There are 3 certainties in life: 1. Death 2. Taxes 3. That it’s raining when you get a flat tyre. So if you’re reading this while stuck on the side of the road, soaking wet, with a flat tyre, then we feel for you, and this article will point you in the right direction to change your tyre. Hopefully, we’ll have you back moving in no time!
Being on the side of the road, jacking up your car in the rain is, let’s face it, unpleasant. Hopefully by learning from our handy guide here, you can get it done a little quicker.
How Do You Change a Tyre?
Well the first step in fixing a problem is realising there is one. If you notice the car is becoming more bumpy, pulling to one side or just a loud bang from one of the four corners – You probably have a flat.
But what do I need to change a tyre? Well, most car makers take that off your hands. In your boot under the rear carpet, you should find a bunch of goodies. Most noticeably, a spare tyre, jack and tyre iron.
You need to put your car into park and pull the handbrake. Now insert the jack under the jacking point and use the tyre iron to loosen the lug nuts.
Now begin jacking the car up. Once the wheel is no longer touching the road, you can begin to unbolt the lug nuts in a ‘star’ pattern. Once the lug nuts are off, you can remove the wheel and replace it with the spare.
Now that it’s time to fit the spare you will hand screw the lug nuts back on. Once you can’t tighten them with your fingers any more, you can lower the car back down to the ground. Now you will use your tyre iron to tighten them in the famous ‘star’ pattern. This will ensure that the wheel is bolted to the hub with equal force on all points.
Now you can load the jack, punctured wheel and tyre and tyre iron into the boot of your car.
Important Things to Remember:
Most modern cars come with “space-saver” wheels which mean you can’t drive over 80kmph.
Similarly, you may have a thing called ‘tyre weld’ this typically only works with small punctures and not with blown tyres.