Oh no, not a flat tyre!

This cannot be happening; I cannot deal with a flat tyre now!

Obviously you will phone your 'guardian angel' or, the roadside assistance of your car insurance, if you are not insured with First for Women.

But what if you do not get reception on your cell phone?

While looking for images to illustrate the how, I came across several step-by-step explanations, for example:

• How to change a flat tyre in 9 steps
• How to change your car tyre: 10 tips
• How to swop or change a car tyre
• Roadside repairs: Wheel changing
• Wheel Changing Procedure for Car Fitted with Alloy or Steel Disc Wheels (and even wire wheels)

My advice includes:

1. Pull off the road at a reasonably level place as soon as feasible—note that by driving with a flat tyre the tyre very quickly get ruined.
2. Pull up the hand brake and switch off the car.
3. Find the car jack, wheel spanner and spare wheel—they are often in the boot; but sometimes the spare tyre and rim is mounted below the car or some other convenient place (it is good practice to know where they are, in the event of a flat tyre—even a person rendering assistance will probably need your own car's tools).

Your car's spare might be a compact.

4. Check if the spare tyre is inflated (make a point of regularly checking the pressure of all the tyres, including the spare) because if it is flat, there is no point changing.
5. Remove the hub cap of the flat tyre with a screwdriver or the flat-end of the wheel-spanner

6. Now the most difficult part: loosen all four/five the wheel nuts/bolts by turning them anti-clockwise, but do not turn them out completely.

  Nuts   Bolt

The nuts/bolts are usually so tight that most people battle. Fit the wheel spanner properly over a nut/bolt, with the strait section horizontal, and apply force to pull it up.

7. Once the nuts/bots are loose it is time to lift the wheel off the ground. Make sure you insert the jack at the appropriate re-enforced place on the body of the car and start turning the jack's mechanism clockwise to lift the car.

 
(Are you are perhaps interested how a scissor jack works?)

8. Once the wheel is lifted off the ground, you can turn out the nuts/bolts completely. Put them together in a secure position.
9. Remove the flat tyre and lift the spare into position (you might have to jack the car up a little more to fit the inflated tyre in place).

 
This is what it looks like with the nuts removed. Note the five grooved-pins sticking out—it is easier to fit the spare in position by hooking it over the 'pins' than to hold the spare in position and insert the bolts.

10. Insert the nuts/bolts—first top, then bottom, then left and finally right (if four) or crisscross (if five) and turn in a far as possible (until the wheel starts to rotate).
11. Now jack the car down by turning the mechanism anti-clockwise.
12. Once the jack has been removed, tighten the nuts/bolts as best you can.
13. Make sure you put everything back in the boot and now your hands are filthy dirty—hopefully you have wet-wipes to clean them!
14. Get the flat tyre repaired as soon as feasible and have it fitted back on the car.

Check out these cool gadgets:

An electric car jack.

 Just need a rechargeable drill to loosen the nuts/bolts.
 
 

An exhaust air jack