Car Insurance

You’re driving down the road, minding your own business, when suddenly you hear a strange noise. It sounds like someone’s tail pipe has fallen off and you look around to see where it might be coming from. By the time you realize the sound is coming from your car, your tire is a mangled heap of useless rubber and you are riding on your rims. You could pull over and wait for help, but why wait? Learn how to change your own tire and be armed when you’re out driving.

The most important part of being prepared is to have the right equipment. You should have the following items in your trunk at all times:

1 can of Fix-A-Flat

1 can of WD-40

Tire iron

Jack

Spare tire or donut

Fix-A-Flat can often inflate your tire enough to bring you to the next gas station or even further if you’re lucky enough to have a simple slow leak. If your tire is destroyed or the Fix-A-Flat doesn’t work, it’s time to change that tire.

The first thing you need to do is pry off your hubcap with the flat end of your tire iron. If you don’t have hubcaps, skip this step. Next, loosen, but do not remove your lug nuts with your tire iron. If the nuts are too tight or rusty, give them a spray with the WD-40 to loosen them up. After your lug nuts are loosened, look up at the sky and say, “Why ME?” Then, get ready to jack up your car. Look for a sturdy flat spot underneath your car to jack it up, giving yourself enough room to work with the tire. Usually there will be a flat plate somewhere near the bumper in the back or behind the tire in the front where you can safely jack up your car. If you are still doing this by yourself, it means you are either on a very deserted road or chivalry really is dead. After you’ve got the car jacked up, remove the lug nuts and take off your dead tire. Replace the tire with your spare or donut. If you are using a donut, be sure to get it replaced as soon as possible as these small tires are not meant to be driven long distances. Once you have your spare tire on, tighten the lug nuts only as much as you can without exerting force, then lower the car back down. Now that your car is back on the ground, tighten those lug nuts with all your might. You’ve just changed your own tire!

You can’t always rely on calling your auto club, especially if you’re out in the middle of nowhere and your cell phone doesn’t work. You can be prepared and be safe, instead of being left stranded bt following the instructions in this article.

The first thing to remember when you are driving and you experience a flat tire, is to immediately slow down the speed of your car and steer the car safely off of the roadway. Keep in mind that a blown tire interferes with the car’s steering and proper handling, especially if the blown tire is one of the front tires. As soon as you realize that your car has a flat tire, firmly grab and hold onto the steering wheel until you can get the car off of the road in a safe area and get it stopped.

Next, you must remember to get your car completely off of the roadway. Try to turn onto a side street, or into a parking lot. Also keep in mind that your car must be parked on a level area so you can safely change the tire.

Turn the car off, and immediately turn your car’s

emergency flashers on and apply the parking brake. Using the emergency flashers will make your disabled car more visible, especially at night. Another good idea is to light a couple of road flares. Place the flares a safe distance, about twenty feet apart, behind your car so cars coming up on you will see them and have time to slow down.

Your next step is to get the necessary tools out of the trunk of your car. You will need a good spare tire, a tire iron, and the car’s jack.

Using the tire iron,carefully pry the hubcap off and set it aside. Loosen the lugnuts on the tire before you jack the car up, and loosen them in order. That is, loosen one, then the lugnut diagonally opposite to it, then the next, and so on. Do not remove the lugnuts at this point, merely loosen them.

Next, use the car jack to carefully raise the front or rear end of the car. You will need to raise the car high enough so that you can remove the flat tire from the vehicle. If you are not sure how to properly use the jack, read and follow the manufacturer’s instructions. There are several types of jacks and different ways to use them.

Next, remove the lugnuts and lay them inside the hubcap. Then, remove the flat tire from the car. Place the spare tire onto the hub, making sure to align the holes in the tire to the studs that are sticking out. Remember to place the tire on with the air valve facing towards you. If you do not see the air valve, you have put the tire on backwards. Then, replace the lugnuts and tighten them finger-tight in the same fashion in which you loosened them.

