How to Change a Flat Tire-what every woman should learn
Posted: Monday, October 15, 2007
by Kathy Somers
Being a daughter of a mechanic has helped me out of a few car situations. One being, changing my own flat tire.
My article is geared towards you ladies out there who may need to get yourself out of a situation without having a stranger stopping to help you.
Yes, having a flat tire is a real pain, but it isnt as bad as you think. Take a deep breath and say "I can do this"
This should take approximately hour to an hour to complete. Especially if have never done this before.
Dont worry about getting your hands dirty, personally for me, I would rather get dirty hands then have a stranger stopping to help me and things not turn out so well. Understand? If you have a cell phone and a friend near by that can come and help you out, that is perfect, but sometimes life just doesnt work out that way.
First of all the things that you will need are:
Spare Tire
Wheel Wrench
and aJack
(there are different types of jacks and wheel wrenches but they all do the same job)All vehicles should come equipped with what you need to do this job.
Now lets get to work.
Pull over to the side of the highway and try to have your car on flat ground, no hills. Make sure your car is shut off, put your car in park and have your emergency brake on. If you feel it necessary turn your hazard lights on.
- Take your wheel wrench and loosen the lug (wheel nuts) nuts on your tire. If you have a hub cap, remove this first, the lug nuts are behind here. To remove your hub cap, take the screwdriver end of your wheel wrench and pry your hub cap off.
(Do not try to jack your car up first, because if you do, your tire will just turn while you are trying to loosen the nuts.)
- Take your jack; place it under the frame of your car and the frame is right under, up and behind the wheel (wheel well) frame of your car. Make sure you do not put the jack under the fender and try to jack it up, it will not work. The frame of your car is made of iron. Place your jack under the frame and start pumping or cranking up your jack. Your jack is going to move a bit while you are doing this so when your jack is getting closer to your frame, make sure it is placed exactly where you want it, jack it up a bit more and then it should be secure under the frame of the vehicle.
Take a peek and see. Do not under any circumstances crawl under your car while it is jacked up! Ok now jack up your car so that it is a couple of inches off the ground. (If you have an owners manual in your glove department, it should show you where to place your jack.) - Now that your car is raised remove the loosened lug nuts and place them somewhere you can find them easily.
- Here is where you may get a bit dirty, but thats ok it will wash off. Remove your flat tire and set it down, or roll it out of the way.
- Take a deep breath, you are half way finished. Ok? Now get your spare tire and put it on your car where you just have taken off your flat tire. I know its heavy, but you can get it. Now if you cant get the tire on because there doesnt seem to be enough room to put it on, you may have not lifted your car up far enough, you may have to crank or pump up your car a little higher. Why? Your spare tire is wider than your flat one unless you have one of those smaller spare tires that are for emergencies only, do not drive on this spare tire farther than you have to.
- There, you got your tire on the car, make sure you have your tire pushed on as far back and as you can get it. Put your lug nuts back on and tighten them as tight as you can with your hands.
- Release your jack so that your car will lower to the ground.
- Get your wheel wrench and tighten those lug nuts. When I watched my father do this, he would tighten the nut that is sitting at the 12 oclock position and then go to the nut at 6 oclock position, then over to the 9 oclock nut etc. Until all the nuts are tightened as tight as you can possible get them. For some reason it is better to tighten the nuts this way than in order.
- YOU DID IT now just gather up your tools, flat tire and put them in your vehicle and you are out of there. CONGRATULATIONS!
- If youre flat tire is too heavy for you to lift, drag it somewhere and hide it. Then get someone to come and pick it up later for you. But if you can get your spare tire out you should be able to put the flat tire back into your car. Just grit your teeth and lift it.
- Go home if you dont have time to go to a garage, or take it in to someone who can repair your flat tire for you. Remember not to drive fast on your newly changed tire, until someone has checked it for you. You should be very proud of yourself! It wasnt so bad after all.
This Article has been viewed 1,893 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Excellent instructionsThank you, I learned from the best.
This is great! I love the pictures they were very helpfull. -Kathy DannerHi Kathy, I figured since not alot of women know about cars and tools I had better put the picture of the wheel wrench in there for sure. Everyone knows what a spare tire looks like, but I remember when I was younger I could'nt figure out what the wheel wrench was LOL
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.