How to Change a Flat Tire
Essay title: How to Change a Flat Tire
How To Change A Flat Tire
Changing a flat tire is not a very pleasant experience. It seems like your car purposely tries to get a flat tire at the least opportune moments. Like when you are rushing home from work to catch your favorite episode of “The Cosby Show,” for instance. You know, the one where Cliff dreams he is pregnant. But if you are a hapless soul, changing a tire doesnt have to be all-bad. With knowledge comes power. If you are unsure how to change a tire properly, and you want to know, read on.
OK, so you are driving along and all of the sudden you hear a loud bang and the telltale thumping noise of a dead tire. You carefully pull off to the shoulder of the road. Checking to make sure no other motorists are going to run you over, you exit your vehicle and inspect the car. Sure enough, your cars left front tire is completely flat. You are not going to be able to keep driving, so you are going to have to remove it and install your cars spare tire in its place.
The first step is to find your cars spare tire, jack and tire iron. The spare tire is almost always located underneath the floor mat in the trunk. Unless, of course, your car doesnt have a trunk. If you own an SUV, minivan or pickup, the spare tire is often mounted on the back of the tailgate or underneath the vehicle itself.
Once you have found the spare tire, remove it from the car. If you have an air pressure gauge handy, you will want to check the spare tires pressure. If this tire is flat, too, youre in a bit of trouble. But lets just assume you have been keeping tabs on the spare tires health, and its air pressure is perfect.
The next step will involve removing the flat tire. Make sure that the car is in gear (or in “park” if the car is an automatic) and the emergency brake is set. The car should be parked on a flat piece of pavement. Do not attempt to change a flat if the car is on a slope or if it is sitting on dirt. Its also a good idea to block the tire opposite of the flat tire. Therefore, if the left front tire is flat, it would be a good idea to place a brick or other large, heavy object behind the right rear tire. Blocking the tire makes the car less likely to move when you are raising it.
Use the tire iron (the L-shaped bar that fits over the wheel lugs) to loosen each wheel lug. The wheel lugs are almost certainly very tight. Youll have to use brute force. You loosen them by turning them counterclockwise. If the lugs are to tight, then jumping on the tire iron is very helpful.
Now, at this point, you dont want to actually remove the lugs. You just want them loose. Once you have accomplished this, move the jack underneath the car. If you dont know where the proper jacking points are, look them up in the owners manual. Hopefully you keep the owners manual in your car.
Maneuver the jack underneath the jack point and start to raise the jack. Most car jacks these days are a screw-type scissor jack, which means you simply turn the knob at the end of the jack using the provided metal hand crank. Raise the jack until it contacts the cars frame and continue expanding the jack.
Raise the car with the jack until the flat tire is completely