Finally, slowly lower the jack all the way down. Now, using the tire iron, tighten all of the lugnuts. Make sure they are all tightened securely. Replace the hubcap and place the flat tire and your tools back into the trunk, and remove the road flares if you used some.

Don’t forget to have the flat tire repaired or replaced just as soon as possible and place it back in the trunk so you will be prepared for your next flat tire!

Getting a flat tire on a car is a very common thing that could happen to even the nicest of cars. And changing that flat tire is something you should know how to do in case you are stranded somewhere where you cannot get help.

As long as you have the spare tire, car jack, crowbar, and tool to take off and tighten the lug nuts (all items that every car should have), then changing a flat tire is very simple.

First, you need to set the jack up under a solid part of the side of the car, usually next to the flat tire toward the middle of the car. In other words, if it’s the front right tire or the back left tire, the jack will be set up just to the left of the tire as you are looking at it. If it’s the front left tire or the back right tire, the jack will be set up just to the right of the tire as you are looking at it. Get it set up so that it’s jacked firmly against the underside of the car, but do not raise the car off the ground yet.

Now you need to pry the hubcap off. You should have a crowbar with all of your spare tire equipment, or sometimes it’s the other end of the lug nut tool. Once you get the hubcap off, you need to take off the lug nuts with the tool provided. Make sure you keep your feet out from under the tire and car at all times.

Next, you need to jack the car up. Jack it up just enough so that the tire is off the ground and you can slide it off. There is no need to jack up the car any more than necessary.

Take the old tire off, put the new tire on, tighten the lug nuts a bit, then lower the tire and finish tightening the lug nuts until you can’t turn them anymore. Next put the hubcap back on, then carefully lower the car down with the jack until the jack can be easily slid out from underneath the car. If it’s a small, temporary spare tire that you put on, you will want to get a full-sized tire put on as soon as possible. If it’s a full-sized spare tire you put on, you will need to buy a spare tire to replace what you just put on. In either case, after changing the tire, get to a service station as soon as possible and ask them to make sure the lug nuts are tight enough. It may cost a few dollars, but better to be safe then sorry.

With cell phones and auto services available today, many people don’t worry about knowing how to change a tire. But you never know when you might be caught on an old country road or in the middle of nowhere where help isn’t as readily available as you are used to. Knowing how to change a tire is vital to being on the road.

Note: If you have your car’s manual, it should explain how to change a flat tire specifically for your car.

Eventually it will happen to almost everyone. You’re driving down the road in the middle of nowhere and you get a flat tire. Without the proper knowledge and tools this could turn into something much worse than it really is. It is very important for your safety and the safety of others that you know how to properly change a flat tire.

Supplies:

Spare tire

Car jack

Tire air gauge

Lug nut wrench

Process:

1. Wherever your flat occurs, be sure to pull your car as far off the road as possible for your own safety. Make sure that you pull the car onto the most level area available. Once your car is safely off the road, turn off the engine and turn on the hazard lights. Next apply the parking break to prevent the car from rolling. Open the hood to show other drivers that you have pulled off the road for repairs.

2. Place something such as a rock or wheel chock in front of the opposing wheel so that the car won’t roll.

3. Get out your spare tire, car jack, tire gauge, and lug nut wrench.

4. If there is a hubcap on your wheel remove it with the lug nut wrench.

5. Use your lug nut wrench to loosen the lug nuts. This is putting the lug nut wrench over a lug nut and turning it to the left to loosen it. Loosen the lug nuts in a star pattern; loosen one lug nut and the one opposite from it until all of the lug nuts are slightly loose.

6. Refer to your owner’s manual to see where the car jack should be placed before you jack the car up. Take your tire jack and jack the car up slightly higher than needed to remove the flat tire and put the new one on.

