So I was walking to get into my car after being at work for the 14th day in a row when I noticed that one of my front tires seemed a little bit low on air. It’s quite easy for me to tell due to usually over-inflate them for slightly better gas mileage, and any deviation from awesomely full is an easy thing to point out.

If you look to the picture on the right it is quite easy to see the silver headed culprit sticking into the middle of my tire cause the slow leak. I had a few different options of what to do,  with most people going to a tire shop to get ripped off for 40-60 bucks for a task they could complete themselves. Sometimes you might need to take your tire off and run soapy water over it, if you get a tire that is slowly leaking air with no directly visible cause.

Because my tire wasn’t flat and was just low, I headed over to the local auto parts store to get a plug kit for my car. They sell them nearly anywhere that sells automotive parts whether you want to go to Walmart, Target, or a specialty shop they should have you covered with slight variations in price.

With a plug kit for $5 and a pliers, I was able to:

1. Remove the screw.

2. Ream out the hole with the convenient tool.

3. Put in a new plug and cut it off level with the tire.

Total cost: $5 and 20 minutes.

If you were in a bind and your tire was fairly low this task could be preformed at a Gas station with a compressor for filling your tires if you have a kit on hand.

Do you pay for everything to be done to your car? Would you attempt to fix your own tires or do you stick with “the experts”?