[Video] Step-by-step instructions on how to change your car tires

Replacing car tires is a simple task but often overlooked by most drivers until you find yourself alone on the road with a flat tire. The instructions below will help you to change car tires easily.

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1. Find a solid, level place to change tires

In order to prevent your car from rolling accidentally down a slope, you should choose a flat, stable surface while avoiding soft and steep ground.

Park in a flat surface to replace your tires

2. Put the parking brake on

If your car is a manual transmission with a floor shifter, then you should set your brake, shift to first gear or reverse gear.

Pull the handbrake and switch the gearbox to P

3. Use heavy objects to block both front and rear tires.

You can use a rock, stone, concrete or even spare tires and place them in front of the the front and rear tires.

Use heavy loads to secure the tires

4. Get your spare tire and car jack

Place the jack near the side of the tire you need to replace so that the jack is in contact with the metal frame of the chassis. Because many vehicles have molded plastic parts along the bottom, if the jack is not properly placed, the plastic parts might break down or crack during your lift.

In the modern chassis, there are usually small notches or markings located behind the front wheels or rear wheels that let you know where to put the jack. Meanwhile, for trucks or older model cars, you can find the place to place the jack in one of the beams of the frame near the tire you need to replace.

It’s time to use your car jack

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5. Raise the jack until it becomes a cylinder

When lifting the jack, you need to make sure that it stands firmly against the underside of your car and is perpendicular to the ground.

Raise the jack

6. Remove the wheel hubcap

Your next step is to loosen the nuts, but be careful not to disassemble them all the way - you only need to break the resistance. By keeping the wheels stable on the ground when the first screws are loosened, you can rotate the nuts more easily.

Remove the wheel hubcap and loosen the screws by turning counterclockwise

7. Lift the tire off the ground

It is necessary to lift the jack high enough to remove the flat tire and replace it with a spare tire. In this step you need to make sure that the car is stable at all times.

Pump the jack until you can lift the tire far enough off the ground

8. Remove the nuts completely

Continue to rotate the screws counterclockwise until they are completely loosened then disassemble and remove them all the way.

Turn the nuts counterclockwise until they are all loose

9. Remove the flat tire

Put the flat tire right underneath the car to avoid any injury in the event of a jack failure and the car might collapse to the ground. To remove the tire with rusty wheel, you may have to use a rubber mallet to hit the inside of the tire or impact from the outside.

Now you can easily remove the flat tire

10. Install the spare tire on the hub

When mounting the backup tire to the wheel hub, you should remember to straighten the rim of the tire and align it with the wheel bolts, then fit in the lug nuts.

Install backup tire on the hub

11. Fix the screws manually

After turning the nuts by hand, use a wrench to tighten those screws. To make sure that the tire is balanced after fitting, you should not completely tighten a screw in one go, but instead take turns to rotate the screws one round at a time. To avoid upsetting the jack, you should not use too much force because you can always continue to tighten the lug nuts all the way after you’ve lowered your car to the ground.

Tighten the screws by hand

12. Lower the car

You’ve reached the last step where you should lower your car to the ground, remove the jack, then finish tightening the lug nuts and fit the wheel hubcap. Then you are ready to go.

If you need further instructions, watch this video on how to replace your car tires:

>>> Click here to get more useful tips and advice for car owners