How

Automobile How To

Changing a tire is a really simple process. If you get a flat tire, try to drive on the tire as little as possible. Immediately pull over to the side of the road, far enough away from traffic so that you’re not hit. It’s probably a good idea to put on your emergency flashers too. If you drive on the tire for too long, you run the risk of ruining the tire and or the rim. i did this once and regretted it afterwards. I had just pulled out of my driveway and was a block away from my house when I noticed a weird sound from my front passengers side. I had the passenger peek out the window and see what was wrong: my tire was nearly flat. In my stupidity I decided to turn around and drive the block back home so that I could change the tire there, figuring it had enough air to make it. I was able to put the spare tire on the following morning, but when I ventured to my local tire shop, upon removing the tire from the rim, rubber fragments fell out all over the floor. I had ruined my tire and it could not be safely used again without running the risk of it blowing out going 75 mph on the interstate. So in summary, don’t drive on a flat tire!

Be sure to know beforehand wherre your jack, spare tire and lug wrench are located; you don’t want to be searching around at 2 a.m. It is a good idea to also carry a flash light in case you are stuck changing a tire at night.

• First, remove your hubcap if you have one.
• Take your lug wrench and loosen each lugnut (counter-clockwise). This is important: if you try to loosen the lug nuts when the car is elevated, the tire will spin and not allow you to loosen them.
• Place the jack underneath the car. Usually, the correct location is on the edge underneath the car, but be careful not to place it somewhere that will damage the car or be unable to sustain the weight.
• Make sure no one is in the car, and once the car is elevated, do not get under it.
• Begin to rotate the jack until the car is raised far enough off the ground that you can fit the spare tire onto the axel.
• Once elevated, completely remove all lug nuts, and remove the flat tire.
• Take your spare tire and align it properly to fit.
• Hand tighten the lug nuts to secure the spare tire.
• Lower the car and use the lug wrench to tighten each lug nut. It’s a good idea to do alternating lug nuts so that one side is not unevenly tightened.
• Double check to make sure each lug nut is as tight as you can get it.
• Place your tools and flat tire back into the spare tire spot.
• Get your flat tire fixed as soon as possible. Driving on an under or oversized tire in comparison to the rest of your cars tires can create problems if not corrected. I’ve blown a rear differential doing this in my truck.