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1300 731 187

Your local

Tyre Experts

Call Us

1300 731 187

November 2, 2016

How to change a flat tyre

Sure you can always just call us at Wheel Change U to come fix or repair your flat tyre. But if you don’t have time to wait for one of our team members to reach you, you can always try and bolt on your spare.

You should always have these things in your car, when buying a car make sure they come with the following:

  • A spare wheel.
  • A tyre iron that matches the lug nuts on your wheels, or a socket that fits them and a long handle for it. If you have a “locking nut”, you need to make sure you have the socket that matches that, too.
  • A jack. The one that cones with your car is fine, but you need to also check that it has all its attachments, or you won’t be able to make much use of it.
  • Changing the Tyre

Pull the car over into the safest area you possibly can and put on your hazard lights.

Get all of your equipment ready and prepare the car and surrounding area first. If you have any reflective warning props, place them around your vehicle so that oncoming traffic can see you better. Do your best to wedge something under the tyres on the opposite side of the flat tyre, and make sure your emergency hand brake is locked tight.

Loosen the wheel lug nuts before jacking the car off the ground. If you put the jack under the car and lift the car first, the wheel will be floating in the air and will be able to spin.

The jack needs to go underneath a solid part of the car’s frame or the jacking point on the vehicle. The vehicle owner’s manual will always have a drawing of suggested contact points for the jack, and you’ll probably be able to see little labelled notches under the car.

Jack the car so that the flat tyre sits about an inch or two off the ground. Continue taking the lug nuts off, and removing the wheel entirely. Immediately replace it with the spare, and start threading the lug nuts back on. Don’t try to tighten them all the way, finger tight will be plenty for now.

Once the wheel’s on, and the lug nuts are threaded on but not fully tightened, you can slowly lower the jack’s height until the spare tyre is not only touching the ground, but has some weight on it. That’s when you should finish tightening the lug nuts. When that’s finished, lower the car the rest of the way until the jack no longer touches the frame, and pull the jack away from the car. Double check all your lug nuts.

Now that you are back on the road give Wheel Change U a call and we can come out to repair or replace your flat tyre.

Make An Appointment

With a growing team bringing mobile tyre changing services to customers across Australia, you can find your nearest mobile tyre fitter below or give us a call.