18 Essentials You Need in a Car Emergency Kit

The downside with jumper cables is that you need another working car and its willing driver to be around when your car dies. If you plan on traveling to a remote area or don't want to rely on strangers, you can go with a battery-powered emergency jump-starter instead. It's bulkier and more expensive than cables, and you have to periodically make sure it's charged up, but this model is reasonably compact and weighs only 3 pounds. Note that it is rated to jump gasoline engines of up to 6-liter capacity and diesel engines up to 3-liter capacity.

Working on a car can make your hands filthy. Whether it's changing a tire or replacing a battery, your hands will most likely end up smeared in grease and road grime, which is going to stain your clothes or car interior. I prefer Fast Orange wipes because the gritty, textured material works better than regular wipes for scrubbing off hard-to-remove grease. Keep handy a wad of paper towels or Scott Shop Towels for $3, which are tougher, for wiping off the Fast Orange and residual grease.

If your car doesn't have a spare tire—sadly more common now than ever—you can use an aerosol product such as Fix-a-Flat. You connect the can to the punctured tire's valve stem. The sealant is sprayed onto the inside of the tire to patch the hole and then reinflate the tire. Don't expect the tire to be as good as new. This is meant to get you to the nearest mechanic so you can have them repair or replace the tire—not to drive on it for long.

Fix-a-Flat is easy-as-pie to use. As long as you can screw a hose on and off a tire valve stem (you can), then you can use a can of Fix-a-Flat when the need arises.

Bottle jacks are compact, and this one is more than strong enough to lift a heavy SUV or van for a tire change. If your car came with a jack, replace it with this one. Don't ever go underneath the car when it's supported only by a jack and not separate jack stands. You shouldn't be under there to change a tire anyway, and jacks do fail, even good ones. Jack the car up on the thick-looking parts of the frame underneath, not bodywork. There will be images in your owner's manual of the best jacking points. The Strongway jacks are easy to use, and it doesn't take many pumps of the handle to raise a car off the ground with it.

There are no separate parts to lose when you're using the classic X-shaped lug wrench. If your car has a spare tire, you'll need one of these to swap it with your flat. This one folds so it takes up less space in your trunk, and it has four sockets sized for the most common lug nuts: 17 mm, 19 mm, 21 mm, and 23 mm, which are roughly and respectively equal to 11/16 inches, 3/4 inches, 13/16 inches, and 7/8 inches.

As someone who has put out a car fire, I can tell you it's good to have a fire extinguisher onboard when your car is roasting like a marshmallow. This is one of those things that you need to keep with you. First Alert is a solid brand of extinguisher that I've used, and this one is rated to put out fuel and electrical fires, as well. The Element E50 for $90 is a newer technology that, instead of spraying difficult-to-clean-up powder, snuffs out a fire by shooting a gas that disrupts the chain of combustion. It's expensive, but it's much lighter and more compact, and requires no clean up after use.

You should check your coolant (antifreeze) level often. If you drive while it's low, you could ruin the engine. Carry a spare gallon on long trips and during heat waves so you can top it off wherever you are. Any brand of coolant from a reputable retailer will work, but I've been using Prestone for decades. Green-dyed antifreeze can be added to any antifreeze you already have in your car's cooling system. Get the premixed coolant that says "50/50" on it, otherwise you're going to have to find a bucket and a gallon of distilled water on the side of the road if you mistakenly buy the concentrated bottle.

Check your engine oil level occasionally. If it's low, you need to top it off immediately, before your engine destroys itself. Look in your car's owner's manual to see the recommended oil designation (10W-30, 10W-40, etc.), and buy a quart of that. But if you can't find your manual, 5W-30 is a good general oil that'll work for most engines and in most situations. Likewise, go for full synthetic rather than synthetic blends or conventional mineral oil. Keep a roll of paper towels so you can wipe off the dipstick before measuring. Remember to measure and add oil after the engine has warmed up completely and to turn off your engine when you're doing it. Adding too much can be as bad as too little. I've used the major brands—Pennzoil, Castrol, Royal Purple, Valvoline, and Mobil 1—extensively in many different cars, and they're all solid choices.

If you live where it snows (or plan to travel somewhere it does), make sure you have a sturdy ice scraper to clean the windows, or else you won't be driving anywhere. Measuring 51 inches, the SubZero has enough reach for me to reach the tops of a tall Jeep and a few SUVs. Plus, it's nice having a brush to clear off the surfaces of your car without scratching the paint. If you want to save room in your trunk, you can go with the SubZero scraper-only tool for $11. Keep a bottle of de-icer to help melt stubborn ice, too.

I used to laugh at the idea of keeping reflective triangles in my car. It sounds like a suggestion made by lawyers and not real people. Then one day I was driving an old Mustang and its electrical system crapped out. I was in the left-turn lane at an intersection busier than JFK airport, and my emergency flashers didn't work. I couldn't push the 3,400-pound car by myself up the slight hill, and I didn't have a chance of getting it across three busy lanes onto the shoulder. People behind me honked, cursed me out, and threw things because, without flashers on, they couldn't figure out my car had broken down. Reflective warning triangles placed on the road behind me would've clued them in to just drive around.

Your car battery is more than capable of charging a dead phone (if the car battery itself isn't dead). Don't get stuck on the side of the road with a dead phone and no way to charge it. We like these Anker cables because they're much more affordable than, say, Apple cables, and have never let us down. If you're going on a long road trip or through remote areas, consider bringing a portable battery bank, just in case your phone needs a charge and your car battery winds up dead.

You're not always going to break down where there's light. Fenix flashlights are my current favorite LEDs. They're bright, and they're tough enough to survive bumping around your trunk—and the inevitable drop onto the pavement. Powered by two AA batteries, it has four brightness settings, providing roughly 3.5 hours of run time at 350 lumens or 200 hours at 5 lumens.

If you're traveling on remote roads or through severe weather, it's important to pack enough potable water for all passengers. Keep a gallon per person per day of purified or spring water in the trunk. Avoid distilled; it doesn't taste very good. You don't need food to survive a day or two on the side of the road, but it'll keep your spirits up if you're waiting for passersby on a remote road. Good-to-Go and Mountain House are two of the tastier brands I've tried. You can eat straight out of the dehydrated food bags, but a long-handled spork will keep your knuckles cleaner than a regular utensil when eating out of those tall bags.

All these items rolling around your trunk or floorboards loosely would get pretty annoying. Keep them all in one place and organized by packing them into this water-resistant duffel bag. Being a Carhartt product, it's made with a tougher fabric than many travel duffel bags, which is a good thing when you're packing it full of rough-edged tools. Small gear, such as the tire pencil gauge and folding lug wrench, can go in the zippered exterior pocket.

Kits tend to make some compromises on the quality or quantity of gear, but Performance Tool's kit has all the basics. If you're certain you don't want to piece together your own roadside emergency tools, try this one. It packs jumper cables, a reflective traffic triangle, a flashlight, a tire gauge, a basic first-aid kit, and a few extra tools. 

On their own, none of the items are as good as the individual items I've listed throughout the guide, but they're much better than having nothing when your car decides to take a nap on the side of the road.

Keep up with your car maintenance. Cars have a way of paying you back if you neglect them for long, so stick to the service intervals recommended in your car's owner's manual. Before long trips, take your car to the mechanic to see whether you need your tires rotated or replaced, fuel system tuned up or cleaned, or steering aligned. Something you can easily do yourself is check your tire pressure every month and before long trips. Most gas stations have an air pump for you to use.

Make sure to pack your roadside gear bag with a poncho, a warm blanket, and diapers (if you or a little one needs 'em).