Changing a Flat Tire

AA is not the only person who can change a tire. We all have seen or have had a flat tire on our vehicle and thought, “Man, this is going to be a long day.” Changing a tire on a vehicle may seem like a very difficult task, but in fact it is really quite simple and fast to do. Throughout this guide will be step-by-step instructions on how to change a flat tire on a vehicle.

All the tools needed for this should be found in your vehicle. If you are unsure where to look, search in your owners manual, which should be located in your glove box. The tools include a tire iron, a jack, and a spare tire.

Once the spare tire and tools have been located, find the tire that appears to be flat. Also, make sure your spare is not flat either before doing all of this work.

When taking the tire off, there will be a metal bar called a tire iron, that will fit over the tire lugs (the things that hold the tire on). Then proceed to “break” the lugs. Important: remember righty tighty, lefty loosey so you are not fighting a lug that won’t spin free. Lefty loosey means you will be spinning the tire iron to your left.

Make sure you set the parking brake before you jack the car up off the ground. The last thing anyone wants is their car to begin rolling back towards them while jacking the car up on three wheels.

Once the lugs are all broke free, but still holding on the tire, then we will jack the car off the ground. When jacking the car off the ground, use the tool called a scissor jack. Place the scissor jack under where the wheel connects too. Place it three feet back from the wheel where the metal is thick so the jack will not accidentally fall off. When jacking up the wheel, be sure that the jack is on a metal part of the car, if it were to accidentally get jacked up on the plastic, it will crack it. 

When the tire is about an inch off the ground, remove the lugs the rest of the way off and take the tire off. You may need to kick the tire once the lugs are all off to break the tire loose so you can remove it.

A donut is smaller than the normal tire and lighter, so when driving, be sure to drive slower than normal. Once the donut is on, begin screwing the tire lugs back in. Keep in mind that some newer vehicle and bigger vehicles can have an actual spare, which is the same size of tire as the rest, so the vehicle will not need to drive slow. This vehicle has a normal spare so it does not need to be driven slower. I like to sit down and use my feet to line the tire up with the bolts to make it easier to lift.

Begin to hand tighten up the lugs. Once all the lugs are screwed on the tire, take your tire iron and tighten them up in a star pattern. The second video demonstrates the star pattern to those who may be confused.

Now that the donut or spare tire is on, we can lower the jack and place the flat tire in the trunk along with the rest of the tools and continue on our way. Remember, a donut is a temporary fix, get the flat tire into a tire shop to get fixed so that way the car can start driving at its normal speed again. Once the vehicle is in the tire shop, it should take the shop only a couple minutes to fix the tire and put it back on. Congrats, you have successfully changed a flat tire.