How to Change a Flat Tire

Posted by: Automan on Thursday, May 15th, 2008

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By Stephen Bucaro

Few things are as inconvenient as getting a flat tire. It can make you late for an appointment, and when you do arrive, you are either frazzled or filthy from the experience. If you don’t know how to change a tire, the experience is made much worse by having to wait for someone to come to your assistance.

Most women couldn’t care less about the workings of a motor vehicle and how to change a tire. Unfortunately most modern men are as helpless in this respect as most women. I refer to men who can’t change their own flat tire as, pardon the expression, “girly-boys”.

In this article I will provide simple instructions to prepare you for the inevitable inconvenience of getting a flat tire. Anyone can easily change a tire, even a woman or a girly-boy. But first lets talk about how to avoid getting a flat tire in the first place.

One way to get a flat tire is when a nail or other sharp object penetrates your tire. In the old days this would cause your tire to go flat within seconds. Today’s modern steel belted radial tires usually just develop a slow leak when penetrated. Even if not penetrated by a sharp object, a tire will gradually lose its air pressure. The way to avoid the inconvenience of getting a flat tire is to check all your tires air pressure regularly.

Today’s modern steel-belted radial tires bulge out at the side a little even when they have proper pressure, so you can’t tell by just looking at them if they have proper pressure. You need to use a tire pressure gauge. Gauges come in two main types. One type has a rod that comes jetting out at the end. The other type has a dial. In either case you use the gauge by removing the little plastic cap from the tire’s air valve and quickly pushing the valve end of the gauge onto the tire valve.

You will get a little “hiss” when you do this. If you did it correctly, the gauge will give an accurate indication of the tires air pressure. Sometimes it takes a little practice to get an accurate reading. Compare the reading you get with the maximum psi (pounds per square inch) written on the sidewall of the tire. Car tires usually have a maximum of 32 psi. Full size light truck tires can have a maximum of 80 psi.

If the air pressure is too low, there is a risk of the tire breaking lose from the wheel. This would cause dangerous rapid deflation of the tire. When a car tire’s pressure gets below about 24 psi you risk rapid deflation. If the pressure is too high, there is a risk of the tread separating from the steal belt. This can also cause rapid deflation, but usually it just gives you a very bumpy ride.

The way to avoid getting a flat tire is to check the air pressure in all your tires regularly. By “regularly” I mean at least once each month. By “all your tires” I mean including the spare. It is very common for a person to remove a flat from their vehicle just to learn that their spare is also flat.

If you find one of your tires has low pressure, you need to pump it up to the proper value. Air pumps come in two main types. One type has a cord with a plug that goes into your cars cigarette lighter. The other type has a cord that plugs into an AC outlet.

The cigarette lighter type has the advantage that you can carry it in your car and possibly re-inflate a flat tire at the side of the road, saving the messy job of changing the tire for later. The disadvantage is that they work very slowly and can draw down a cars battery. The AC power cord type has the advantage that it can fill tires more quickly, but it‘s rare to find an AC outlet at the side of the road.

Possibly the most important thing to know about tires, is what to do if you get a flat while speeding down the expressway. The most important thing NOT to do is slam on the breaks! This is a common cause of roll-overs. Just let your foot off the gas and look for a level area at the side of the road to pull off.

People that don’t know how to change a tire frequently keep driving on the flat tire, in search of a service station, until the tire is totally shredded. Then instead of paying ten dollars to fix a flat, they have to pay a hundred dollars for a new tire. Fortunately after you use the information in this article, you won’t get caught in that situation.

To fix a flat tire you have to jack up the car and replace the flat tire with your spare tire. Unfortunately many people don’t even know where the jack is, and some don’t even know how to get the spare out. Don’t wait until you’re stranded by the side of the road to start looking for your jack and figuring how to get the spare out.

In the old days, the spare tire and jack where always in the trunk of the car. Now with mini-vans and SUVs, vehicle manufacturers have become very creative with hiding the spare tire and jack. Below is a list of places where you might find the jack.

- in the trunk
- under or behind the seat - hidden behind a panel
- under the hood

Below is a list of places where you might find the spare tire.

- in the trunk
- under the vehicle
- hanging on the back of the vehicle - hidden behind a panel

Go out to your car right now and locate your jack and spare tire. You may need to locate your owners manual first to learn how to locate and use your specific jack to change a flat tire. It’s better to figure it out now rather than waiting until you’re stranded by the side of the road.

If you have never jacked up your car, now is the time to practice. As mentioned earlier, the vehicle should be on level ground. The jack usually needs to be positioned at a “peg” or “slot” under the chassis near the tire to be removed. At first don’t jack the car up so high that the tire leaves the ground. Just jack it up to take most of the weight of the car off the tire.

Then use the lug wrench to “break” the lug nuts lose. To break them lose you have to turn them counter-clockwise. Breaking the lug nuts lose might take a little muscle. If you left the bottom of the tire on the ground, this will help by preventing the tire from spinning or the vehicle from rocking. “Breaking” the nut lose means loosening it enough so you can get it off easy, kind of like a jar with a stuck lid. Just break them lose at this point, don’t remove them.

If you’re not strong enough to get the lug nuts loose, now is the time to find that out. It is also not uncommon for a tire mechanic to over-torque lug nuts, or strip treads so the lug nut can’t be removed. To get the lug nuts off you may have to use “leverage”. That is, make the handle of the wrench longer, for example by putting a pipe over it. In any case now is the time to learn about problems with getting the lug nuts off - not when your stranded at the side of the road.

After you have broken the lug nuts lose, jack the vehicle up higher. Jack it up just high enough so that the tire leaves the ground. Then remove the lug nuts and the tire.

There are two types of spare tires. You are lucky if you have a full-sized spare. Most cars today have a “space- saver” spare. A space-saver is thinner than a regular tire. The space-saver works like a regular tire, but there are two things to be aware of. First, space-savers are rated for only 50 mph. They are intended just to get you to the service station. Second, the air pressure requirement for a space-saver is usually much higher than the regular tires for your car. Make sure you keep it filled to the proper pressure.

Next put the spare tire over the lug studs and put the lug nuts back on. Start the lug nuts with your fingers to make sure you don‘t cross treads. After you have the lug nuts started, use the wrench to turn them on all the way. After the lug nuts are all the way on, jack the vehicle back down until the tire touches the ground. Now you can torque the nuts down tight.

There is always the question; how tight do I make the lug nuts? There is actually a specification (which tire service personnel usually ignore). For example; 95 ft. lbs. as indicated on a torque wrench. But for the average person without a torque wrench, it’s a matter of feel.

You want to tighten the lug nuts tight enough so that you are confident they won’t come lose while you are driving, yet not so tight that you can never get them off again. Don’t be a super man and tighten them until you strip the threads or break the stud. Just make them tight enough so that you are confident they won’t come lose while you are driving. It’s a matter of feel. After you have tightened the lug nuts, remove the jack.

Fix or replace the flat tire ASAP. Murphy’s law number 66 states that if you don’t have a good spare tire you will immediately get a flat tire. Fix or replace the flat tire on the next weekend if you can’t do it sooner.

If you don’t know how to locate the jack, access the spare, and replace a tire on your vehicle, I suggest you go do it right now for practice. If you are prepared and confident, getting a flat tire will be a minor inconvenience, rather than a bad experience that screws up your entire day.

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Tags: Article, Automotive, Tire Article