How to Change a Tire
Change a flat tire on the roadside. Pull over safely, loosen the lug nuts before you jack, and stay inside your compact spare's speed limit.
A flat tire is the kind of thing you learn about while standing on the shoulder, staring at it, trying to remember whether you even have a spare. We have done this twice.
Changing it is genuinely not hard. The first time will still feel like it is. Everything takes longer than expected, the lug nuts seem impossibly tight, and you will probably get dirty. But after the first time, the mystery disappears.
You will end up driving away on your spare with the lug nuts tight and its limits in mind. Plan on about 30 minutes the first time.
A spare tire (check your trunk or under your vehicle), a car jack, and a lug wrench or tire iron (both usually stored with the spare). Your owner's manual, for the jack points and your spare's limits. A wheel chock or a brick. The key socket if your wheels have a locking lug nut. A flashlight if it is dark. Reflective triangles or road flares if you carry them. Gloves, because you will get dirty.
Pull over to a safe location
As soon as you realize you have a flat, slow down gradually. Do not slam the brakes. Turn on your hazard lights immediately. Look for a flat, stable surface away from traffic. A parking lot is ideal. A wide shoulder works. Avoid soft ground, hills, or curves where other drivers cannot see you. If you are on a highway and there is an exit close by, getting off the road can be safer than stopping on a live shoulder, but know what you are trading. Michelin's advice is not to drive on a flat at all, because even a short distance can damage the rim and destroy the tire internally. Creeping to an exit is a decision to write off the tire, and possibly the wheel, in exchange for getting away from traffic. That can be exactly the right call. It is not a free one.
Secure the vehicle
Once stopped, put the car in park (or first gear for manual) and engage the parking brake. If you have a wheel chock or a brick, place it behind the tire diagonally opposite to the flat. This prevents the car from rolling when you jack it up. Turn off the engine. If you have reflective triangles, place them well behind your vehicle, farther back if a hill or curve hides the car, so approaching drivers see them before they reach you. At night, leave your hazard lights on.
Loosen the lug nuts before jacking
Order matters here. You need to loosen the lug nuts while the tire is still on the ground. If you jack the car up first, the wheel will just spin when you try to turn the nuts. Use your lug wrench and turn each nut counterclockwise about a quarter turn. Just break them free, do not remove them yet. If a nut will not budge, stand on the wrench handle. Your body weight is far more effective than arm strength alone. If one nut has a patterned head, it is a locking lug nut, and it only turns with its key socket.
Good to know: Before you stand on the wrench, turn it so the handle sits horizontally and press down with your foot. That puts your whole weight straight down on the handle.
Position the jack and lift
Check your owner's manual for the jack point locations. Every car has reinforced spots on the frame designed to support the weight of the vehicle. They are usually notched or marked areas on the metal frame behind the front wheels or in front of the rear wheels. Placing the jack anywhere else can crush body panels or slip. Never put any part of your body under the car while it is on the jack, and do not start the engine while it is raised. Mazda's manual warns that the car could fall off the jack, with a risk of death or serious injury. Position the jack under the correct point and crank it until the car is high enough to fit the spare. The inflated spare sits taller than the squashed flat, so raise it until the flat clears the ground with room to spare.
Remove the flat and mount the spare
Now remove the lug nuts completely. Keep them somewhere safe. A pocket, a cup holder, anywhere they will not roll away. Pull the flat tire straight toward you and set it aside. Lift the spare tire and align the holes in the rim with the bolts on the hub. Push it onto the bolts until they poke through. This can take some wiggling. Thread the lug nuts on by hand, turning clockwise. Tighten them in a star or cross pattern (not going around in a circle) to ensure the wheel seats evenly against the hub. Get them hand-tight plus a little extra with the wrench, but do not do your final tightening yet.
Lower the vehicle and do the final tighten
Lower the jack slowly until the tire touches the ground but does not bear the full weight of the car yet. At this point, tighten each lug nut firmly using the same star pattern. Put real effort into this. The tire should not move or wobble on the hub. Then lower the jack completely and remove it. Give each nut one final check. They should be very tight. If you have a torque wrench, use the figure in your owner's manual. Mazda's manual for the Mazda3, for example, lists 80 to 108 foot-pounds.
Drive to a tire shop
If you are on a compact spare (the smaller, thinner one often called a donut), you have speed and distance limits. Read the limits printed on the spare's sidewall or in your owner's manual, and stay under them. Mazda's temporary spare, for example, is limited to 50 mph. A compact spare grips less and handles differently from your other tires, and it is not built for long use. Drive directly to a tire shop. If you have a full-size spare, you can drive normally, but still get the flat repaired or replaced as soon as practical so you have a spare again for emergencies.
Heads up: Do not drive on a compact spare for days or weeks. We did this once and paid for it in drivetrain repairs that cost far more than a tire would have. A compact spare is several inches smaller in diameter than your other tires, so it turns faster than they do. On an all-wheel-drive or four-wheel-drive car that mismatch makes the differentials and transfer case work against each other the entire time. On a two-wheel-drive car, check your manual for which axle the spare may go on (see the FAQs below). Get it fixed within a day or two.
After driving on the spare for a few miles, pull over and recheck the lug nuts. They can loosen slightly as the wheel settles. Give each one a final tighten, then drive to the tire shop. If a lug nut will not break free even with your weight on the wrench, or you cannot find the jack points, stop and call roadside assistance instead of forcing it. Once the flat is fixed, add the spare to your monthly pressure check. Our guide on how to check tire pressure shows how.
Questions we get asked about this
Answers from experience, not a textbook.
AAA found that 28 percent of 2017 model-year vehicles did not come with a spare as standard equipment, and some automakers include a tire inflator kit instead. The kit is a can of tire sealant and a small air compressor that plugs into your 12V outlet. Check its expiration date, because AAA puts the shelf life of these kits at only four to eight years. It works for small punctures (nails, screws) but not for sidewall damage or blowouts. Check your trunk now, before you need it, so you know what you have. If you have neither a spare nor a repair kit, your only option is calling roadside assistance.
Full-size spares can go on any position without issues. A compact spare depends on the car, so check your owner's manual before you mount it. Some makers forbid it on the driving wheels. Mazda's manual for the front-wheel-drive Mazda3, for example, calls driving with the temporary spare on a front wheel dangerous and says to move a regular tire to the front and put the spare on the rear.
As tight as you can reasonably get them with the lug wrench using your hands and some body weight. A tire shop will torque them to the figure in your owner's manual when you bring it in. Over-tightening can strip the threads or warp the brake rotor. If it takes all your strength to tighten one more quarter turn, that is tight enough for a temporary drive to the shop.
Safety is the priority. Pull as far off the road as possible. Keep your hazard lights on. Use your phone flashlight or a headlamp. If you have reflective triangles or flares, place them well behind your car. Wear light-colored clothing if you have it. If the location feels unsafe (narrow shoulder, fast traffic, poor visibility), stay in your car with your seatbelt on and call roadside assistance. A tire is not worth your life.
Check the pressure once a month along with your other tires, because spares lose air just like regular tires. Compact spares are commonly set to 60 PSI, but use the figure on the spare's sidewall or the door placard. Also check the age. Tires have a DOT date code on the sidewall (four digits, like 2419 meaning week 24 of 2019). Replace a spare that is more than 10 years old, however much tread it has. Michelin recommends replacing tires 10 years after their date of manufacture, and says that includes spares, because the rubber degrades with age whether or not the tire is driven.
Car Owner Essentials
How to Check Tire Pressure
How to Change a Tire
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How to Check Your Oil
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