learn how to change a flat tire

I never want to be that girl standing on the side of the road with her emergency lights flashing, freaking out because my cell phone is dead and I have no charger, and even though I have a spare tire & a jack in my trunk, I have no knowledge of how to change a flat. NO WAY! I want to be able to do it myself…so that I’m not dependent on others, and it will save time as well…esp. in an emergency situation when I can’t get ahold of anyone else or its late or something. Especially in today’s day and age…I don’t want to be standing on the side of the road alone anywhere – and definitely not at night!

So, I’ve needed a new tire on my car for about the past three months, but I never got one because I rarely use my car.

It’s been really flat for the past two weeks, and so… I was just going to pull it into the garage and use the little hand-held air pump to put some air in it (it was kind of too flat to drive it to the gas station).

So I got the car in the garage and started to attatch the air pump to the tire.

It wouldn’t attatch!

I got a little worried, and I stood there for a good five minutes, debating whether or not I should call AAA.

But then I thought… no way… I could change this tire all by myself, I have a donut in the trunk.
Besides… I always kind of feel a little bad whenever AAA has to come all the way out just to do a two-minute job (it’s two minutes for them, they’re experts).

So then, the journey began!!

I went in my trunk and got out the jack pack.
The jack pack (I call it that lol) has a little black metal jack, a metal thing that looks like a humongous hook, and another bit metal thing with the tip that you’d use to loosen the bolts on a tire.
It also has a slit in the middle of the rod to attatch to the big metal hook, to lift up the jack.

This was my first time doing it all by myself.
I’ve watched and helped my dad out hundreds of times, but never done it my myself.

I put the jack under the car and attatched both metal things to the jack and lifted up the car.

I can now say that I can lift up a car.
lol
It’s not heavy at all!

After it was up, I took off the plastic covering that covers the tire that was flat.
I put the metal rod that would losen the bolts on one bolt, and tried to losen it with my hands.

Didn’t work.

I started thinking “should I try and look for the drill?”.

Then I got this part of these other HUGE jacks that were in the garage, and tried to hit the metal rod to losen up.

THEN I got this genious idea to jump on the rod!
It worked, and I losed all of the bolts in about ten minutes.
But the very last bolt was a little tricky to figure out.
Whenever I would jump on the rod on that last bolt, the tire would move.
So I lowered the jack down so the tire was on the ground so it wouldn’t move, and got that last bolt off.

After they were off, I took the flat tire off and put on the donut.
I had to raise the jack back up to do this.

Then I put all the bolts back on and tightened them as tight as I could with the big metal hook, and that was it!

I’M A MASTER!

Next I want to change the oil all by myself.
I tried to join the Auto Shop class back in high school, but Mr. Palmer (the instructor) wouldn’t let me because he was afraid of all the guys in the class since there was a lot of bending over.

LOL

So he taught me how to change the oil of a car that was in the shop at the time, and it was so much fun.
That was about… um… five or six years ago, and haven’t done it since.

: )

I would like to be more capable in auto repair.

This summer.

The only truly hard part is getting the lug nuts loosened.

I had to learn this before my Pops would let me drive his car. Because I’m a girl and there are a million really sweet guys out there who stop and help, I’ve never had to do it for myself, but I’ve helped other women who didn’t know how, and that was good.

I think it’s incredibly important! I feel like a loser because I don’t know how. Maybe I can read an online tutorial or something.

So I was checking my mail, and one of the news feeds was “How to” and “key things to remember when changing a tire.”

TADA! I now know!

Goal complete! :]

1. Pull WAY off the road, set emergency brake and set up hazard lights. Find a couple big rocks (brick, 2×4) to block at least one tire.

2. Get your jack, wrench and spare tire ready.

3. Determine placement for your jack…NEVER on the fender. Look under the car for a steel support.

4. Pry off hubcap, if you have them.

5. Loosen lug nuts, but leave them in place.

6. Operate jack to lift car…every jack is different. Better figure out how to use yours before needing it.

7. Remove lug nuts and pull off flat tire.

8. Put on spare tire, firmly against the drum, and then replace lug nuts…by hand, this time. Snug, but not tight yet.

9. Slowly release jack and allow spare tire to settle onto the ground. NOW you tighten the lug nuts in an alternating pattern (top right, bottom left, center right, etc).

10. Remove jack and replace tools. Remove rock or objects bracing the tires. Start car and put it in drive..but only for a few feet, to see how the new tire is working. If all is good, replace the hubcap, clean up your work area and you’re good to go.

For a good video try eHow.

I have done this many many times with the differnt vehicles I have owned. It is essential for any dirver to know this! You need to be able to take care of this in a pinch!