[CenTexas]

My LTD has the vacuum option, so no spare tire. Probably will buy one soon (like many others here on the forum have done).

I would like to hear stories from any Pacifica-with-vac-only owners who have actually experienced a flat.

(I was prompted to post this question because of my impending trip to the airport. . . it's a 3 hours drive away from home and while I would like to take the Pacifica, I must take our other vehicle. Reason? My other vehicle has a spare tire and in a worst case scenario, a flat tire while driving the Pacifica to the airport would definitely cause me to miss my flight!)

 

[Westabro]

I drove my 2005 Chrysler T&C 190,000 miles without ever a flat! I had about 400 miles on my new Pacifica Touring L when I hit some debris in the road and almost immediately saw the tire pressure going down on screen on my right front tire. I could not swerve to miss the debris as there were cars on both sides of me. I have the 18 in wheels and no spare. AAA towed me to the dealer. The rollback driver had to be very careful not to cause any damage as it ground clearance is so low. He added some air in the tire just to get it on the rollback. The tire was not repairable the dealer ordered me a new Michelin tire which was not in stock and not available locally. They inspected the undercarriage, and checked alignment and all was ok. There was a $150. road hazard insurance included in the purchase of the new vehicle.

 

[DougH]

So it's been over 2 months since this CenTexas asked this question, wondering if anyone else has had to use the tire inflator and sealant to fix a flat and if it worked. We are leaving in 3 weeks for vacation and debating whether or not to trust this to work if needed or just spend the $300 to buy a spare and be done with it. O cant remember last time I had a flat..been a long time.

 

[gb1728]

So it's been over 2 months since this CenTexas asked this question, wondering if anyone else has had to use the tire inflator and sealant to fix a flat and if it worked. We are leaving in 3 weeks for vacation and debating whether or not to trust this to work if needed or just spend the $300 to buy a spare and be done with it. O cant remember last time I had a flat..been a long time.

I bought the spare for peace of mind and to not overly delay our trip having to wait for a tow if we got a flat. Of course drove around 3k miles round trip with no issues. I hope to never use the spare but.....

My wife is still too intimidated to drive the Pacifica. She feels it's too big. Which honestly is fine by me because I swear it wouldn't be a good day driving for her if she didn't hit a curb, large pothole or whatever object in the road that nearly every other human would likely avoid. We had our last new car no less than 36 hours when she smashed both passenger rims into a curb because a bug flew in the window on a road that hardly even has curb to begin with but obviously she found the spot with the best, highest curb. 3 of 4 rims have slight bends on that car. Keep driving that car..... haha

I obviously bought the tire/rim hazard for the van lol

 

[Vanmom]

We got a flat on a gravel road with only 4000km on our brand new van. We were 150km from the nearest dealership and literally in the middle of nowhere. We chose to use the tire service kit as opposed to waiting 2 hours for a tow truck. Overall, we were impressed with the kit and it had us back on the road in less than 20 min. It was much safer and cleaner than trying to change a tire at the side of the road! However, you can only drive 80km/hr once you've used the kit so we were able to get to the nearest Chrysler dealer to have our tire repaired but it did take a long time; still faster than waiting hours for a tow though.

We have thought about getting a spare and a jack, etc but I honestly think that the kit will do the trick 90% of the time! The service dept said there was a 1.5" gash in the tire and this kit sealed it up and allowed us to drive 150km at 80km/h to get the tire repaired. Thumbs up from us!

 

[Bond007]

We got a flat on a gravel road with only 4000km on our brand new van. We were 150km from the nearest dealership and literally in the middle of nowhere. We chose to use the tire service kit as opposed to waiting 2 hours for a tow truck. Overall, we were impressed with the kit and it had us back on the road in less than 20 min. It was much safer and cleaner than trying to change a tire at the side of the road! However, you can only drive 80km/hr once you've used the kit so we were able to get to the nearest Chrysler dealer to have our tire repaired but it did take a long time; still faster than waiting hours for a tow though.

We have thought about getting a spare and a jack, etc but I honestly think that the kit will do the trick 90% of the time! The service dept said there was a 1.5" gash in the tire and this kit sealed it up and allowed us to drive 150km at 80km/h to get the tire repaired. Thumbs up from us!

Great. That's some real encouraging news. Thank you for the information.

 

[coupon_ninja]

? apparently this edit screen doesnt like apostrophes. who knew.


I know this is an old post but I thought I?d resurrect due to my recent issues. I?d driven my ?12 t&c for about (now I forget) about 65k with *0* issues before deciding to get new tires, then subsequently decided to get the Pacifica. I got some good Michelins at costco, and not 2 weeks later was losing pressure in the one on a regular basis. I actually had to take it in for a patch the same week I took delivery of my Pacifica order.

Fast forward from Dec to May, my husband takes my van to work that day while his Jeep is being serviced, and comes home with a low tire (these are the Falken ziex on 20? factory). We go out to dinner locally and find that the tire drops about 10# per trip. We pulled over halfway home and I got the inflator kit out. I heard hissing so I decided to use the flat repair. After running it for a few mins I see the fluid bubbling out of the sidewall (!!!) I give up and we limp home the last few miles at about 17lb and run back out to grab a jack, since the one from the jeep couldnt raise it up without crushing the trim around the jack point. I jacked it up just enough so that it didn?t rest on the rim (trim was still being bent though), and ordered the tire online since it was Memorial Day weekend, and no service depts were open to even see if they had that tire in stock. My local auto care would order, but it would be at least 4 days and they wanted close to $200 for the tire.

I ordered from tires-easy.com and get it for about $160 delivered, fyi for anyone trying to replace this exact tire. Anyway, I got the tire, took it up to a tire center to have it mounted, and brought it back home and put it on. About a month later, a different tire kept losing pressure, and since we were about to be off on various long distance trip, had that patched (screw in the tread).

Now two weeks ago, I come out of the store and see that the same tire now has a cut across the tread. We?d been in DC several times over the last couple months at baseball games, going through construction areas, so that?s the only thing I can think may?ve happened. There?s no telling how long it had been like that, since it hadn?t been losing pressure, but still made me nervous. Ordered another tire from the same place, and had that swapped out last week.

After all of this I bit the bullet and bought the spare from Amazon. It comes with the mounting bracket and all which I don?t need, so it just lays loose in the stow-n-go well along with the included jack. Another compressor was not included, not sure if an order from your dealer would include that or not. I imagine I paid for all that bracket garbage when all I need is the tire and the folding jack.

It doesn?t fit as gracefully in the footwell as I?d hoped, I removed the styro thing in the middle as that only holds the compressor, gas funnel, and tire iron, so I threw in some of the craft paper that the wheel kit was wrapped in to keep the jack from rattling around.

Moral of the story? I use the vacuum alot, and I don?t regret getting it. But I also don?t want to be at the mercy of my cell signal or the van?s signal to request help if I?m stranded. These tires (or my luck) have proven to be lacking so far.