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How-To Guide
How to Change a Tire
Changing a tire is one of the few genuinely essential car skills, and it is far easier than most people expect — the whole job is about twenty minutes once you have done it once. What makes it feel intimidating is doing it for the first time at the side of a road in the dark, which is the worst possible place to learn.
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So read this now rather than then. The sequence below is the order professionals use, and two steps in it are the ones people get wrong: loosening the lug nuts before the wheel leaves the ground, and torquing them properly after it is back down. Everything else is straightforward.
What You Need
- Your car's jack and wheel brace: both live with the spare, usually under the boot floor. For driveway work rather than roadside, proper stands are safer — our jack stands guide, or check on Amazon
- Wheel chocks: stop the car rolling while one corner is lifted, which the handbrake alone does not reliably do — our wheel chocks guide, or check on Amazon
- A torque wrench: for finishing the job properly at home. Over-tightened lug nuts stretch studs and warp rotors — our torque wrench guide, or check on Amazon
- A tire pressure gauge: spares lose pressure sitting in the boot for years, and a soft spare is barely better than a flat tire — our tire pressure gauge guide, or check on Amazon
Changing a Tire, Step by Step
Get somewhere safe first, and do not rush this
A flat tire is an inconvenience; stopping in a live traffic lane is genuinely dangerous. Keep driving slowly on the flat if you have to — a ruined wheel rim costs far less than the alternative. Look for a flat, solid surface well clear of traffic, ideally a car park or a wide verge. Avoid slopes and soft ground entirely: a jack sinks into hot asphalt and grass, and a car on a slope can roll off it.
Put the hazard lights on, apply the handbrake, and put the car in first gear or Park. Get every passenger out and behind a barrier if there is one, not sitting in the car.
Chock the wheels and get the spare out
Chock the wheel diagonally opposite the one you are changing, or better, both wheels on the axle staying down. Then find the spare, the jack and the wheel brace — on most cars they are under the boot floor, on many SUVs the spare is slung under the rear.
Check the spare's pressure now rather than after it is fitted. Space-saver spares are typically inflated to a much higher pressure than normal tires, often around 60 PSI, and one that has sat for five years is usually well down.
Loosen the lug nuts before you lift the car
This is the step people get wrong, and getting it wrong wastes a lot of effort. With the wheel still on the ground and taking the car's weight, break each lug nut loose — about a half turn is plenty. The ground stops the wheel spinning while you apply force.
If you lift first, the wheel simply rotates when you push on the brace and you cannot undo anything. For a stubborn nut, position the brace horizontally and use your foot with your weight over it, keeping your hands clear in case it lets go suddenly.
Find the jacking point and lift
Car jacking points are specific reinforced places, not anywhere flat under the sill. On most cars they are notched pinch welds behind the front wheels and ahead of the rear ones, and your owner's manual shows them. Putting a jack under a floor pan, suspension arm or sill panel will bend or punch through it.
Lift until the tire clears the ground by an inch or two — no higher. The taller the car sits on a jack, the less stable it is. Never put any part of your body under a car held up by a jack alone.
Swap the wheel
Remove the loosened nuts, keeping them somewhere they cannot roll away — a pocket or the upturned hubcap works. Pull the wheel straight off; if it is stuck on the hub with corrosion, a firm kick to the inside of the tire usually frees it.
Lift the spare on and line up the holes. On a car with wheel studs, hang the wheel on the top stud first and it will hold itself while you start the others. Thread every nut on by hand before touching a tool, so you cannot cross-thread one.
Snug the nuts in a star pattern, then lower
With the wheel still off the ground, tighten the nuts in a star or criss-cross pattern rather than going around the circle — this pulls the wheel squarely onto the hub instead of cocking it to one side. Snug them only; final tightening comes next.
Lower the car until the tire takes the weight, then remove the jack completely.
