Learning to Change a Tire

My sweet 16 yr old daughter loves her car. She cleans it and puts gas in and even volunteers to run all her friends around town. But one thing I have learned that she does not do is pay close attention to the sounds and feel of the car while out on a Friday night with the girls! Apparently she got a flat tire and proceeded to drive on it all night! When asked if she felt or heard anything, her response was, "no. I even asked my friends and they didn't feel anything either." When my husband got up Saturday morning to leave in his car, he noticed that her tire was flat. Upon further inspection, he saw just how flat and shredded it was! So, our sweet little 16 yr old got a lesson in tire changing. Which I think should be mandatory in drivers ed. I mean really! Changing a tire IS part of driving...not just which way to turn your tires when parking down hill. ok...enough of that. Because the truth is that I am 43 and just learned how tonight with my daughter. (yes, I said it out loud)

For all of you out there who are like me...here ya go...tire changing 101

Dad stepped in and here is what we learned:

Before you begin- PUT ON EMERGENCY BRAKE AND FLASHERS

1. Get spare tire and jack out of trunk

2. place the jack under the jack point of your car.

3. loosen bolts on tire, one turn only,but do not remove

4. raise car until the tire is able to spin/or you can see under it

5. loosen bolts completely and remove

6. pull off flat tire

7. put on spare

8. put on bolts and tighten with your fingers

9. lower the car until the tire just touches the ground

10. tighten bolts, in a star pattern, completely (go all the way around checking the tightness on all bolts)

11.. lower car with jack

12. put flat tire and jack in trunk

13. drive straight to the tire shop for a new tire

(make sure when tire is up on jack that you put NO part of your body underneath the car!)

Thanks to Dad for his patience and understanding. You did a great job teaching sweetie

Enjoy!