I was just at the grocery store, and when I went in, I saw a woman and, I presume, her grown daughter sitting in the back of their van with the rear door up, talking on the phone. When I came out, these same women were standing beside the van watching a man change their right front tire. Perhaps there’s a physical reason that neither of them could take off the flat and put on the donut. It got me thinking about my first flat tire.
I was driving south through Alabama on my way to Pensacola, FL one January. There was snow on the ground, and it was nasty cold out. I decided to make use of the car wash at a gas station to clean some of the road salt off my car. When I pulled out, the attendent “helpfully” pointed out my hissing tire. Golly, what a coincidence… :rolleyes: He directed me to the adjacent garage, saying they could fix me right up.
Unfortunately for them, I pulled into a vacant parking lot across the street. I proceeded to empty my trunk (I was transferring at the time) and I pulled out my spare. Then I got out my owner’s manual and read the steps required to change a tire. It was a challenge, but I got it done, loaded the flat tire and the rest of my stuff back in the trunk, and went on my merry way. (I got the hole in the tire plugged when I got to P-cola.)
Since then, I’ve changed at least 2 flats. It’s not my favorite thing to do, but sometimes ya just gotta do things. I need to take some time and make my daughter changed a tire on her car - just so she knows how to do it. She’s been driving almost 3 years now - shame on me for taking this long to teach her!
Do you know how to change a flat? Do your kids/sibs/spouses/SOs/whatever know? Would you be on the phone to AAA as you sat helplessly in a parking lot? C’mon - 'fess up!
Of course we all do. In fact, when my daughter had to do a “demonstration” in speech class, she took the jack, lug wrench, and a “simulated” tire to class.
She got an A.
We do as much of our own work as possible. 'Course, it helps that Mr. NinetyWt has a degree in Diesel Mechanics. Plus lots of cool tools !!
I carry a plug kit, some needle-nose pliers and a bicycle pump, and so far have not had to ever change a tire on the road. Wal-Mart sells plug kits for about $8. You locate the nail, pull it out with the needlenose pliers, run the hole-cleaner in and out (that comes with the plug kit) insert a plug and pump the tire back up. It’s easier–no jacking or removing lug nuts is required. -Especially now, since so many wheels are aluminum, but the lug nuts are steel that STICK to the aluminum. Even with a big 4-way lug nut wrench, it can be a task for even a bigger guy to get them damn things off. I don’t doubt that a lot of women couldn’t do it.
But I also carry a “real” shop-floor jack, because the jacks included with newer cars suck. “Newer cars” being those made, say, after the late 80’s or so. With my vehicle, you need to crawl halfway under the car in order to insert the tiny OEM screw-jack underneath the frame, and then you have your head and shoulders still under the vehicle when you crank the jack up, because the POS handle included isn’t long enough.
~
I did teach my kid how to change her headlights - THAT is an adventure on the New Beetle. Luckily, we found a website with pictorial instructions. The owner’s manual said to take it in to the dealer… to change a burned out light??
Anyway, she’s had to change both and she kept the printout in her car for when it happens again. She also knows how to change her wiper blades, and she learned the expensive way not to put gasoline into a diesel vehicle… :o
At least she doesn’ t fuss about getting her hands dirty.
We both do. I do and I’m fast as hell because my first car as a POS that got a flat tire just about every month, so I can throw it up on the jack and change it in Indy-car time.
I have roadside assistance on my insurance policy, but why wait 40 minutes to an hour for a tow truck driver when I can do it myself in 5?
I know how, but if there’s another option I won’t. Since I carry AAA, there rarely is. The one time I got stuck with a flat and no AAA, I tried to change the thing but the lug nuts had been tightened with a power tool and there was no way to get them off without one.
My sister says there was no reason for her to learn how because she is not strong enough to lift the spare out of the trunk anyway.
I’ve changed more than I could count, and got to be very quick about it. But then I worked for several years wearing business suits all of the time, so I became acquainted with aerosol flat fixers. I haven’t changed a flat in years. I have, though, given away many cans of the stuff to flat-stranded motorists. Remember to tell the people who repair the tire that you used the stuff, if you did.
I know, on an intellectual level, how to change a tire. I learned it in driver’s ed in high school, but even after three flat tires I haven’t had to deal with flat on my own.
