At Wrench, we hope you never get stuck somewhere with a flat tire, but if you do, we want you to be able to change your tire without a mechanic. You should never try to drive your car if you have a flat tire, this is extremely dangerous and could cause an accident. But sometimes you don't have the time to wait around for someone to help you, and if you have a spare tire, you could do it yourself. Follow these steps and you'll be ready to hit the road very soon.
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What You Need to Change Your Tire
- A Jack
- A Lug Wrench
- Spare Tire
How Long it Usually Takes
Changing a spare tire, depending on the person's skill and strength, could take anywhere from 10-40 minutes. Usually people are somewhere in the 15-30 minute range, but if it is your first time, plan to take it nice and slow so you don't miss any of the important steps.
How To Change Your Tire
- Find a safe, flat place to change your tires.
Never attempt to change your tire too close to traffic, and if you happen to be on the side of the road, turn on your hazard lights. - Use your parking brake.
Put your car in the "Park" position to ensure your car will not roll. You don't want it in neutral, reverse, or drive in any situation. - Put wheel wedges, or other heavy objects between your wheels.
If you have wheel wedges to keep your car from rolling, use them! If not, that's okay. Find something hard like bricks, rocks, or a spare tire to wedge in front of the front and back tires. - Loosen lug nuts and put the jack under the car.
Use the lug wrench to loosen the lug nuts by twisting them counter clockwise. You may need to exert a lot of force, don't be afraid to use your foot and all of your weight. Don't twist them all the way off, just enough to break the resistance. Place the jack under the vehicle's frame, right next to the flat tire. If you have your owners manual nearby, it may give you more specific instructions for this placement. With the jack, lift the car high enough to remove the flat tire. - Finish unscrewing the lug nuts.
Now the you have lifted the vehicle, finish unscrewing the lug nuts. Since you loosened them, it should be fairly easy. - Remove the flat tire.
Put the tire on it's side, under the vehicle just in case the jack fails. Then the vehicle will fall on the tire instead of the ground. - Mount the spare tire.
Line up the tire with the wheel bolts and carefully slide it into place. - Lower vehicle and tighten lug nuts.
Put on the lug nuts and tighten them as much as you can by hand. Then lower the jack to the ground but don't put the car all the way on the ground. Tighten the lug nuts a little more. - Lower vehicle all the way down.
Let the vehicle rest on the ground, and carefully pull out the jack. - Replace the hubcap.
Replace the hubcap by simply putting it on the new tire. - Check the tire pressure.
Make sure the tire pressure is in the right range, also check your other tires while you can. Add more air pressure if you need to. - Put away the equipment.
Put the equipment away where you found it. Be sure to take your flat tire to a mechanic so they can dispose it.
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