And the flat fixer is a REALLY BAD idea for TPMS.

 

Yes indeed, which is why I keep it only for the dire emergency I hope never to experience. I will only use magical fixer chemicals if stopping where I must leaves me in too dangerous a place -- I'll perform just about any repair in just about any location, but if it's too dangerous a place I'll do what I must to get out of it. It's not always easy being me, but it's fun enough that I want to keep doing it. If I have to tip the tire monkey generously or hot tank the block (and maybe pay the a-hole tax for fouling the solvent), so be it.

FWIW, it's been more than 30 years since I used any magic fixer chemical of any kind. I carry the stuff around just in case it might be the only thing between me and the dark side of the grass.

 

LMFAO, I would rather find the culprit and plug it.

Fix-a-flat nor tire plugs help if the emergency situation means you used an under mounted spare that the only thing you really knew was it held air.

OFF TOPIC

I had to borrow a neighbor's vehicle, and play Hero because We were forced to use a then 14 you silver painted steel spare. I was at home tinkering around with some stuff in the shed and the wife was running a few errands, when the amusing yet nerve wrecking call the call comes in....

" Hon you gotta come get me.....I broke down"
Me:" Oh Gawd Now what the hell ??!?!"
Her:" Um I lost a tire...."
Me:" tha hell do you mean you lost a tire? what the spare blow out ?"
Her:" No, I lost the tire...... it flew off and almost hit a jeep. It would have ended up in someone's house but it crashed into a tree first"
Me: "WTF?!?!? YOU OKAY??!?! You didn't flip it did you!?!?!?"
Her: "No, but I cut a pretty long stripe in the road.............and the lug studs look tore up a couple are broke...."
Me: " F**k, alright Gimme a bit to round up tools and load them up....."
Her: "okay........well I'm not going anywhere"

I took the Aluminum rim with the shredded tire, good thing because when I got there I found that steel rim has hit with enough force to be twisted noticeably in a figure-8.
So a trip to have a tire traded rim to rim and balanced, and to go get 5 new lugnuts and posts had to be made.

the hard part was using 2 floor jacks to get it off the ground. I had to use two because the 2 ton car jack was able to flatten low enough to be put under the front in general, and then My good 21"lift 2 ton Suv jack was used (unsafely) to hold it up so the other could be relocated for a little more lift to put the big'n in a good/safe spot.

The mentioned "cut stripe in the road" was from where the crown nut in the hub assembly for the lower ball joint touched down for a skid. I could not determine the condition of it until the truck was up because it dug in bad enough that I couldn't see it at all, and the rotor was maybe 1.5 mm from pavement contact itself

 

Me too, but when the life of a person is at stake my druthers go right out the window.

An old race builder buddy of mine once pointed out that those who have well maintained and matched spare tires (in their highway vehicles) almost never use them.

 

true, at the same time I learned a valuable lesson, and would rather have a matched alloy undermounted that a steel EVER

the issue of the flyaway spare was cause by rust/decay hidden by the silver backed on paint and some grime.
Proper torque values aside because odds are I over tighten my lugs a bit
(by hand) as is, the rust gave way and it wobbled off.
The weird part is it did it without the normal *clunk*clunk* loose stud warning.
I can only assume because the rims and front brake rotors for the truck ride a self centering lip at the center of the hub in a fairly snug manor and the last lug holding it is the one that was snapped off flush to the rotor.

2 w/stripped threads
2 bent
1 snapped off--lug found inside 5 yards of where the gouge in the blacktop started

 

Well I took it for a spin this morning after bleeding it down, flushing the rad, filling it back up and getting any air out. I also pulled out and tested the stat. It was working fine so I slapped it back in. Thought my problems were solved until about 20 minutes into the drive it started to get a little warm. I discovered that my heater now will only blow cold air and I get a gurgling/sloshing/sucking sound from the mid/passenger dash area when I accelerate hard.

 

Air bubble in the heater core. Yeah, they are a real pain to get to purge properly.

 

What's the best way to go about it? Could that be causing her to overheat? I've got all day and a garage full of tools so bring it on.

 

It's probably not what's causing the overheating, but there's some small chance that it could be. Anyway:

Jack up the right front corner until the radiator cap is the highest point in the cooling system, remove the cap, and run the engine at high idle until the thermostat has cycled at least three times, topping up the radiator as needed to keep it full. Fill the overflow tank to the Full Cold level while it's there. When it stops burping air, close it up, shut it off, and set it down -- you're done.

If you've got even the tiniest leak anywhere in the system, it'll suck air at every cool-down and the gurgling will return.

 

Park with the truck nose pointed uphill or up on ramps. Let it warm up to open the thermostat. You have to get the radiator cap higher than the heater core.