moving on your left (part 2)

i went to the gas station yesterday after work to fill up the 190e and while standing there looking at my car i noticed that the front passenger side tire was low. not flat, but definitely lower than it should be. i looked around for the air machine but it appeared to require quarters. i checked in the car and didn't have any, so i figured i'd just drive home and fill it up with my air compressor.

as i got about a half mile from my house, i noticed that i had to steer much more to the left as the tire was getting lower and lower. a block or two from my house, the sidewall eventually blew out and i had to limp it home with a flat tire (past all the trick-or-treaters).

i remembered that the 190e had a full-size spare, so i did the two-car shuffle and moved the r32 out to the driveway and the 190e into the middle of the garage and took the dead wheel off; the tire was extremely hot.

a few minutes later (i've become quite fast at putting a car up on a jack, removing a wheel, and replacing it, what with all the stuff i have to do to the r32) i had the spare on, but after lowering the car, it too looked flat. i checked the air pressure and it only had about 8 pounds in it. if i had to replace a flat tire in the middle of nowhere on that car, the spare would have suffered the same fate with that amount of pressure in it. nevermind the fact that there wasn't even a tire iron in the trunk, so i wouldn't have been able to get the flat tire off anyway. i wrapped up my mini air compressor and a tire iron and put them in the trunk, and now i should probably get the flat tire replaced to use as the next spare.

so the moral of the story is, when your tire looks low, don't assume you'll be able to make it home on it. and before all of that, check that your spare tire has the proper air pressure in it and that you have an air compressor, tire iron, and a jack in working condition.