This section is for when you suffer a puncture, and it assumes that you have a spare wheel, though some cars have bottles of foam instead. They come with their own instructions, but they are not effective if either the wheel or tyre to be replaced is badly damaged.

All the information required to change a wheel is provided in the owner's handbook. The car will have a jack, on which the car must be raised at a specific point near the wheel that is to be changed. First ensure that the car will not move while it is on the jack. It should ideally be on a level surface, and the wheels on the opposite axle from the one being changed should be locked.

Applying the handbrake will lock the rear wheels (unless, as occasionally happens, it is connected to the front brakes). Putting the car in gear will lock the rear wheels of a rear-wheel drive car, the front wheels of a front-wheel drive car and all the wheels of a four-wheel drive car.

Wind up the jack just sufficiently to take some of the car's weight, but not enough for the wheel to come off the ground, and then - using a spanner which is also in the car - turn the wheelnuts a small amount anticlockwise to loosen them but not remove them. This is the most physical part of the job and may be accompanied by a cracking or squeaking sound which isn't as worrying as it first seems.

Now jack up the car so that the wheel is slightly further off the ground than you think it needs to be (remember that the spare tyre will reach further down than the punctured one you are looking at). Use the spanner to undo the wheelnuts entirely, then remove the wheel and fit the spare.

The rest of the process is more or less the same in reverse. Tighten up the wheelnuts as far as you can, then wind down the jack so that the car is on all four wheels again. Now tighten the wheelnuts fully, using the same amount of effort as you needed to undo them in the first place. Put absolutely everything back in the car before you drive off, since you will need it again.

The first priority is to have the punctured tyre replaced, as it is a legal requirement for spare tyres to be in proper working order. If you have just fitted a spacesaver tyre (which is much narrower than the others on the car) you will not be able to drive far on it, or at high speed - the handbook will give details.

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