7. Remove the lug nuts and put them in safe place so you don’t lose them.

8. Remove the flat tire and exchange it in your car with the spare.

9. Take the new tire, with the air valve facing out, and place it on the wheel studs.

10. Replace the lug nuts by tightening them the same way you loosened them. Make your way around the tire tightening the lug nuts in a star pattern.

11. Carefully lower the car jack and place it back in the car. After you lower the car tighten the lug nuts once more and make them as tight as you possibly can.

12. Put the hubcap back on if necessary and check the air pressure of your spare with your tire air gauge. If the tire pressure is safe to drive on jump in your car and you’re on your way.

Remember the biggest thing when you change a tire is your safety. Please be careful.

Changing a tire is easy if you learn the procedure. Be sure to check your owner’s manual for the best information for your particular vehicle. In lieu of the owner’s manual, here are a few simple steps to change the tire yourself.

If you get a flat tire while you are driving, do not apply the brake heavily. Instead, gradually decrease the speed. Hold the steering wheel firmly and slowly move to a safe place on the side of the road. Park on a level spot, turn off your ignition, set the parking brake, and turn on the hazard flashers.

Changing a tire can be a daunting experience for the unschooled. If you don’t have your cell phone with you to call AAA, then you are like the rest of us, who have to change that tire themselves! There are a few things that could prevent you from accomplishing this task — one deterrent would be bolts that are adjusted too tightly to remove, another would be not having all the pieces to your jack. Both of these things have happened to me over the course of the past 25 years! Older cars tend to have parts that are a lot more corroded and stubborn than their newer counterparts, but you should be able to change the tire successfully with a little luck and lot of elbow grease!

First, I would recommend that you check your glove box and see if there is an owner’s manual in it. The manual will tell you where to place the jack on the underside of the car. On some cars it is near the tire, on others it is under the area where the bumper attaches to the car. At any rate, pick a place that is solid and not rusting through.

For safety’s sake set your emergency brake so the car won’t move, and if possible set a block in front of and in the back of the wheel that is diagonally opposite to the tire you will be changing. If you have an automatic transmission put your car in park. If it is a manual transmission, put it in reverse. Take your spare tire and the jack out of the trunk and you are ready to proceed. Next, remove your hubcaps. Many of them can be loosened by inserting the tapered end of the lug nut wrench behind the wheel covers or hubcaps, and twist off. Some cars have a little tool for removing hubcaps that may be stored in the glove box or with the car manual. After removing the hubcaps, you will want to remove the lugnuts. Apply the lug wrench, or the end of the jack that is fitted to double as a lug wrench, to the first lug nut. Loosen the wheel nuts by pulling up on the handle of the lug nut wrench about one-half turn, counterclockwise. Do not remove the lug nuts until you raise the tire off the ground. Since the lugnuts are going to be on there pretty tight, it’s a good idea to loosen them before you jack up the car. If you can’t do it by hand, get that foot up there and give it a little extra pressure.

Insert the jack handle into the jack and use the handle to slide the jack into the proper position under the vehicle. Turn the jack handle clockwise until the wheel is a maximum of one inch off the ground. Remove the lug nuts with the lug wrench. Pull off the tire and replace it with the spare. Thread the lug nuts on the wheel studs with the beveled face toward the wheel. Use the lug wrench to screw the lug nut snug against the wheel, but do not tighten. Lower the vehicle by turning the jack handle counterclockwise.

Breathe! Remove the jack and fully tighten the lug nuts. You must tighten them in a star pattern, always tightening the most opposite lug nut to the one you just tightened. Replace your wheel covers, ornaments and hub caps. Make sure that they are screwed or snapped into place or you will lose them! Put away your tire, jack and wrench, and then unblock the wheels.

A conventional spare tire is usually an identical match to the rest of the tires on the car and can be used as such. However, if the tire your vehicle has as a spare, is a temporary spare, or what many call a doughnut, use it only for emergency use. Do not use the temporary spare tire with 4wd as it can damage the powertrain components. If you must use 4wd do not operate at speeds above 10mph or for a distance above 50 miles.