Just realized my neighbor's tire pressure advice was about more than air

My neighbor Carl, who's been driving the same 1998 Civic forever, told me to check my spare tire pressure last week. I laughed it off because I'd never even opened my trunk's spare compartment in 4 years of owning my car. Then I actually pulled it out and the gauge read 12 psi, which is basically useless in an emergency. It hit different because he wasn't lecturing me about routine stuff, he was pointing out the one thing I'd totally ignored that could leave me stranded in a random parking lot. Anyone else ever find a hidden maintenance detail that makes you rethink your whole checklist?

1 comments

1 Comment

charlie3728d ago

...and that's exactly what my buddy Mike found out the hard way last winter. He'd been driving his old truck for years and swore he checked everything on it regularly. But one night he got a flat on the highway, pulled out the spare, and it was completely flat too. The rubber was cracked and dry rotted, looked like it'd been sitting there since the Bush administration. He ended up waiting two hours for a tow truck in the freezing cold because he never once thought to check that thing. After that he made a list of all the stuff you never touch until you need it, and now he checks the spare every time he gets an oil change. Honestly it's wild how much we assume the stuff we never see is just fine.