MerlintheMad
10000 Posts Club!
This evening, I ran over a "rock", actually this piece of concrete that had been sawed out and left for later removal. You can see how the exit from the parking lot has lane markers lined up in front of it, and how the widest, leftmost lane is the most inviting. By the time I had proceeded halfway up the hill, there was that raised island planter box you can see approaching in the pic of the steel plate: so, when I saw the black object ahead sticking up over half a foot, I had lane markers on my right, the planter box to my left and what looked barely like enough room between: nope, I heard and felt the loudest WHAM! my car has experienced to date (I said many unseemly words): the psi in the FR tire instantly went to "0". At the top of the hill the lane markers ended and I pulled over and parked it. And sat for a long moment fuming. Then I got out and checked out the damage: the wheel escaped almost entirely it seems: once I use the touchup paint you won't see it from a few feet away. The tire, however, is dead. What a slash!
I walked back and took pics of the debris and moved it out of the way (pointy part I laid on the island, the softball-sized rock I dropped back into its hole. I intend to pursue this and get reimbursed for the cost of a new PS4S. Obviously a previous vehicle had run over this triangular piece and it had flipped upright in the hole, just waiting for me.
Now the fun began: how to get my car home? This became an almost instant question, because when I pulled out the jack, it was obvious that the lug wrench was never going to fit into that TSW lug nut hole (I had never known that this ambush was waiting for me, heh!). I called "my" towing guys and got a very tired woman's voice apologizing that their driver had hurt his back (it was a recording). I called Kia road service for the first time and was informed by another recording that it was "after hours". WTH!? Are our emergencies only supposed to happen during business hours? Then I called my wife and she came and got me. I dropped her off at home and went to O'Reilly's for a lug wrench that would fit, but the guy said he couldn't sell me a tool without knowing the size of my lug nuts. I was pretty sure that they were hexagonal, not round and splined (I was wrong: I had assumed all this time that the rounded end tipped a six-sided lug further in: never really looked at them closely until today): back to the stranded car I went and took pics of the lug nuts. Stopped at the closer auto parts store (Auto Zone), but that guy tried to sell me a set of socket attachments and a long-handled socket wrench. I passed on to O'Reilly's and picked up the tools that the guy had offered in the first place: from the pics I had taken he guessed that the most common aftermarket wheel "key" was the hexagonal "spline drive key", which fits, of course, into one of the four sizes on the lug wrench (which I also bought). Voila! it fits the TSW lug nuts. I got the donut on in the lights of my wife's car that I left running behind the Stinger. Then I went and picked her up and we fetched her car: home after ten o'clock. This is the first time I've had to change a flat on the Stinger.
I walked back and took pics of the debris and moved it out of the way (pointy part I laid on the island, the softball-sized rock I dropped back into its hole. I intend to pursue this and get reimbursed for the cost of a new PS4S. Obviously a previous vehicle had run over this triangular piece and it had flipped upright in the hole, just waiting for me.
Now the fun began: how to get my car home? This became an almost instant question, because when I pulled out the jack, it was obvious that the lug wrench was never going to fit into that TSW lug nut hole (I had never known that this ambush was waiting for me, heh!). I called "my" towing guys and got a very tired woman's voice apologizing that their driver had hurt his back (it was a recording). I called Kia road service for the first time and was informed by another recording that it was "after hours". WTH!? Are our emergencies only supposed to happen during business hours? Then I called my wife and she came and got me. I dropped her off at home and went to O'Reilly's for a lug wrench that would fit, but the guy said he couldn't sell me a tool without knowing the size of my lug nuts. I was pretty sure that they were hexagonal, not round and splined (I was wrong: I had assumed all this time that the rounded end tipped a six-sided lug further in: never really looked at them closely until today): back to the stranded car I went and took pics of the lug nuts. Stopped at the closer auto parts store (Auto Zone), but that guy tried to sell me a set of socket attachments and a long-handled socket wrench. I passed on to O'Reilly's and picked up the tools that the guy had offered in the first place: from the pics I had taken he guessed that the most common aftermarket wheel "key" was the hexagonal "spline drive key", which fits, of course, into one of the four sizes on the lug wrench (which I also bought). Voila! it fits the TSW lug nuts. I got the donut on in the lights of my wife's car that I left running behind the Stinger. Then I went and picked her up and we fetched her car: home after ten o'clock. This is the first time I've had to change a flat on the Stinger.
