Grown Up Guide 101 – How to Change a Tyre

There are many components that make a car run smoothly. Tyres are perhaps one of the more obvious components. Changing a tyre should be a necessary skill for everyone, however that’s not always the case. Whilst it seems complicated, the mechanics of changing a tyre are relatively straightforward and simple to follow. Our guide to changing a tyre will help you to do it in a safe and succinct way.

1. Make sure you have all the equipment you need in your car

To change a tyre, you have to have a spare in your car. This will usually be in the boot of your vehicle, although some four-wheel drives will have it attached to the boot door. A wheel brace or wrench is needed in order to loosen the nuts of your car wheel. Lastly, you’ll need a jack to hoist your vehicle up so that your wheel can come off easily, after using the wrench to loosen the wheel lugs.

Keep these tools in your car so that you’ll be able to change the tyre yourself without needing to contact Roadside Assistance. These tools should come with your vehicle when you purchase it as they’re all needed at some point in the life of your vehicle.

2. Find a safe location to change the tyre

There are numerous ways that your tyre can get damaged. You could drive over something sharp enough to puncture the rubber, it could be worn down or it could simply just be flat. If you’re near a service station, you can drive into it and pump up your tyres. Most service stations offer this free of charge because it’s dangerous to drive around with a flat tyre. If you’re not close to a service station, you might need to stop on the side of the road you’re driving on. Make sure that it’s far enough from traffic or corners with blind spots.

Your first priority should be to make sure you aren’t in danger of potentially getting injured. Turn on your hazard lights so that passersby know that you’re stopping and to proceed with caution. Try and also stop in a location with even ground so that changing the tyre is much easier to do.

3. Apply your parking brake

As you don’t want your vehicle moving anywhere when you’re in the process of changing your tyre, as soon as you’ve put your hazard lights on and stopped in an area with a wide shoulder, put your vehicle into park.

4. Get everything ready

If you have wheel wedges, secure them in front of each of your wheels apart from the one you’re changing. This will further prevent your vehicle from rolling. Take out everything you will need for the change, including the spare tyre and jack.

As previously mentioned, depending on the model of your vehicle, the spare tyre will usually be located in the cargo area or boot of the car, however some will be attached under the rear of the car.

5. Lift up your vehicle

Before using the jack to hoist up your vehicle, it’s a good idea to loosen up the lugs of the current tyre in order to make removing it a lot easier. Sometimes these will be too tight to loosen so you might have to hit the wrench while it’s in the socket with a mallet so that it jolts the lug loose. Remember that “left is loose, right is tight”. Spin the wrench counterclockwise if you want to loosen the lugs and clockwise to tighten them. Then you can jack your vehicle up until the tyre you want to change is well off the ground. This should be around 15 centimetres off the ground.

6. Remove the flat tyre

When it’s off the ground, you can loosen the lug nuts until they come off. You can then unscrew them all the way by hand so that it’s easier to keep track of them. You will need them to secure your spare tyre.

After all the lugs are removed, you then should be able to pull it towards you and roll it until it comes out of the hub. Grip the treads when you do this and roll it onto its side so that you don’t have to worry about it rolling away.

7. Attach your spare tyre

Once you’ve removed your flat from the hub, you’re able to insert your spare into the vacated space. Line the rim of your tyre with the lug bolts and push gently so that you can see the bolts through the rim. Once you can see them, put the lug nuts back into the bolts and screw them in by hand until you can’t anymore. You can tighten them once your vehicle is back on all four tyres.

8. Lower your vehicle and tighten the lug nuts

It is important that your vehicle be lowered enough so that the tyre is touching the ground, but don’t lower it so that the full weight of the vehicle is on the tyre, you still need to tighten the lug nuts. Once it’s sitting just on the ground with no weight on it, use your wrench to tighten the nuts all the way up so that they don’t fall off when you’re driving.

Then you can lower your vehicle completely to the ground until you can slip the jack out from under your vehicle. Double check your nuts by giving them another pull with the wrench to see if they’re as tight as you can manage. If your hubcap fits into your spare, you can remove it and fit it onto your new tyre. If not, leave it on your flat tyre.

9. Conduct final checks

After making sure that your lug nuts are screwed on tightly, check the air pressure in your spare tyre so that it’s safe enough to drive on. If it doesn’t have enough air in it, drive slowly until you get to the next service station. Since most spare tyres are temporary, they don’t last over a long distance drive or higher speeds so make sure that you visit a tyre technician as soon as possible. They will check your flat tyre out and let you know if you need to repair it or replace it.

This whole process shouldn’t take more than half an hour, however if it’s your first time changing a tyre, taking longer than this period of time is not unusual. Ensure that all your tyres are regularly checked for the correct air pressure and tread wear as these are the most common reasons for changing tyres.

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