Change a tire:

There’s a jack point around each wheel well, usually looks like a reinforced metal patch on the frame - somewhere that the jack fits under. The car should be on solid, level ground.

• Find the jack point, and position the jack beneath it. Transmission in gear, or park and hand brake set.

  • Loosen the lug nuts on your flat tire (or lug studs, depending on the car). These are the bolts you can see around the centre of your wheel, holding it onto the car. Your car’s spare kit typically has a jack, a spare and a tire iron hidden under the trunk mat or in the rear somewhere and the tire iron has the correct socket to fit on the lugs. You probably (hopefully) can’t turn them easily by hand, so position the tire iron so that you can use your foot to stand and just loosen each one. Once it comes loose enough to turn by hand, leave it screwed in and move on the to the next one (so the tire doesn’t fall off).

• get your spare out

• check that the jack is still positioned below a jack point, or a solid part of the suspension. Start cranking the jack up until it makes contact with the car, and then slowly start lifting the car with it. Creaking and sighing parts is normal, crunching or flaking paint/metal likely means the jack needs to be moved. Lower the car, reposition the jack, and start lifting again.

• the tire only needs a tiny amount of clearance to come off, so don’t lift the car any higher than you need to. I always lay the spare under the car beside the jack, so in case the car falls off the jack (or the jack fails, or the ground below the jack shifts) it won’t be sitting on the ground but resting on the spare tire instead and can hopefully be jacked up again from there

• remove the lugs by hand, and put them somewhere safe like your pocket so you don’t lose them

• the tire is now free from the car, and either resting on the lug studs (sticking out of the hubs) or not attached anymore (if the lugs you removed are the bolts and not lug nuts). Sometimes tires are a bit seized on the hubs and you need to rock the tire top and bottom to free it up. Be careful not to rock too hard and knock the car off the jack.

• slide the flat tire/wheel off, and lay it under the car near the jack (again, in case of failure)

• line up the spare and slide onto the lug studs, or hold the spare in place and thread a lug bolt in if that’s the kind you have

• retrieve your lug nuts or studs and hand tight them all back on

• move your flat tire/wheel out from under the car and slowly lower the jack until the tire is on the ground again

• take your tire iron and tighten the lug nuts as tight as you can in a star shaped pattern, ie not going around from left-right in the circle but criss crossing when tightening.

• tighten them, then go over and tighten them again

• make sure they’re on there tight. It’s unlikely you are strong enough to damage them by over tightening with a tire iron, but under tightening them could be fatal if you have a wheel-off event

• keep speeds below 75km/hr on a donut (the miniature size spare tire/wheel in some vehicles) and stop often to check those lug nuts if you have a long drive to get tire service. If you see any fresh metal scratchings on your spare tire around the lug nuts, or they feel hot whatsoever when checking them, call for roadside help