Diy Automotive Repair how to Change a Flat Tire
Hopefully you'll never find yourself flying down the road to suddenly have your tire blow out or go flat. However, during the course of most drivers lives they will have had their share of flat tires and blowouts. I personally have been driving for the last almost 10 years and I have had probably 7 or 8 flat tires and one really incredible blow out, which shot the rim off and everything. But, even if this does happen to you, most likely you'll be able to fix the problem on the spot.
If you purchased your vehicle new, you should have a spare tire in the trunk, under the vehicle, or on the back of the vehicle, depending upon the type of vehicle you drive. This spare tire, also called a donut is generally only rated to drive for so many miles before replacing it. The tire is meant to realistically get you home and then take you to get the tire fixed the next day. However, I have seen many people driving on these tires for weeks at a time before they got their tire fixed. Just keep in mind, this is not the wisest of ideas in the world.
To change your tire, find the spare, and you'll find a tire change kit as well most likely in the trunk this generally comes with your tire. If you don't have one, you are going to have to either call someone that has one, get a tow truck or wave someone down that can hopefully help you.
Inside this kit you should have a four socket setup connected together, looking somewhat like an addition sign and place it next to the tire. You'll also find a small jack. Look under your vehicle and find a beam running along the bottom of you car near the tire that you want to change. Place the jack directly under that aligned down the middle of it. Use the tire iron to twist the knob and raise the jack into place. Get the jack up next to the bottom of the vehicle and check it's position. If it looks centered and is close to the tire you are attempting to change, proceed by raise the jack further. It is going to become difficult to twist, but with a little muscle you can make it raise regardless of how small you are. Once the vehicle tire is high enough off the ground that you can see light under it, you are free to take the old tire off.
To take off the tire take the tire iron, and use it to twist off the lug nuts. They might be hard to get off, because they are installed with power tools. If you have issues, try stomping on the tire iron, that normally works just fine. Now that you have all the lug nuts off, you can pull the tire off by pulling it straight out. Now quickly place the new tire in place where the old tire was.
You are going to want to place the lug nuts on the tire one at a time. Make sure that you are installing the lug nuts in a diagonal pattern, don't just install them one after another as this could cause alignment issues in the way your tire is seated, with it possibly coming lose on the road. Most likely won't happen in the short period of time you are using the donut, but still possible. Now, take the tire iron and tighten the lug nuts as hard as you can. Don't worry about over tightening them because they are going to use power tools to take them off anyway. It's better to have them too tight than too loose at this point in time.
Now, lower the jack by twisting the knob the other way or finding the hydraulic release button. It all depends on the type of jack that you have. After that, put up all of your tools and you are done. Changing a tire is very easy to do and shouldn't take more than 10-20 minutes. However if you can't get the lug nuts off it could take a lot longer and could require a much big socket to get enough torque to pry it off.
