Reminder: Check your spare tire pressure

[midwestcoast]

Just a friendly reminder that those doughnuts want 60psi not 16! A friend is visiting this weekend and when she started down the street this afternoon she had a flat & pulled over a few houses away. I came out with an inflator & it wouldn't take any air so I started getting her spare out. Checked the pressure & it was at 16psi! Luckily it happened right here 'cause that sure wouldn't have helped much out on the road.
After taking the tire off I found the leak; a nail and another small hole, in the sidewall of course 8-/ and put the doughnut on before taking the car back to the house.
She is a nervous sort & was very worried about driving back on the doughnut with no spare so I swapped the doughnut to the rear, patched the holes in the sidewall & pumped it up for use as a spare. That was enough to convince her she didn't need to go buy a new set of tires right away (that's a lot of moolah to spend without any research).
After all that I decided to pull out the spares of both our cars and found 36 and 41psi.

 

[rowerwet]

why I always carry a pump in my car

 

[joel95ex]

Also keep in mind that some newer cars with TPMS have the TPMS on the spare and can set off the low pressure alert. Many people think they have a low tire, check all four and then think something is wrong with TPMS and then waste time and money at the dealer. so check all 5 tires on you vehicle.

 

[pymoo]

I checked the spare recently on my truck (which was a pain to winch down) with the TPMS light on the dash, and discovered it only had around 15psi! That was time well spent, and I will now feel comfortable winching it down if I ever need it for "real".