Round and Round
I changed a tire this evening. It was not pleasant:
It eventually got done, although I think I'll be replacing the poor tormented lug nuts when the tire gets repaired tomorrow.
Car manufacturers try and save weight (and thus fuel) with jack and wrench selection, but I think they're at the point where if they're serious about letting us change tires they should give us working tools and if they're serious about saving weight they should put a can of flat-fixing goop in the trunk and call it good, or include a subscription to an expensive hyperactive roadside repair service.
Why didn't I use a can of flat-fixing goop? Because I wanted to make sure the job was doable, and I figured that given the car was in my driveway this was probably as non-stressful an opportunity to do it as I was going to get without making one up. Or maybe it's one of those whacky masculinity tricks.
- The lug nuts were way too tight, because the guys at the dealership with the air tools are jackasses and don't measure the amount of torque they're using.
- The car's lug wrench has a single handle that's about eight inches long. A good lug wrench is longer, which gives you more torque, and a four-way cross wrench lets you pull up on one side and push down on the other. As it is, I had to put the wrench on each lug nut and get my neighbor to hold it in place while I put my foot on the wrench handle and pushed with as much weight as I could muster.
- Like all the modern cars I've dealt with, you have to dig out your car's rear luggage compartment to get to the spare.
It eventually got done, although I think I'll be replacing the poor tormented lug nuts when the tire gets repaired tomorrow.
Car manufacturers try and save weight (and thus fuel) with jack and wrench selection, but I think they're at the point where if they're serious about letting us change tires they should give us working tools and if they're serious about saving weight they should put a can of flat-fixing goop in the trunk and call it good, or include a subscription to an expensive hyperactive roadside repair service.
Why didn't I use a can of flat-fixing goop? Because I wanted to make sure the job was doable, and I figured that given the car was in my driveway this was probably as non-stressful an opportunity to do it as I was going to get without making one up. Or maybe it's one of those whacky masculinity tricks.