Tontastic
Senior Member
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2006
- Messages
- 164
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Glasgow
- Website
- www.tontastic.com
- Your Mercedes
- ML 270 CDI 2001 ; C180 1999
If nothing else, read this and learn from my mistakes.
ML 270 ... flat tyre while down at the beach a mile or so from my holiday home. No immediate sign of why it is down. Woe. No big deal, i will just change the tyre, i know there is a space saver in the boot.
I set about getting the space saver out from underneath which is not the biggest task in the world but fairly mucky i have to say given the amount of dirt that has accumulated in there. Get the tyre out, it is a wee bit flat. Woe again. No big deal, i send for a little electric pump.
In the process of changing over the alloy to the space saver I crack each of the nuts while it is unjacked, and skite the wrench across the face of the alloy leaving a score. Woe is me again. I should have paid more attention and done it carefully.
I use the jack and *almost* jack it up in the wrong place but finally figure out what the little circle notch is for before i puncture the plastic sill. Almost a woe there.
When the alloy is finally released from the car it falls flat on its alloy face in the gravel leaving even more score marks. I have never had an alloy that marks as easily as this... or perhaps it is the style of alloy where the centre of it protrudes ....
With space saver on and electric pump fetched i try to attain the 61 psi that the fuel flap suggests for the space save only to be greeted with a hissing noise as air escapes readily from around the steel wheel. It does inflate and settles around the 40 psi mark with no more leaking. Slightly worrying but i guess it is just doing its best to get a seal at a pressure that it likes after perhaps a long time with no seal.
I give the original flat tyre some air from the pump and there would appear to be a sidewall puncture rather like the point of a knife jabbed into it. Hey Ho. I'll never know if i just side swiped a bank with something sharp in it as i turned somewhere or if something more malicious was on the go.
Truck up the road home at end of holiday at 50mph. End up at 20psi upon my arrival. Hey ho. Off to get a new tyre tomorrow ...
So ... check your space saver ... and be careful with your alloys!!!
ML 270 ... flat tyre while down at the beach a mile or so from my holiday home. No immediate sign of why it is down. Woe. No big deal, i will just change the tyre, i know there is a space saver in the boot.
I set about getting the space saver out from underneath which is not the biggest task in the world but fairly mucky i have to say given the amount of dirt that has accumulated in there. Get the tyre out, it is a wee bit flat. Woe again. No big deal, i send for a little electric pump.
In the process of changing over the alloy to the space saver I crack each of the nuts while it is unjacked, and skite the wrench across the face of the alloy leaving a score. Woe is me again. I should have paid more attention and done it carefully.
I use the jack and *almost* jack it up in the wrong place but finally figure out what the little circle notch is for before i puncture the plastic sill. Almost a woe there.
When the alloy is finally released from the car it falls flat on its alloy face in the gravel leaving even more score marks. I have never had an alloy that marks as easily as this... or perhaps it is the style of alloy where the centre of it protrudes ....
With space saver on and electric pump fetched i try to attain the 61 psi that the fuel flap suggests for the space save only to be greeted with a hissing noise as air escapes readily from around the steel wheel. It does inflate and settles around the 40 psi mark with no more leaking. Slightly worrying but i guess it is just doing its best to get a seal at a pressure that it likes after perhaps a long time with no seal.
I give the original flat tyre some air from the pump and there would appear to be a sidewall puncture rather like the point of a knife jabbed into it. Hey Ho. I'll never know if i just side swiped a bank with something sharp in it as i turned somewhere or if something more malicious was on the go.
Truck up the road home at end of holiday at 50mph. End up at 20psi upon my arrival. Hey ho. Off to get a new tyre tomorrow ...
So ... check your space saver ... and be careful with your alloys!!!