The first was a blowout when I took a curve too fast on a rainy night. I was so rattled, I called my mom, and she sent out a friend and friend’s teenage son did the job. The second, I had a friend and her boyfriend over. Boyfriend announced on the way into my house that my car had a flat, and he’d deal with it. While I was handing out cans of soda and catching up on news with the friend, he took off the tire, ran it to the tire shop, got it fixed, brought it back, and put it back on my car. He was very proud of himself, and I was mostly blinking in startled amazement that there are guys who do that sort of thing. The last one was the most embarrassing, though. It was a rental car while mine was in the shop, and I came out to find it sitting in my driveway with a flat tire (the road near my house must have been littered with nails). So I called the assistance number, thinking they’d send someone out with a new tire. Nope, an hour later, a tow truck driver arrives, jacks my car up and switches out the flat tire for the itty bitty spare while I stood there, trying not to look like an utter princess.
I swear, the next time I’m getting a flat - I don’t care if I’m in ermine and pearls and it’s raining vomit, I’m changing that sucker. I’ll never respect myself if I don’t.
I could figure out how to do it, but am not physically strong enough to lug a tyre out the boot, or manage to get the nuts undone either. Not even invoking the name of the great Mechanical God in at least 10 swear words or more, helped. heh.
It’s all academic now as the car failed it’s MOT and has been scrapped. I am currently car less.
Being stranded with a flat, and not able to call for help always worried me.
I’ve never even tried to lift the spare tire out of my trunk, so I don’t know if I could do it or not. I suspect not, though. It doesn’t matter, I have a cell phone and a AAA card, and I know how to use those.
I used to have a car with these fancy aluminum rims. I paid extra for them, they sure were purty. But when the temp got below zero, the tires would go flat. Only one at a time, thank goodness, but it was a pain. I learned how to change tires. But if there was someone else around to volunteer to help, or better yet, do it for me, I never turned them down. I can change oil and headlights (on reasonable cars), minor stuff like that. Now my SO will usually do all that for me, and I’m thankful for that.
Nono, you were right! It is all academic now. The apostrophe belongs there, since you’re not trying to indicate possession or ownership.
Yes, you do need to sleep.
As for me, I have a mostly academic understanding of how one changes a tire that might or might not actually do me any good in a flat-related situation.
Me too. I know how to do it in theory but I’ve never gotten a flat. (knock on wood.) If using Fix-A-Flat wouldn’t do the job, I’d probably call AAA. Why? Because every time I’ve been in a car that needed a tire change I’ve been plagued by the fear that the tire was going to fall off due to hand-tightening the lugnuts being inadaquate. It would be just my luck, too…
Yep, my Mum, Dad and I can all do a tyre change if we need to, although my Mum usually calls either myself or my Dad to do it, simply because I have never experienced a flat tyre occuring in anything other than the foulest, most god-awful weather that can possibly be concieved. The exception to this would be a flat on the motorway, I don’t need to be playing with changing a wheel 2’ from lorries doing 60mph, I’ll pay to get the car taken somewhere safer thanks.
Yes I’ve had to change many tires before. Luckily my first flat was with a guy who knew how to do it, and I learned from him. Since then I’ve always changed my own tires and even changed a guy’s tire for him once. That felt good.
The reason I got so good at changing tires (and changing oil and just knowing things about cars in general) is that I never, ever want to be in a situation where I have to accept help from a man. I didn’t even like calling a tow truck when my transmission died. I remember once I got stuck in mud and these guys in a pickup drove up to help- I left my friends with the car and went for a very long walk, because I just couldn’t swallow my pride and admit that I needed a man’s help.
What if you can’t locate the nail, or can’t get enough arm into the wheelarch to pull it out?
I can change a tire on my current vehicle in under three minutes, since it has dinky 14" steel wheels and a surprisingly well-thought-out jacking arrangement.
Used to take at least 10 when I had an Altima.
FairyChatMom and others, I’d strongly recommend picking up a shop manual (or Haynes manual for an older car) for any vehicle you buy. Whether or not you actually need the directions, you’ll get a much better idea of the size of any job that needs tackling before you have to decide to do it yourself.
I can. The circumstances where my tire became flattened were that one evening I turned too sharp pulling into the church parking lot and hit my tire really hard on a sharp curb, which resulted in a flat tire. It was dark and late and my head hurt so I begged a ride home from someone else and got a ride back over to the church the next day. Then I changed the tire and drove it to get a new tire the day after that.
My brother and his wife called AAA for a flat tire gotten on a mountain road( I believe). His story makes it sound like AAA laughed at him for needing help, but when the help arrived, he directed him to drive on until there was a better shoulder, and then swapped the tire. If brother had known that he would not hurt the car or the rim by driving on it for that distance, he’d have driven on, saved himself the time spent wasting and gotten to show off his muscles changing the tire.
My dad could change a tire. My mother (at the time I got my flat) was not sure if she could change one on her present vehicle or not. I’m not sure that has changed (although the car she drives has).
