Flat tyres, no one likes them, and no one ever wants to deal with one, but the truth is that it can happen at almost any time.
All it takes is something like a loose nail or even a sharp turn in the face of the curb and suddenly you find yourself on the side of the road.
Most vehicles have a small spare tire that can be used in an emergency. However, it is of little use if you do not know how to put it on.
If you're stuck on the side of the road and wondering what to do, here's a step-by-step guide on how to change a tire.
How to change a tire
The tire is changed as follows:
- Move to a safe place
If you are on a busy highway or road, the last thing you want to do is work on your car near vehicles moving at high speeds on the highways.
If you experience a flat tire, turn on your hazard lights to indicate a problem, gradually slow down to a slow speed, and pull your vehicle gently to the shoulder as far as you can.
You must have at least six feet of space between the driver's door and the furthest right lane, but there is always more room.
- Jack Up the Car
Your vehicle will almost certainly have an emergency jack that can be used to lift the affected wheel off the ground so you can remove the tire.
This can be located in many different places, but it is almost always located in the back of the car, use your owner's manual to find out exactly where it is located in your car.
If you don't keep your owner's manual with your car at all times, look for it and make sure you save where it is. Next, you'll need to mark a point on your tire that's strong enough to support the weight of your car while it's jacked up.
Extend the jack until it is shorter than the distance from the ground to your jacking point, make sure the jack itself is stable, then move the jack more slowly to lift your vehicle up.
Do this until the tire is a good 2 to 3 inches off the ground. One tip, and it's very important: don't lean on your car in any way while it's parked on the jack stand.
These racks are not the sturdiest, and the last thing you want to do is accidentally take your car off the rack before replacing the wheel.
Loosen the lug nuts but do not remove them before jacking the vehicle up. This is recommended because loosening the lug nuts can require a lot of force, which can be tedious when jacking your vehicle.
- Remove the lug nuts
Your wheel is held on by a series of lug nuts, usually either five or six of them and requires some muscle to remove them, as they are usually attached with an air gun for extra security.
In your glove box or perhaps also in the area where you found your winch you will find a wrench and socket, attach the socket to this wrench, place it over one of the lugs, then begin to twist the lug in a counterclockwise motion.
Don't be surprised if this is hard, however, you will be moving hard enough and one of your lugs may be different than the other, and have some sort of weird design etched into them.
This is a wheel lock, commonly found on vehicles with alloy rims or those with expensive rims and cannot be removed without the key lug, which is usually located in the glove box and the key travels to this lug only one way, so don't be surprised if it gets a little tricky to work with.
- Replace the tire
Once you remove the lugs, the wheel should come off easily, it may be a little heavy, but lift it up a bit and pull towards you and it should come off right away.
Put it in the trunk or the back of your car, where you won't want to drive on it again until the tire is replaced. After that, take the spare tire and put it on the axle.
The lug nuts must exactly match the spacing on the lugs themselves, so this should be a smooth fit. Then gather the wheel nuts you removed and place them over the lugs to hold the wheel in place.
Don't tighten them yet, we'll get to how to do that in a second. However, use your fingers to make sure they are tight enough and do the same with the wheel lock nut as well.
- Spare tightening
Now comes the tricky part which is tightening the steering wheel as you will want to do this by tightening the bolts one by one, directly from the one you just tightened.
For five-wheelers, that means going in a "star" formation, in other words (assuming one of the lugs is pointing directly at the top of your car) you'll go up, down left, middle and right, middle and left, down and right.
For the six-spoke wheels, start with one lug, get the wheel immediately opposite it, then move one clockwise and do the same and after you have moved clockwise twice, you should have tightened all six lugs.
- Free your car
Now that your new tire is on, you can drop your car to the ground again and slowly move the jack standing up in reverse so that it carefully lowers down.
Once he's fully seated on his suspension again, you can collapse him all the way, put a wrench and jack away, and you're done. When you're driving on a spare tire, drive with caution, keep your speed at 60 mph or less, and don't drive on a spare tire. more than 50 miles unless absolutely necessary.
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