Poll: Can you change a flat tyre on your car?

What would you do?

  • Change the tyre myself.

    Votes: 203 81.5%

  • Panic and call a family member to come change it for me.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Call the breakdown company to change it for me.

    Votes: 33 13.3%

  • Get recovered to a police storage yard.

    Votes: 3 1.2%

  • pancake

    Votes: 10 4.0%
  • Total voters
    249
Yeah if it was safe to do so i'd crack on myself but if it was raining on the hard shoulder of a motorway i'd be out of the car and calling breakdown cover as i value my own safety more. Plus i used to change all 4 wheels on my car when i did track days so was a dab hand at it after that! Could get all the wheels out of the car and change them all in 10 minutes but that was with a breaker bar and an impact gun and a proper jack.
 
Would be able to if I really had to. Would call recovery.

Probably a good idea for those that can't and carry spare wheels to learn how to do it, or at least print off some instructions and put them with the spare or in the glove box.

Recovery sometimes is a long wait.
 
No spare in the car, if it's under an hour away I'll call family to bring the tools and spares. More than an hour I'll call recovery. I'm not signed up to one so I'll ring around with whoever offers the quickest time.
 
yeap even though im not a spring chicken anymore i still do. last time was when i hit a pothole and punctured both tyres on the pass side of my car . got the space saver on one and tried the puncture sealant on the other (not very good im afraid) .
i ended up taking the second one off and waiting for a friend to bring out a second wheel and tyre. was flippin cold and very wet , took a couple of hours but hey ho. mind when i go long distances i probably if stopped would be classed as going equipped:) usually have a multitude of tools and spares :)

just slightly off topic i thought people were taught some basic motoring checks and maintenance when learning or am i wrong. always used to be check fluids ,tyre pressures etc daily and im sure my lad was taught to change a wheel, if not maybe they should.

ps yeap doesnt work with daughter lol (comment 'thats what i pay for on my bank account recovery and breakdown', gawd knows she has used it so many times hehe)
 
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gc123 said:
yeap even though im not a spring chicken anymore i still do. last time was when i hit a pothole and punctured both tyres on the pass side of my car . got the space saver on one and tried the puncture sealant on the other (not very good im afraid) .
i ended up taking the second one off and waiting for a friend to bring out a second wheel and tyre. was flippin cold and very wet , took a couple of hours but hey ho. mind when i go long distances i probably if stopped would be classed as going equipped:) usually have a multitude of tools and spares :)

just slightly off topic i thought people were taught some basic motoring checks and maintenance when learning or am i wrong. always used to be check fluids ,tyre pressures etc daily and im sure my lad was taught to change a wheel, if not maybe they should.

ps yeap doesnt work with daughter lol (comment 'thats what i pay for on my bank account recovery and breakdown', gawd knows she has used it so many times hehe)
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They barely teach anything anymore, I think they ask you how you would check your tyres tread depth but whether they quiz you on the minimum etc or the old 20p trick, I truly have no idea.
 
It takes less than 10 mins to do (a wheel not a tyre), so yes. I do most of the maintenance on my cars, bar the more messy stuff that I can't be bothered with.
 
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There isn't a spare in the McLaren, no runflats either so it would depend on the kind of puncture as to what happened, if the tyre goop would get me moving or whatever. McLaren Assist to the rescue in the worst case.

The Range Rover has a spare but jacking up something with such a large ground clearance on the provided jack is absolutely sketchy at best so that would depend on the road surface and prevailing conditions but theoretically I'd just change it myself.

The Golf = change myself.
 
DRZ said:
There isn't a spare in the McLaren, no runflats either so it would depend on the kind of puncture as to what happened, if the tyre goop would get me moving or whatever. McLaren Assist to the rescue in the worst case.

The Range Rover has a spare but jacking up something with such a large ground clearance on the provided jack is absolutely sketchy at best so that would depend on the road surface and prevailing conditions but theoretically I'd just change it myself.

The Golf = change myself.
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That's a good point - what's the point in providing you a jack for the vehicle that makes it almost impossible to do yourself?
 
Change it myself. My car has a spare which is a faff because it doesn't fit over the front calipers so you have to rotate a rear to the front and put the spare on the back, PITA but I'd still do it. I carry a 24" breaker bar with the correct socket in the boot so no lug nuts are going to stop me either.
 
Biggest issue would be probably not having a spare wheel with most cars now. Otherwise yeah you would go ahead jack the car up and change it.

These days most people probably phone up recovery tbh
 
I've taken the wheels off my car plenty of times, but unless I was on a low speed road and recovery was going to be hours, then I'd do it myself, otherwise recovery gets called out.
 
In 2 of the 3 cars I would change the wheel. In the third I would pray that the tyre goo was still in date and keep my fingers crossed.

Not everyone is mechanically minded, but a wheel change is pretty elementary.
 
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