Getting a flat tire in the middle of nowhere is the worst thing a person has deal with, even though many people have roadside assistance now a days, it is very important to learn how to change a tire just in case roadside assistance is unavailable in the area you’re stuck in. Learning to change a tire doesn’t take up a lot of time and can be done in the matter of minutes with the right tools and before you know it you’ll be back on the road.
In order to change a tire you will need various items and tools. You will need a spare tire,a lug handwrench, and lock key in order to unscrew the lug nuts. A car jack is a needed tool in order to lift the car up so the tire can be changed. A tire stopper isn’t necessarily needed to keep the vehicle at a complete stand still, but it is useful or just put the brakes on to keep the car from running away. Another item that you don’t need but is useful if you do have …show more content…
one is a tire-pressure gauge, which is used to check the pressure of your spare tire and will determine if your spare tire has enough air inside of it. Most of these items can be found in your toolbox or at your local Autozone. These items are important because without them you may need additional assistance to change your tire and depending on how your insurance works you can be stuck for hours waiting for them to send a person out to help you.
Before you start to change a tire make sure that the car is on a surface that it flat. A flat surface will make the process easier because you don’t have to worry about your car flipping when you lift it up with a car jack. The first step to change a tire is making sure that the car is off and the brakes are on. To prevent the car from rolling you will need to use the stopper and place it behind the tire, that is not flat on the same side. After placing the brakes get the lug nut key, that you will need to unlock the locked lug nuts. Remove the hubcap and that will make it easier to remove the nuts also be sure to keep your hubcaps in a safe location. Once you have unlocked the locked nuts, use the wrench to slightly loosen the lug nuts. Remember to turn the saying “Lefty loosey righty tighty” when using the wrench. Repeat these step with all the nuts; do not remove the nuts completely because you are just trying to break the resistance. Having the wheel on the ground means you are turning the nuts instead of the wheel. It can take a lot of force to break the resistance, so use your body weight or stomp on the wrench if needed. After you loosen all the nuts now you have to lift the car up in order to change your tire.
Start cranking the jack until the wheel is high enough above the ground to remove the tire.
Remove the lug nuts from the wheel be sure to keep in a safe spot because if you lose a lug nut you won’t be to put your tire back on. You should be able to do it by hand because they are already loose due to the fact that you did it earlier . The next step should be to remove the flat tire and lay it flat because you don’t want the wheel to roll into traffic which would cause a lot of accidents.Take your spare tire and line up the lugs, or bolts, with the holes in the wheel and slide the wheel on. Once the wheel is on, take your lug nuts and tighten them by hand until you meet firm resistance.When the wheel's on, and the lug nuts are tight on but not fully tightened, you can lower the jack's height until the spare tire is touching the ground and has weight on it.This is when you should finish tightening the lug nuts and when that's finished, lower the car the rest of the way until the jack no longer touches the frame, and pull the jack away from the
car.
In conclusion changing a tire is simple and can help you whenever you have a flat tire.Learning to change a tire is important because sometimes your roadside assistance may be unable to help you.