How to Change Your Own Tires!
Introduction: How to Change Your Own Tires!
Summary:
This instructable guide is to teach someone with zero automotive experience on how to change their own tires. This can also be applied to switching out your flat tire for a spare tire. We will go through step-by-step on how to safely remove your tires and replace them with new ones. It's not that difficult, and anyone can do it!
Supplies
1. Tires
- Tires can be purchased at your local tire dealer.
2. Torque Wrench OR Lug Wrench
- Torque wrenches will give the appropriate torque for reapplying the lug nuts to secure your tire.
3. Sockets for Torque Wrench
- If you are using a torque wrench, you will need different sized sockets. Lug nut sizes vary depending on the vehicle.
4. Jack
- You can use either a scissor jack (usually found included in spare tire kits) or a floor jack.
NOTE: If you don’t know where to obtain your tools, I use AutoZone ( https://www.autozone.com ) as my one stop shop for all my auto part needs. 320
They have a system where you can type in your vehicle information, and when you shop for parts, it’ll tell you if your vehicle is compatible with the searched parts.
Amazon is also a useful resource as well.
USEFUL LINKS:
Lug Wrench -https://www.autozone.com/shop-and-garage-tools/lug...
<PERSON> - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M1D17AW/ref=p...
Wrench Sockets - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071JG4BNN/ref=p...
Scissor Jack - https://www.autozone.com/engine-and-vehicle-lift/j...
Floor Jack - https://www.autozone.com/engine-and-vehicle-lift/j...
Step 1: Getting Started (Loosen the Lug Nuts)
IMPORTANT: When changing tires or replacing a flat tire with a spare, your vehicle should be resting on a flat level surface.
1) Loosen the lug nuts on your tire (counter-clockwise), but not all the way. Do this in a star pattern.
2) They may be difficult to loosen initially. This is usually the result of someone over torquing the lug nuts with an electric torque wrench.
3) Loosening up the lug nuts will help prevent the tire from spinning when the vehicle is lifted off the ground.
* In this image, I use the torque wrench to help me loosen the lug nuts with a 19mm socket. Size of lug nuts will vary from vehicle to vehicle. *
Step 2: Lifting the Vehicle
1) Once the lug nuts are loosened, take your jack and find the lift point on your vehicle. The lift point on my vehicle is circled in white in the image above. Refer to your vehicle's owner's manual to find the appropriate lift point on your vehicle.
2) DO NOT raise your vehicle from any other location. Other parts of the vehicle won't be able to withstand the weight and may potentially hurt you and damage your vehicle.
3) Place your jack underneath the lift point and raise the jack so that the lift point is rested in between the ridges of the head of the jack.
4) Once you find this point, start raising up your vehicle with the jack. The wheel should be at least 1/2 inch to 1 inch off the ground.
Step 3: Removing the Lug Nuts
1) Once the vehicle is lifted and the wheel is off the ground, you can now remove the lug nuts from the tire.
2) Make sure you don’t lose these, otherwise you won't be able to get your tire back on!
3) Remove your tire and set that aside.
Step 4: Mounting the New Tire / Spare
1) Next, lift and mount your new tire onto the threads of the wheel hub assembly making sure the threads go through the holes where the lug nuts came from.
2) If you find this difficult to do, some people find it to use their feet to help raise and stabilize the tire to get it back onto the hub assembly.Be sure to not accidently kick your jack when doing this!
* The image above to the left shows the wheel hub assembly with its five threads sticking out. *
Step 5: Screw the Lug Nuts Back In
1) Once you have your new tire on, you can now screw the lug nuts back on the threads and hand tighten them if you can. 858