Tire Change & Repair

Three ways a tire call ends

The driver reads the tire before touching a lug nut. One of three things happens next.

Spare installed. The flat comes off, the spare goes on, and the lug nuts are run down in a star pattern and torqued, not hammered tight with an impact gun. This is the default when the tire is shredded, cut, or off the bead.

Low tire aired up. A slow leak, a weeping valve stem, or the pressure drop after the first hard freeze of a Michigan winter. If the tire holds air, the driver brings it to the pressure on your door-jamb sticker.

Tread puncture plugged. A nail or screw in the tread face gets pulled, the hole gets reamed, and a plug goes in. A plug gets you moving today; have a shop inspect it from the inside.

Where a plug is the wrong answer

A plug only works in the tread, the flat band that touches the road. Anything else is off the table:

• Sidewall punctures or cuts. The sidewall flexes with every turn of the wheel and a plug will not hold.
• Blowouts. Once a tire has let go, there is nothing left to repair.
• Driven flat. A mile on the rim along Washtenaw Avenue crushes the inner sidewall, even if the outside looks fine.
• Run-flats. Most makers do not want them plugged. Aired up if they hold pressure, otherwise a tow.

When the driver says no to a plug, there is no tire to sell you. Next is your spare, or the truck.

No spare, flat spare, or a lock you cannot open

The tow-to-shop outcome usually comes from one of four things.

No spare. Many cars built in the last decade ship with an inflator kit and sealant instead of a wheel. Check your trunk floor now.

Flat spare. A compact spare that has sat in a wheel well for eight years is usually soft. It gets aired up if it holds.

Missing wheel lock key. Locking lug nuts need their key. No key, no wheel change at the roadside.

Seized lug nuts. Full-size pickups and work vans run lug torque far above a passenger car, and rusted studs seize after a few Michigan winters. The driver carries the sockets and bar; a stud that snaps turns the call into a tow.

In each case the same truck loads your vehicle and delivers it to the tire shop you name. A car sitting on a bare rim or missing a wheel is carried fully off the ground, never dragged, so the hub and brake parts arrive the way they left. It is priced as a light-duty tow, hook-up plus loaded miles. Call dispatch at 734-985-0010 for the quote; the price is confirmed before a truck is sent.

Shoulder work on I-94 and US-23

A tire change on the I-94 shoulder between the State Street and Huron Street exits, with traffic passing a few feet from the wheel, is not a driveway job.

The truck parks behind you with its lights on before anyone gets out. Michigan's move-over law asks passing drivers to slow down and change lanes for a stopped tow truck, and most do. The driver still works with their back to traffic, so where the car sits comes first. Expect to be asked to move it when:

• The flat is on the driver's side. A left-side change puts the driver in the travel lane. Limp to the next exit ramp, or the car gets loaded and changed off the highway.
• The shoulder is narrow or walled. Parts of I-94 and US-23 through Ann Arbor and Pittsfield Township run tight against a wall or guardrail. The Washtenaw Avenue or Plymouth Road exit off US-23 beats a lane beside the barrier.
• You are on a curve or over a crest. Drivers behind you cannot see the truck in time.

A quarter mile at walking pace on a flat costs a tire you were probably replacing anyway. Standing in a live lane costs more. If the car cannot move, it gets loaded where it sits, the same way an emergency tow does.

Driving away on a donut, a plug, or a run-flat

Compact spares are speed and distance limited. The limits are printed on the donut's sidewall. It is a ride to the tire shop, not a tire: stay off I-94 and M-14 at cruising speed, and do not run it for a week of commutes from Canton. Some all-wheel-drive manuals want the donut on a specific axle; if so, the driver moves a full-size tire to make it right.

Run-flats bought you distance, not time. If you drove on one flat, the shop will likely call it finished.

The tire calls we see most in Washtenaw County

Pothole season, when the ground thaws in March, fills the board with bent rims and sidewall bubbles on Washtenaw Avenue, Michigan Avenue, and US-23 south of I-94 toward Milan. Those are spare-or-tow calls, not plugs. The first hard freeze brings a wave of low-pressure lights across Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti; most are air-ups.

Campus lots and downtown parking structures produce the quiet ones, a screw found the next morning. Those are ideal plugs. Commuters on M-14 and Ford Road out of Canton catch debris at speed; those tires are more often shredded than punctured.

Roadside tire work is a flat fee, confirmed before the truck is sent; if the job turns into a tow, you hear that price before we load. We do not bill insurance; you pay us and submit the itemized receipt.