No, don’t jack up your car first when you encounter flat tire

When you encounter flat tire, first thing first, make sure you are in control of your steering wheel. Stay calm, switch on vehicle hazard/warning light (more commonly known as “double signal”) and pull over to a safe spot (road shoulder, off-road, emergency lane, rest area and etc.). Get out of your car quick, yes, be quick, and setup warning triangle or traffic cone about 100 meters away from your car to warn other vehicle coming behind you (especially when you are in highway). If available, switch on revolving flash light too.

Do the necessary to make sure you and your car are both noticeable by other vehicle passing by. You seriously don’t want them to crash their vehicle in to you or your car, accidentally.

The warning triangle and traffic cone

Putting the warning triangle or traffic cone some distance away from you is definitely essential. Imagine, at the highway, a vehicle traveling at the below speed,

110 km/h, equal to 110,000 meters  / (60 minutes x 60 seconds)

= 30.56 meter per second.

Or,

80 mph, equal to 80 miles / (60 minutes x 60 seconds)

= 0.022 miles per second

= 117.33 feet per second

= 39.11 yard per second

= 35.76 meter per second

Coming at the speed of 110km/h, from the time when the incoming vehicle’s driver notice you or your car, till he/she start pressing his/her foot hard on the vehicle’s brake, it could take 1 or 2 seconds. That means, the incoming vehicle is already 30.56 meters or more, closer to you, before he/she react to step on the vehicle’s brake. It takes some additional distance before this incoming vehicle could stop. So, don’t you think you want to put the warning triangle or traffic cone further away from your car to establish a longer buffer zone between your car and the incoming vehicle? In case, the incoming vehicle crash into the warning triangle / traffic cone, you will notice it and start running away from your car before the incoming vehicle lost control and come straight towards where you were standing.

Check your spare tire

Now that you have set up the warning triangle, if you decided to change the tire yourself, don’t reach out to the car jack and attempt to jack up your car yet. Instead, check you spare tire’s condition first. If you have a flat spare tire too and don’t have any tire air pump with you, how about consider to call for assistance from the relevant parties like highway patrol team or workshop nearby?

If your spare tire is ok, get the wheel wrench and start loosening the flat tire’s lug nut first, not jacking up your car. Here’s why. Most of the time, workshop technicians tighten your vehicle tires’ lug nuts with impact wrench. You may or may not have enough strength to loosen the lug nut by yourself. Sometimes, in order to loosen the lug nut, driver has to step on the wheel wrench, to use his/her body weight to attempt to loosen the lug nut. If you had jacked up your car, pushing hard on the wheel wrench or stepping hard on it may cause the car jack lost balance and tumble-down. It might cause damage to the rim. Besides, why jacking up your car if you can’t even loosen the tire lug nuts?

Loosen the lug nuts but not removing it

Remember, it is LOOSEN the tire lug nuts, not REMOVE the tire lug nuts. You need the lug nuts to be remained in place to hold the tire. You don’t want your car tire fall off for whatever reason and roll to the road side drain, or, roll to the middle of the highway while you attempt to jack up your car. Bear in mind, when you encounter such flat tire incident, your emotion could be affected and you might make various clumsy mistakes. You seriously don’t want to make the situation worse with tire fall into the road side drain or roll to the middle of the highway. So, just loosen the lug nuts, don’t remove it yet.

Jack up the car

Get your spare tire and car jack. Put your spare tire near the flat tire. Ensure your car’s hand brake is engaged.

Now, jack up your car. Remember; follow the instructions shown on the car jack. In this example, fix the car jack firmly at the designated spot, the car jack slot as shown, to ensure your car is supported correctly and jacked up properly as per the car manufacturer’s original design intend when they design your car. Look for the car jack slot some where near the tire compartment beneath your car’s door.

Ensure the ground where the car jack is placed is flat and solid. Soft muddy spot is not the right spot to put the car jack.

Replace the tire

Once your car is jacked up, remove the loosen lug nuts and replace the tire. After the tire is installed, restore the lug nuts without tightening it. Ensure the tire has been properly put in place then only start tightening “gently” the lug nuts in a star pattern, instead of in clockwise or anticlockwise manner.

At this point of time, your car is still jacked up and you don’t want to tighten the lug nuts too hard until the car jack lost balance and tumble-down. You might get hurt. You just want the car tire to be installed properly in place with a gentle tightening of the lug nuts. Now, lower down your car, remove the car jack and do another round of tightening of the lug nuts in star pattern. This time, you want to ensure all lug nuts are indeed properly tightened. If necessary, use your body weight to step on the wheel wrench to tighten the lug nuts. Be careful not to tumble and fall.

Pack up and drive to the nearest workshop. Have your flat tire repaired or replaced. For some cars, spare tire is smaller in size compare to the other four tires. This smaller tire is meant for temporary usage in case of emergency. You need to get this smaller spare tire back to the spare tire compartment. Use an actual size tire that suit your car for your daily driving.

Car jack

Never attempt to go beneath a car that is supported only by a car jack. The car jack could tumble and you might get hurt/killed if you are under the car. Whenever jacking up your car, ensure the car jack is fixed at the correct car jack slot of your car.

Make sure the car jack is seated on firm, flat, solid ground.

Click here to learn more about how to repair a SMART Tag.

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