Torque the nuts properly with the wheel on the ground
Now tighten fully, again in a star pattern. If you have a torque wrench, use the figure from your owner's manual — most passenger cars are somewhere between 80 and 100 ft-lb. If you are at the roadside without one, tighten firmly with the brace and get them torqued properly as soon as you can.
This step matters more than it sounds. Under-tightened nuts can work loose; over-tightened ones stretch the studs and distort the brake rotor, which produces the pulsing brake pedal that usually gets blamed on cheap rotors.
Check the pressure and plan the repair
Set the spare to its correct pressure — check the sticker on the spare itself or in the door jamb, and remember space-savers usually run much higher than a normal tire. Put the flat tire, the jack and the tools back where they came from so they are there next time.
Then treat this as temporary. Space-saver spares are typically limited to around 50 mph and a short distance, and even a full-size spare leaves you with no spare. Get the original tire repaired or replaced promptly.
Safety: Never put any part of your body under a car supported only by a jack. If the car is on a slope, on soft ground, or in a position where traffic passes close by, call for roadside assistance instead. No tire is worth the risk of being struck.
Common Mistakes
Lifting the car before loosening the nuts
The single most common one. Off the ground the wheel spins freely and you cannot break a nut loose, so people end up lowering the car again having wasted ten minutes. Crack them while the tire is still bearing weight.
Jacking under the wrong point
Sill panels, floor pans and suspension arms are not jacking points, and putting a jack under them bends metal or punches straight through. The reinforced points are marked in the owner's manual and are usually notched pinch welds behind the front wheels and ahead of the rear.
Going around the circle instead of using a star pattern
Tightening nuts sequentially around the wheel pulls it onto the hub unevenly and can leave it slightly cocked, which causes vibration. A star or criss-cross pattern seats the wheel square. It costs nothing to do it right.
Never checking the spare
A spare that has sat in the boot for six years is usually well below pressure and may be past its usable life entirely. Check it when you check your other tires — finding out it is flat at the roadside is the one moment you cannot fix it.
Do this once in a driveway on a dry afternoon and it stops being intimidating. Locate your jacking points, find the tools, check the spare's pressure, and the roadside version becomes a twenty-minute inconvenience rather than an emergency.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to change a tire?
About twenty to thirty minutes for someone doing it carefully for the first time, and closer to fifteen once you have done it before. Most of that is finding the tools and the jacking points rather than the work itself, which is why doing it once at home is worth the afternoon.
Do you loosen lug nuts before or after jacking up the car?
Before, always. With the tire on the ground the wheel cannot spin, so you can apply real force to break the nuts loose. Once the wheel is in the air it just rotates and you cannot undo anything. Loosen about half a turn each, lift, then remove them fully.
How tight should lug nuts be after changing a tire?
Most passenger cars specify between 80 and 100 ft-lb, but use the figure in your owner's manual rather than a general number. Tighten in a star pattern with the wheel back on the ground. Over-tightening is the more common error and it stretches studs and distorts brake rotors.
How fast can you drive on a space-saver spare?
Usually no more than 50 mph, and for a limited distance — typically around 50 miles, though the sticker on the spare gives the figure for your car. They are narrower and have less grip, so braking and cornering are both affected. Treat it as a way to reach a tire shop, not as a temporary tire.
What if the wheel is stuck on the hub?
Corrosion between the wheel and hub is common, especially where roads are salted. With the nuts loosened but still threaded on a couple of turns, lower the car so the tire touches the ground, then rock the car or give the inside of the tire a firm kick. Leaving the nuts partly on stops the wheel dropping off suddenly when it releases.
Related Guides
How We Write Guides
Every product named in the “what you need” section is one we have researched and written about separately, and each links to that guide so you can see the reasoning rather than taking a recommendation on trust. We publish no prices, because they change faster than we can update pages. Where a job carries genuine risk we say so plainly rather than burying it, and where a job is beyond a home mechanic we say that too. Last reviewed August 10, 2026.
A note on safety: A jack lifts; it does not hold. Never work under a car supported only by a jack, and if the roadside position feels unsafe, call for assistance rather than attempting the change.