A flat tire in Cary leaves you three roadside options: a tire change if you have a usable spare, a slow drive to a tire shop if your car has run-flats, or a tow if you have neither. For tire change service in Cary, NC, call WTF Towing at (919) 230-4498, 24 hours a day. Tell us what’s in the trunk and the right truck comes the first time.
Here’s how to tell which option is yours, what our driver does, and when a flat becomes a tow. The short version is on our flat tire change service in Cary page.
Spare, donut, run-flat or kit: know which one you have
Lift the cargo floor before you need to. Your car has one of four setups.
- A full-size spare. Common on pickups and larger SUVs, often hung underneath and lowered with a crank. Once it’s on and holding air, you drive normally.
- A compact “donut” spare. Narrower than your other tires and strictly temporary. The speed limit is printed on it, usually 50 mph, and it’s meant to go only as far as a tire shop. Most call for 60 psi, and they lose air sitting in the trunk.
- No spare, because the car rides on run-flats. BMW and Mini have fitted them for years, as have many Mercedes-Benz models. Look on the sidewall for a code such as RFT, ROF, ZP, SSR, DSST, EMT or MOE, or the words “Run Flat.”
- A sealant kit, or nothing. Many newer cars carry a bottle of sealant and a small compressor where the spare used to be. Most EVs have no spare either.
With a spare: what our driver does on a tire change
You don’t need your own jack. Our Ram 5500 wrecker carries the jacks and breaker bar for full-size pickups and lifted SUVs. What the car has to supply: the spare, the tool that lowers it if it hangs underneath, and the wheel-lock key.
On a shoulder, the truck parks behind your car with its lights on and the cones go out. The driver checks the ground first. On a soft or sloped shoulder the jack sits on a plate or the car moves a few feet, because a jack sinking into wet grass is how cars fall off jacks.
Then the work: lug nuts broken loose with the wheel on the ground, the car lifted at the maker’s jack point, the spare on, and the lugs tightened in a star pattern with a torque wrench. He checks the spare’s pressure before you drive on it.
On a donut, stay off the highway if you can: from the Crossroads Plaza lot, that means Walnut Street, not US-1. On an all-wheel-drive car the mismatched tire can strain the drivetrain the whole time it’s on, so keep the trip short and get the real tire fixed within a day or two.
On run-flats: how far you can really go
A run-flat has sidewalls stiff enough to carry the car with no air inside. That makes a flat hard to feel, so the tire-pressure light is often your only warning. When it comes on, believe it.
The usual limit is about 50 miles at no more than 50 mph, less with a loaded car; your owner’s manual has the exact figure. That reaches any tire shop in Cary, Apex or Morrisville from anywhere in town. It doesn’t reach Charlotte or the beach.
On US-1, move to the right lane, slow down, turn the hazards on and take the next exit: Exit 101 at Walnut Street, Exit 99 at Cary Parkway or Exit 98A at Tryon Road. Finish the trip on surface streets.
Run-flats still end up on our trucks. Stop and call for a tow when:
- the sidewall is cut or the tire is coming apart;
- the wheel is bent from a pothole or a curb;
- the car shakes, pulls or smells of hot rubber;
- you don’t know how long the light has been on.
If no shop is open, a run-flat that’s still in one piece can usually get you home at low speed; tomorrow’s miles count against the same limit. Plan on buying a tire: many shops won’t repair a run-flat that’s been driven flat.
No spare, or one you can’t use: when a flat becomes a tow
A sealant kit handles one kind of flat: a small puncture in the tread. It won’t seal a sidewall cut, a blowout or a tire that has come off the rim, and the sealant can foul the pressure sensor inside the wheel. If you use it, tell the tire shop.
These are the calls where we skip the jack and send a truck to tow:
- no spare and no run-flats;
- a spare that’s flat, cracked with age or won’t come down from under the truck;
- a bent or cracked wheel;
- two flats at once, the kind a pothole or debris on I-40 leaves;
- a missing wheel-lock key.
The car rides on one of our two Isuzu NRR rollback carriers. All four wheels sit on the 21-foot Jerr-Dan bed, so it doesn’t matter which tire is flat or which wheels drive the car. It’s the only way we tow an EV; our post on why EVs need a flatbed explains that.
It goes to the tire shop of your choice in Cary, Apex or Morrisville, or home if nothing is open.
What to do when you get a flat in Cary
- Get out of traffic. Ease off the gas, don’t brake hard, and steer for an exit ramp, a parking lot or the widest, most level shoulder you can reach.
- Don’t keep driving on a regular tire that’s flat. A slow crawl along the shoulder to a safe spot is fine. Past that, the rim chews up the tire and the road chews up the rim.
- Hazards on, seatbelt on. On US-1, I-40 or NC-540, stay in the car if all of it is past the white line. If any part is in a lane, call 911 first. Get everyone out on the side away from traffic and behind the guardrail if you can do it safely; if you can’t, stay belted.
- Check what you have. Spare, donut, run-flats or a kit, and the wheel-lock key: glove box, console or trunk tool kit. On a highway shoulder, skip this and stay belted; the driver will look.
- Call (919) 230-4498. Give us the road and direction, and the nearest exit or the store you’re parked by.
- Describe the car and the tire. Year, make and model; all-wheel drive, electric, lowered or lifted; which tire is flat; whether the wheel looks bent, if you can tell.
- Pick the destination if it needs a tow. Call the tire shop first to confirm it’s open and has your size. Run-flat and EV tires aren’t always on the shelf.
What decides the price, and the mistakes that raise it
We quote the job on the phone before the truck rolls. What moves the number:
- Tire change or tow. A tire change is a service call. A tow adds the mileage to the shop.
- Distance. How far the truck runs to reach you and, for a tow, how far the car is going.
- Where the car sits. A level lot is quick. A soft shoulder, a low deck or a car that left the pavement in a blowout takes more work, sometimes a winch-out first.
Our post on what drives the price of a tow in Cary covers the rest. If your insurance roadside plan reimburses tire changes or tows, ask us for an itemized receipt.
The mistakes that make a flat expensive:
- Changing a tire on the traffic side of a highway shoulder.
- Jacking on the rocker trim or the floor. On an EV, the floor is the battery.
- Leaving a donut on for a week.
- Paying for a tow when a tire change would do. Our guide to when to call a tow truck and when you just need roadside help sorts those out.
Tire change questions
Can you plug or patch my tire on the roadside?
No. Plugs and patches are a tire shop’s job. We put your spare on or tow the car, and the driver will tell you if the hole looks like one a shop can fix.
What if I get a flat in a parking deck at Fenton or RDU?
A deck is one of the easier places for a tire change: level concrete and no fast traffic. Tell us the level and the nearest stairwell. If the car has to be towed, read us the clearance posted at the entrance so the right truck comes.
I have run-flats and the light just came on. Should I call?
Check whether it’s a flat first. On the first cold mornings of fall the light often comes on because pressure drops with the temperature. Put a gauge on all four tires: one far below the rest is your flat. If it looks intact, drive slowly to a shop. If the sidewall is damaged, stop and call.
WTF Towing is licensed and insured (USDOT 4241594, MC 1642674, $1,000,000 liability) and handles towing in Cary, NC, plus Morrisville, Apex, Holly Springs, New Hill, RTP and RDU Airport, with runs into Raleigh and Durham. Flat at 2 a.m. and looking for a tow truck near you in Cary? We answer.
When your car makes you say WTF, you call WTF Towing: (919) 230-4498.
