February 14, 2008

Step 1 Puncture

When you get a puncture while driving you should spot it pretty quickly. If it is a front tyre you steering will shake and become very heavy while your car will start to veer in the direction of the flat tyre. If it’s one of the back tyres the back of the car will start to feel like it’s being dragged along and give a very bumpy ride. Obviously at this point you’ll want to pull over in the safest, most convenient spot, making sure the handbrake is on and the car is either in reverse or Park, depending on whether it’s a manual or automatic grearbox.

Step 2 Breakdown cover?

Many people will call their breakdown/rescue service at this point and wait for an expert to come and change the flat tyre, but it’s worth remembering that this is likely to take more than an hour which may not suit your time constraints or may cost you a non use bonus of some kind so you may want to look at changing it yourself.

Step 3 – Find the Spare

All of your tyre changing equipment is likely to be in the boot of your car, or if is sits under the back of the car is likely to be accessed from the boot. This should consist of at least a spare wheel, wheel brace (wrench or spanner), and a Jack (with handle). It’s worth checking that these are in the car at the point of purchase and familiarising yourself with how they work. There should be some form of lever to remove the hub caps if you have them and if your wheels have locking nuts it’s worth making sure that the key to these is with the other car keys.

Step 4 – ‘Crack’ the wheel nuts

You will need to find the jacking point on the underside of the car and fit the jack in there. These are normally located near the inside of the wheel arch. Before jacking the car up you should ‘Crack’ the wheel nuts. This is often a tough job although if the last time they were tightened was at a garage with an air powered ratchet the chances are they were not over tightened. It’s maybe worth either buying an anti-seize compound and putting it on the wheel studs or bolts yourself or asking the garage to apply some when you next have your tyres changed. If you are not able to crack the wheel nuts by hand you may have to resort to putting the wheel brace on the wheel nuts and trying to start it off with a sharp kick down on the wheel brace. You need to make sure that the wheel brace is firmly in place on the wheel nut and that you are able to kick downwards in a straight motion or you may well damage the wheel nut or brace or both.

Step 5 – Jack the car up

Now you have Cracked the all of the wheel nuts you need to jack up the car and get the offending wheel off the ground in order to remove it and replace with the spare. The car jack will probably work on some type of screw thread that as you turn it will pull two end together pushing the top up from the base and lifting the car. It’s always worth looking at the jack to familiarise yourself with it’s workings before you actually need to use it.

Step 6 – Change the Wheel

Having lifted the car up enough to get the old wheel off and the new one on you’ll be ready to remove the wheel nuts/bolts you may be able to do this by hand but if you cant you can always use the wheel brace. You are now ready to swap the wheels over.

Step 7 – Tighten nuts/bolts

Once you’ve swapped the wheels over you need to put the wheel nuts back on. If you have bolts you may find it slightly trickier to align the holes in the wheel up with the holes in the wheel housing that they are screwed into. If you have wheel nuts then you need to make sure that the nuts are on the right way round. One side is flat and the other side is tapered. You need to make sure that the tapered end is the end that touches the wheel leaving the flat side on view. If you can see the tapered side of the nut then they are the wrong way round and your wheel will not be held in place tightly enough.

Step 8 – let jack down

Having done all of the nuts/bolts up finger tight it’s now time to let the jack down. Once the car is back on the floor you can tighten up the wheel nuts properly tightening up bolts diagonally opposite each other to ensure they’re tightened evenly.

Step 9 – Back on the road

Many cars are now fitted with an emergency wheel instead of a spare wheel. If you have one of these you’ll need to get the puncture on the wheel you’ve just taken off fixed and the wheels changed again as soon as you are able to do so. Emergency wheels are exactly what they claim to be - wheels for use in an emergency. They are not to be used at speed and ideally will just be used to get to the nearest tyre merchant or garage.Once you’ve changed you tyre you should put all of the tyre changing equipment back in the car with the hope that you won’t need to use it again but safe in the knowledge that if you do then it’s all there ready.

Keep an eye on your tyres as incorrect inflation results in abnormal wear patterns and worn out tyres are a lot more likely to fail than tyres with plenty of tread left on them. A flat tyre is at best an inconvenience and at worse a health hazard, they’re worth paying attention to.

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