I can still get the cars I want with a spare wheel.

[brillomaster]

None for me. Best ive managed was a puncture that went flat overnight, but simply pumped it up and was on my way. I did check it on the 2hr drive home, but it didn't need topping up in that time.

[Huzzah]

None in the last 5 yrs, probably a couple of mine in the 50 yrs I've been driving, and maybe a couple for other people.

[John D.]

I've never done it. Been driving since 2001.

Only had one car with TPMS. I've noticed slow flats checking the pressure manually. Most cars I've owned have not had a spare or space saver anyway!

Edited by John D. on Wednesday 24th June 18:41

[johnpsanderson]

Only done it once: we were following a car towing a trailer and some thin plastic strips (presumably fascias of some sort) came flying out of the trailer. Unfortunately they had nails sticking out of them, so it was like driving over a stinger!

Put on the spare but we had multiple punctures so the drive to the garage was tentative whilst we hoped the other tyres held!

Trailer driver had, of course, continued on their way obliviously….

[Jamescrs]

Never in the last five years.

Have been driving since 1998 and I can think of doing it 5 times in total, only two of those occasions were actually my own cars. the rest for other people who didn't know what to do

[Pica-Pica]

Probably twice in over 53 years of car ownership.
I have rotated wheels to even out wear,, but I just get that done on my wife's car at its service (mine are staggered and runflat).
I imagine tyre construction is sturdier now, plus TPMS and runflats help many.

I wonder how many who have said none would still be nervous buying a car without a spare?

[georgeyboy12345]

In the last 5 years I’ve had a tyre catastrophically fail by way of a huge split along one of its grooves. The car has no spare wheel and obviously the puncture repair kit wasn’t going to work. Luckily I was at my work car park in the middle of Manchester, so called a recovery service who were there in 20 min and recovered me to my tyre shop. Double lucky it didn’t happen the day before when I was blasting around NSL country lanes in the Lake District.

[John D.]

Pica-Pica said:

I wonder how many who have said none would still be nervous buying a car without a spare?

Doesn't bother me at all. I know many can't stand the idea.

[Alex_225]

Twice in 26 years, only one in the last 5 years though. Blow out, albeit a non-dramatic one on the M4, pulled into a layby and swapped it for the space saver. Nothing too wild.

[kambites]

No punctures fast enough to need changing but I did once have a tyre just come off the rim for no obvious reason. Never did work out why, once put back on it was fine for the few years I owned the car for afterwards.

[NDA]

Neither of my cars carries a spare - in fact I've owned very few cars with a spare.... fortunately I've only ever had one roadside puncture in 30+ years and I had to be flat-bedded to a tyre place.

[chris1roll]

Two in the past 5 years, more if you count having to do it at home.
At one point I think my wife's tyres were more plug than tyre.
None for the past year thankfully.

Probably more than I can count on my fingers and toes over the past 27 years of driving.
I literally wouldnt entertain a car with no spare, 10 minutes tops and on my way again.

[Wilmslowboy]

Twice, neither was in the Smart car or Polo, instead, it was our 2020 Defender 110 (on 22-inch wheels) and then my wife's ID. Buzz (on 21-inch wheels).
Fortunately, in the case of the ID. Buzz, I was able to go home and collect a trolley jack and breaker bar, so no need to use the weedy tools supplied.

Both were catastrophic damage due to potholes, also had a couple of slow punctures in the RRS, but no need to do a roadside swap.