Step By Step
Have you ever asked yourself how much you know about servicing your own vehicle, like how do you change a tire? When it comes to driving on the any road, highway or freeway, there are several important things to know to be a prepared driver. Unfortunately, sometimes experienced drivers are unaware of how to change a tire, check your oil or even jump a vehicle when needed. These skills are rudimentary when it comes down to it and could really help you out in a bind.
Some people don’t think they need to learn a skill like changing a flat tire, they might think it’s not a skill that’s important or they’re just not the person for the job, but you might not always anyone around to help you. If you find yourself in a situation where you will need to change a tire out, you can be self sufficient and get back on the road seamlessly. You will never have to ask yourself “how do you change a tire?” ever again.
One of the most important skills to learn is how to change a tire and we are here to help you figure it out with a step by step process. So, if you’re asking yourself “how do you change a tire?,” today is your lucky day! Follow along below for a complete guide of how to change a tire.
How Do You Change a Tire?
Be prepared for an emergency tire situation by following these simple steps to learn “how do you change a tire?”:
1. If your tire blew out while driving, make your way to the side of the road and turn your hazard lights on so that you are visible as a stalled vehicle.
2. Put the vehicle in park, turn off the engine and engage the e-brake.
3. Evaluate the damage – ask yourself: which tire is it?
4. Access the spare tire – on some vehicles the spare is in the trunk, but trucks and SUVs will typically have the spare fastened underneath the vehicle or the back door.
5. Next, you will want to retrieve your vehicle jack and tools for removing the lug nuts and cover.
6. You will want to loosen the lug nuts just a little bit with a tool like this one from Amazon – you do this pre-loosening procedure to make it so that you don’t have to use as much force when your vehicle is up on the jack.
7. Next, you will find the area underneath your vehicle on your vehicle’s frame where there is an indicator for the jack placement. Oftentimes, this will be a small triangle or arrow. If you don’t have a jack, you can find one like this one from Amazon.
8. Lift the vehicle with the jack so that the wheel and tire are entirely off of the ground – about a half an inch gap should appear under the tire.
9. Completely loosen the lug nuts and remove them from your damaged tire.
10. Pull the damaged tire off of the wheel studs and set it on its side so it doesn’t roll away.
11. Put the spare tire on the wheel studs and put the lug nuts back the tire with your fingers.
12. Tighten the lug nuts with your tool, but not too, too tight – you don’t want to put too much force into what you’re doing because it’s important to keep the vehicle stable on the jack.
13. Once your lug nuts are all back in place and only as tight as you can get them with your hands, you can lower the jack back down. Be sure that the vehicle is lowered all the way down and the jack can slide out easily from under the frame.
14. Tighten the lug nuts all the way down with your lug nut tool now that your vehicle is stable on the ground.
15. Put the jack, your tools and the damaged tire in your vehicle and drive to the nearest repair or replacement facility.
We hope you can now never have to ask yourself “how do you change a tire?” If you are able to get to our shop on your spare, we would love to get you fitted for a fresh set of GoodYear tires at Courtesy Auto and Tire Service of Tacoma. Give us a call at 253-473-5556!