The right tyre repair kits depend on where you drive. A city commuter with a space saver spare wants something different from a farmer on gravel or an overlander crossing the Kalahari with two spares and still worried. A plug kit and a small compressor can get a tubeless tyre home from a nail in the tread; a sealant kit can get a car with no spare to the next town. Neither is a permanent repair. Send one request and we pass it to independent suppliers, who quote you directly.
Plug kits for cars, bakkies and 4x4s
A string plug kit has a reamer to clean the hole, an insert tool, sticky rubber strings and sometimes cement. You find the hole, ream it, push a string in, pull the tool out and trim it. It works on tubeless tyres with a small hole in the tread. Look for metal T-handles rather than plastic, which bend on stiff 4x4 tyres, and plenty of spare strings. A pair of pliers to pull the nail and a valve core tool are useful additions. It is a temporary fix: a shop should do a proper tyre repair from the inside afterwards.
Sealant kits and compressors
Many new cars come with a sealant and compressor kit instead of a spare. The sealant is pumped through the valve and seals small holes as the tyre turns. It works on small tread punctures, not on cuts or sidewall damage. Tell the tyre shop you used sealant, because it must be cleaned out, and it can affect TPMS sensors. A 12 volt compressor is worth having with any kit. For 4x4s, look at the airflow, the duty cycle (how long it runs before it must cool) and whether it clips to the battery for big tyres.
Workshop and fleet kits
Tyre shops, mobile services and fleets buy larger kits by the box, refill packs of strings, and proper patch-plug stock for inside repairs. A fleet manager might put a kit in every bakkie with a short instruction card.
- Boxes of string plugs and spare insert needles
- Valve cores, caps and a core tool
- A tread depth gauge and a pressure gauge
For full workshop stock, see tyre repair supplies.
What a kit cannot do
No kit fixes a sidewall cut, a tear in the shoulder, a hole bigger than a nail, or a tyre driven flat for kilometres, which may be damaged inside even if it looks fine. A plug kit cannot seat a bead that has come off the rim, and sealant will not hold a hole near the shoulder. Check the spare before every long trip, since a kit is a backup, not a replacement for a good spare wheel. If you are stuck at the roadside, a mobile tyre repair call-out is often the safer route.
What to put in your request
- Plug kit, sealant kit, compressor or all three
- Car, bakkie, 4x4, truck or a fleet
- How many kits and refill packs
- Metal handles for stiff 4x4 tyres
- Delivery address or collection
Tyre Repair Kits for drivers, fleets and workshops
- Private car owners: a plug kit or sealant kit in the boot for a nail on the way to work
- Enthusiasts, 4x4 and performance drivers: an overlander's heavy-duty kit and compressor for gravel and sand trips
- Company and rental fleets: a kit in every bakkie so a puncture does not strand a team on a job
- Dealers, panel shops and insurers: a kit and compressor in the boot of demo and courtesy cars
- Tyre shops and wheel workshops: a mobile service or tyre shop restocking plugs and insert tools by the box
- Truck, bus and taxi operators: a truck kit with large plugs for a get-home fix to the next depot
- Farms: a kit on every farm bakkie for thorns and gravel punctures far from town
- Mines and construction sites: a site kit and compressor for LDVs on rough haul roads
Frequently asked questions
Do you sell tyre repair kits?
Is a plugged tyre safe to keep driving on?
Can I use a plug kit on a tube-type tyre?
Which kit suits a 4x4 on gravel and long trips?
Tyre Repair Kits by province and city
- Johannesburg
- Pretoria
- Centurion
- Midrand
- Sandton
- Randburg
- Roodepoort
- Krugersdorp
- Randfontein
- Germiston
- Boksburg
- Benoni
- Kempton Park
- Alberton
- Vanderbijlpark
- Vereeniging
- Durban
- Pinetown
- Pietermaritzburg
- Richards Bay
- Newcastle
- Ladysmith
- Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth)
- East London
- Kariega (Uitenhage)
- Mthatha
- Cape Town
- Bellville
- Paarl
- Stellenbosch
- George
- Worcester
- eMalahleni (Witbank)
- Middelburg
- Secunda
- Mbombela (Nelspruit)
- Rustenburg
- Brits
- Klerksdorp
- Potchefstroom
- Mahikeng
- Polokwane
- Tzaneen
- Kimberley
- Upington
- Bloemfontein
- Welkom
- Sasolburg