AutoTrader Answer: What to if You Get a Flat Tire

Have you ever had to pull off the road because of a flat tire? It can be a scary inconvenience, but replacing that tire doesn’t have to be a frightening experience if you follow these simple steps.

Step 1: Find Your Spare Tire

Some vehicles have a spare on the tailgate, some have none at all. If you don’t know whether you have a spare wheel, check your trunk by lifting the floor mat. This can usually be done with the help of a pull tab or a small handle. Once you lift the flap, you’ll normally find a spare tire.

A quick note, if you can’t find a spare tire in your new vehicle, chances are it has an inflator kit somewhere in the trunk. While we aren’t covering the use of these products here, they normally come with instructions for use.

Step 2: Prepare your Space

Remove the spare tire as well as the jack and lug wrench, which are often located atop the spare, out of the trunk. This is a good time to grab a pair of gloves to protect your hands and keep them clean, if you’ve got them. You can also use one of the floormats out of the passenger compartment of your vehicle to give yourself a dry pad to kneel on while you’re replacing your tire — this will also help protect your knee from sharp gravel.

If you have locking lug nuts — that is, one or more theft-preventing nuts per wheel that have a strange pattern within them, rather than simply being hexagonal — look for the lug nut "key," which is normally located in the glove compartment. You must find this tool before proceeding because, without it, you won’t be able to loosen your lug nuts.

Step 3: Start Loosening Your Lugs

Before you use a jack to raise your vehicle, you should “crack” your lug nuts. That just means starting the process of loosening them and it should be done before the car is in the air for safety’s sake. It takes a lot of torque to loosen a nut, so doing that while your vehicle is off the ground could push your car off the jack and bring it slamming down onto the road surface.

You just want to loosen your lugs a little, though. Don’t take them all the way off the wheel just yet.

Step 4: Lift Your Car

With the wheel still on the car and the nuts still fastened (but loosened a little), it’s time to slide the jack under the car. Try to place it under the pinch weld — the vertical meeting point of many modern vehicles’ body panels that’s normally located a few centimeters in from the external edge of the vehicle. This area is stronger than other parts of the underfloor, making it more capable of supporting the weight of the vehicle.

With your jack in place, it’s time to start lifting your vehcile slowly. Lift until the vehicle is high enough that your flat tire is no longer touching the ground. It’s a good idea to place your spare tire under the car to keep it from crashing onto the ground if it slips off the jack.

Step 5: Remove Your Flat Tire

It’s finally time to fully remove your lug nuts and your wheel. With that, you can move the spare tire onto the hub (taking the time to put the flat under the car for safety) and you can start tightening your lug nuts back on.

Step 6: Lower the Car

With the nuts hand tightened, you can lower your slowly (removing the flat tire from under the car) and finish tightening the lug nuts with your wrench. With everything back on and tight, you just need get all of your things back into the car, and you’re ready to drive on.

It should be noted that if you have a space-saver spare (that is, a wheel that is smaller in width than the normal ones) it may only be safe to drive it up to a certain speed. Usually, the maximum safe speed and distance are clearly marked on the spare and are enough to get you to your nearest mechanic or tire shop to enable you to find a more permanent replacement for your flat tire.