A Woman's Guide to Changing a Flat Tire

The first steps in changing a flat tire is making sure you have a spare tire, jack and tire iron. The spare tire is usually located under the mat in the trunk of your car. Make sure you have your car in park before jacking your car up and the emergency brake is set. Make sure your vehicle is parked on a flat surface and not on a slope, or on dirt. Depending on what side of the car the tire is flat on you will want to secure the other side, meaning if you have a flat on the front right tire, you will want to place a brick or heavy object behind the left front tire.

Take the L shaped tire iron and place it over the lug nut on the tire, loosing one at a time, do not remove the lugs all the way. The lug nuts will be on tight so it will take some force to loosen them. Just think about how your husband or lover is not there to help you and that should send some fire through your body to be able to loosen the lug nuts.

Now look in your owner's manual and it will show you where your jacking points on your car are located. Place the jack under your car, raise the jack until it connects with the cars frame and continue jacking the car up till the tire is all the way off the ground. Now remove the wheel lugs from the tire, you should be able to remove them the rest of the way by hand.

Now try to balance the tire on your foot to keep it steady, locate the holes and line them up with the wheel studs. Once you have the tire hanging on the wheel studs start screwing on the lugs by hand, do not cross-thread them. Make sure every lug is snug, and the tire is flush against the brake hub. Take the tire iron and tighten every lug, making sure they are snug.

Carefully lower the jack allowing the tire to rest on the ground and remove the jack. Now take the tire iron again and tighten the lugs as much as you can. Once the tire is on the ground it makes it easier to tighten the lugs without the tire rotating around like it does when it is off the ground.

Once all that is completed take the flat tire, jack, and tire iron and place it in your trunk. Remember to release your emergency brake before driving away.