How to Change a Tire

CHANGING A TIRE is one of those life skills that never seem essential until the moment you need it. This is good thing to learn even if you are a ways off from having your driver’s license.

1. The car should be parked on level ground, out of danger’s way, with the engine off and the parking brake on. Ask everyone to hop out of the car to make it lighter.

2. Check to make sure you have all the necessary equipment: a functioning spare tire, a tire jack, and a cross wrench. If you are missing any of these you will unfortunately have to wait for the tow truck.

3. If you have tire blocks, put them under the other tires to keep the car in place. Mediumsized rocks work too.

4. Start to loosen the lug nuts; these are the nuts that keep the hubcap on. Not all cars have hubcaps, but look and you’ll see what needs to be loosened. Put the lug wrench on each lug nut. Remember “righty-tighty, lefty-loosey” to guide you which way to turn the lug wrench.

If your car’s lug nuts were last tightened with a hydraulic lug nut tightener in a mechanic’s shop, they will be very tight. Jump on the cross wrench. Get everyone in your family to jump on the cross wrench and in any other way work the lug nuts free. Some very organized people keep a length of hollow pipe in their car, which can be attached to the cross wrench for extra leverage. If you have it, WD-40 also helps. Some people swear that in a pinch, pouring cola over the lug nuts will do the trick. Caution: don’t take the nuts all the way off, just loosen them.

5. The jack will keep the car up and off the ground while the tire is changed. Each car has a slightly different way to do this, so consult the manual if it’s nearby. In general, there’s a solid metal plate on the car frame, in front of back tire frame and just behind the front tire. Once you’ve found this, the cool part begins, in which you raise the car.

Put the jack right under the metal plate, and start pumping. The car will lift off the ground. From time to time make sure that the jack stays connected to the metal plate. Stop pumping when the car tire is 6-8 inches off the ground.

6. Now you can remove the lug nuts entirely. Stash them somewhere safe. Grab the tire and pull it toward you. It will be dirty. You can clean up after.

7. Pick up the spare tire and align its holes with the bolts. Push the spare onto the tire bolts until it absolutely stops. Replace the lug nuts and tighten, but not all the way.

8. Carefully pump down the jack to lower the car, stopping when all four tires are back on the ground.

9. Now tighten the lug nuts. Don’t tighten them around the circle; instead, tighten the first, then tighten the nut across from it, and continue on from there. You’re done.