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A sub-$10 kit and 10 minutes of your time are—in many cases—all you need.

Repairing a punctured tire doesn’t necessarily mean you have to take a trip to your mechanic. Installing a tire plug isn’t a difficult job, and you can often do it with the wheel still on the car. And, if the tire hasn’t gone flat, that’s the fastest way to do it. Front wheels can almost always stay on the car, but rear wheels may need to come off if the car is low and has tight fender clearance. In either case though, the tire doesn’t need to come off the rim. This $10 Slime Kit includes the tools for the job, plus materials for 5 repairs.

It’s important to understand what types of tire damage can be repaired. You should never attempt to repair sidewall punctures or damage. Steel belts run around the circumference of the tires, under the tread, and when a plug is pushed through the tread it catches on the sharp edges of the steel wires in the belts and helps hold the plug in place. Sidewalls aren’t as thick and don’t have steel belts running through them like the treads do, so plugs just won’t hold. Tire shoulders—where the tread transitions to the sidewalls—are other areas to stay away from. This is where the the heavier belting material in the tire ends, so avoid putting plugs anywhere in the last 3⁄4 of an inch at the edge of the tire treads.