TPWS came on today, so I tried to hook up my tire inflator. No cigarette lighter! Haha. So I had to drive over to the gas station.

Now, to find the cigarette lighter in my ES or get an inflator that works with this car.

 

It's in the center console storage box (unless you have the wireless phone charger).

 

Speaking of portable inflators, anyone know of a decent one that works well- seems it's getting tougher to find gas stations with air pumps these days.

 

Rats! I have the wireless phone charger for phones that don't work with it.

 

I don't have a portable inflator but I do have a tankless compressor that I bought about 25 years ago when gas stations stopped having free air pumps. Its a wall-recepticle plug-in. Its a Sears that I believe was the same as a B & D at that time. When it wasn't very old the hose went bad and I bought a replacement at Sears parts. Its longer than the original and still works good. I check my tires and usually add air once a month - spares 2 or 3 times a year. I think it would be very slow if you were pumping one up that was flat or nearly flat. It has an accurate gauge on top.

 

There are numerous options on Amazon. I just got an inexpensive one that uses either 12 volt (via cigarette lighter) or 110 volts. It seems to work ok but probably premature to recommend it. This one has a screw on nozzle rather than a standard inflator nozzle like you find on standard air compressors.

 

My Corvette came with run flat tires in 1998. No spare...Unfortunately they are so uncomfortable that many owners ditch the RF tires and buy regular inflated tires and no spare tire in the car.
The answer is (a) get towed with a flat or (b) carry an inflation kit. This is what I have. It's called Slime. Includes a pump, chemicals to seal the puncture unless it's a tear or on the sidewall.
Will temporarily seal the tire until you can get to a safe place. The chemical will not damage the tire pressure sensors. Fits in the trunk. Fortunately for us Lexus drivers we have a spare in the trunk and I carry a AAA card...

 

I have one in the trunk that plugs into a cigarette lighter. It has a tire gauge embedded in the air hose, which is nice. It came in extremely handy a couple of times when I got a flat and the tire would still hold air long enough to drive to a repair place. The only thing is it's very slow. It took at least 10 to 15 minutes to fill the tire. I recommend spending a few extra bucks to get a more powerful one.

 

Everyone says the wireless charger doesn't work very well anyway. It may be possible to remove the wireless charger and the 12 volt socket will then be accessible.

 

If you have RYOBI cordless tools, they make an 18V cordless tire inflator that you can just pop your battery on and use. I got one a few years ago at one of their Direct Tools outlets for about $15. Works great. I just looked on the Direct Tools Outlet website and they currently do not have any of these in stock. I believe Home Depot sells them for about $25. It does not come with a battery, the economics don't work as well if you don't already have RYOBI tools and a battery.

As an aside if there is no outlet near you, here is the website you can order from: Direct Tools

 

Timely question - I just topped off 16 tires this morning because of the temperature drop, with my new favorite inflator - Dewalt 20V Max DCC0201. I've had many inflators over the years as well as a compressor in the garage but this is the most convenient unit I have had. It was about $100 without battery on Amazon and I haven't seen it in any of the stores yet. If you don't have any Dewalt cordless tools you will need to get a battery for $50 and up as well. The 2 Amp battery or the new 3 Amp battery or more than adequate although the 4, 5 and 6 Amp batteries also work but just add more bulk and weight. Topping off tires takes maybe 30 seconds and filling a tire would take 2-3 minutes. The instructions say to limit run time to 10 minutes to prevent overheating - I was able to inflate a portable tank to 120 lbs. in that time and on one 2 Amp battery. The inflator also works off an included cigarette lighter plug. Topping off 16 tires drained the battery by about 20%.

Dave Mac

 

OK, I found them! Two of them.

1) In the the console box (between the driver & passenger seats), below the wireless phone charger (which I have), there is a 12v/120w power outlet.

2) Behind the console box, facing the rear passenger seats, is a second 12v/120w outlet.

See pages 269 & 270 in the Owner's Manual.

 

Here's how my day started today Luckily I found a station that still has an air pump - pumped it back up (it was down to 15PSI) and then my fleet manager at work had it patched for me.

 

I got you beat... LOL. It happened last week and I had to purchase a new tire.

 

Oh man - I got lucky - right in the middle.