- So, nowadays a lot of newer cars don’t contain spare tires, some might. To check if you have a spare tire, open your trunk and look under the mat, or it could even be located underneath the car. Check your car manual to be sure certain.
- In case you don’t have a spare tire you should keep a can of fix a flat in your car. It’s literally just a can that you shake and put on the tire. If you buy one the name might not be fix a flat but something similar, and it should have directions on the can showing how to use it
If you have a tire here is a guide on how to change it (If you have a spare available) –
- Keep in mind when doing this, either on the side of the road or in your driveway, make sure you take precautions. If you’re on the side of the road, turn on your hazards and avoid being at an incline so your car doesn’t roll away. If you get a flat while driving, try going to a parking lot or side street.
- Park your car and turn it off
- Locate your jack, spare tire and lug wrench, it’s likely to be underneath the cover/mat of the trunk. The items you’ll need again are a jack, jack stands, spare tire and lug wrench (On some jacks the jug wrench/tire iron will be on the jack itself), also keep in mind if you can’t locate the spare in the trunk it may be underneath the vehicle. Also if you don’t have any jack stands or on the side of the road you’ll survive without them.
- Place the jack on a solid point of the frame, don’t start elevating yet
- Next, you need to remove the hubcap and loosen the bolts halfway (This will be in the center of the wheel). You can remove the hubcap with the flat end of the tire iron or with a flathead screwdriver. Don’t remove the lug nuts yet just leave the loosened. They should be slightly loosened
- Now elevate the vehicle using the jack. Elevate the vehicle so it’s off the ground about 2-3 inches
- Finish removing the lug nuts, and pull the entire wheel off
- Next, you need to install your spare tire onto where you just removed the previous wheel, and finger tighten all of the lug nuts.
- Now using the lug wrench, you want to tighten the lugs nuts in a star or cross pattern. Be careful of excessive force that can cause the vehicle to fall off the stand. If to much movement occurs lower the jack and finish tightening. This is an example of how the pattern should look.
9. Once done, lower your jack. Put everything away and get to a safe destination.
- Take note that in some newer cars you might need a special key to unlock one of the nuts, this is to prevent theft. It should be in your glove box or trunk, you’ll know it’s needed if the lug nut has a unique groove. Make sure you DO NOT lose any of your lug nuts.
- Also keep in mind the pattern of the bolts, if your car has more than six nuts, you’re still able to look up a pattern online. The example I included was to show common star patterns on wheels.