I’ve had a slow leak in the right front wheel of my truck for the last year. When I went to have it fixed, I found that it wasn’t the tire. It was the wheel that was leaking.
Leaking tire? $20. Leaking wheel? $150+
Well, that slow leak isn’t slow anymore. Ally asked for a ride to the store. When we got to the truck, the left front tire was flat.
I could have pulled the air hose to the truck, filled the tire, moved the care to the garage and changed the tire there. But…
I decided that I was feeling old, so I was going to change the tire using only the in vehicle tools.
The tools were not where I expected to find them. Which makes sense. I looked for them under the left rear passenger seat. It was empty.
You don’t put the tools on the left. That would have the driver’s door open for an extended period of time with the driver not paying attention to traffic. Of course, it is under the right rear passenger seat.
The package consists of a hook on a rod, 2 straight rods, the tire iron, and a column jack.
I put the hook and extensions together, then went to find the magic hole to lead to the tire let down. Do you know it is designed to be done in the dark, with your eyes closed? There is a cup designed to accept the hook end. Just feed the rod in until it can go any further, rotate counterclockwise.
This old man was under the truck looking. Trying to find that stupid hole to feed in the rod. I got it done. I got the tire out.
Then it was time to do the tire change. A trick for youngsters, break the nuts free before you lift the tire off the ground. Much easier when the tire doesn’t spin.
In the course of breaking the lug nuts free, I manged to break a stud. Not a huge issue. Just another one of those things.
In the end, I used the car jack to get the tire off the ground. It wasn’t difficult. Surprisingly so. I used the tire iron to break the lug nuts free. After the one stud broke, I did as well.
I finished using a 1/2″ breaker bar and a floor jack.
In the end, I felt like I was able to do the task with the tools at hand.
Practice Your Skills, Even the simple ones
Is this something I could have done faster and easier with my impact wrench, floor jack and such? Yes. But I would not have practiced a skill I want to have. Practice, practice, then practice some more.
Story Time
Years ago, mom took the VW Micro bus in to the tire shop to get new tires put on. She was instructed to tell the staff that she wanted the lug nuts torqued to a specific setting. Per the manual.
When they were done changing the tires, she asked, “Did you torque them as specified?” To which the manager replied, “Of course we did.”
Mom got the bus and drove it around to the entrance. Took the tire iron from the roadside tool kit and went back inside.
She told the manager to come take on lug nut off and replace it on each wheel. The manager shrugged and called one of his guys to take the car back into the bays to do what was requested.
“No, you do it with this”, holding up the tire iron.
He tried, was unable to do so. Mom explained that she needed to be able to change the tire if she was alone with her kids. That she wasn’t going to be able to call him to do it for her when on a road trip to Wisconsin.
The manager “got it”. He sent the bus back in and they torqued the lug nuts to spec.
Comments
6 responses to “Getting Old”
I found one day when I had a flat the jack in the truck will not fit where its supposed to go to jack it up…. I have a floorjack in the truck now AND the spare is in the bed too. those under bed spares are great after a winter of “car remover” sprayed up under there… ever see spare tires in the median? all rusty n stuff? yup… they fall out.. PS, why doesn’t this save my name and email anymore??
Story time. Umm, yeah, it is a thing.
Sometime over the summer Dearest Wifey had a flat time. I went, tried to get it off with the provided tire wrench. (First time I’d seen it, or the spare, which did appear to be in good shape.) Couldn’t do it, so I called a tow truck.
Tow truck guy couldn’t get it off, so he towed it in to our usual mechanic. (Not the one that had installed the tires.) Went by to check the next day. The mechanic told me he had spent 45 minutes working on it before he got the lug nuts off, they were that tight. Yeah, probably installed with pneumatic wrench, by the auto department of our local farm supply store.
Prior to that it would have been close to 20 years since I had to, when the last of the kids was in driver’s ed which required them to document changing a tire.
Should have made him replace all of the studs, too. Over-torque deforms the threads and weakens the stud. There is a reason beyond the ability to remove the nuts using hand tools: to make sure the nuts are tight enough to do the job as designed and not damage them or the studs.
and another note on newer vehicles- I have a 2015 Tundra. like my 06 Tundra it has tire pressure monitors… on the ‘15 they have orings to seal the valve stem. well after having multiple low tires from the stupid orings leaking I had the tire store take them out and put normal valve stems in. no more leaks… how do you shut off the low tire light you ask?put the valves in a 4 inch diameter PVC pipe and a couple caps on the ends, one with a shrader valve in it. once the pvc cement dries pound 40 psi of air in it and the light goes out..
and another note on newer vehicles- I have a 2015 Tundra. like my 06 Tundra it has tire pressure monitors… on the ‘15 they have orings to seal the valve stem. well after having multiple low tires from the stupid orings leaking I had the tire store take them out and put normal valve stems in. no more leaks… how do you shut off the low tire light you ask?put the valves in a 4 inch diameter PVC pipe and a couple caps on the ends, one with a shrader valve in it. once the pvc cement dries pound 40 psi of air in it and the light goes out..
I’ve been fortunate, the only recent flat was when the truck was sitting in the driveway. Oregon doesn’t use road salt and this truck has been in the high desert all its life so the spare tire was dusty but usable and I had my impact wrench and floor jack. I know the car and truck have a full set of tools so worst case I fix a flat, or talk my wife through it. I’m less sure with our daughter but we did do a wheel changing exercise in the driveway