Beyond teaching your daughter how to drive on the open road, safely and correctly, she’ll need to know how to change a flat tyre. The worst case scenario is your daughter on the side of the road with a flat tyre, on her own, and even worse, at night! Of course, run flat tyres are one of the ways to go – but they are expensive and not always within everyone’s budget. There are also great emergency products that will re-inflate and seal a puncture without having to jack up the vehicle or remove the wheel. This product can be kept inside the vehicle, close at hand.
Of course, while you want your daughter to know she can call you (and/or emergency roadside assistance) in case of a car-related problem on the road, you also want her to be self-sufficient and know some of the ins and outs of routine maintenance. And, you or roadside assistance responders cannot always reach her timeously enough to get her back on the road in a hurry – we all know how dangerous it is even for full grown men to break down the side of the road.
The first thing you should teach your daughter is to pull over to a safe spot, such as a parking lot, side street or the shoulder of the road or freeway. If she is able, your daughter should move onto a flat part of the road instead of an incline. Then, she should make sure they can apply the parking brake so their car remains flat and stable.
From there, show your daughter how to remove the hubcap or wheel cover with a lug wrench. While she’ll need to loosen the lug nuts, she should not totally remove them from the wheel.
Here are several other important steps you’ll want to instruct your teen driver to take:
§ Expand the jack until the wheel is six inches off the ground.
§ Unscrew the lug nuts the rest of the way, and place them in your pocket or another spot where you won’t lose them.
§ Remove the flat tyre and then align the spare tire with the lug bolts.
§ Screw the lug nuts back in with your hands, not the wrench.
§ Lower the jack until the car is flat on the ground and then tighten the lug nuts in a star pattern with the wrench.
§ Put the hubcap back on, and she will be good to go.
Practice this with her often – the faster she can do this, the better!
Teaching your daughter every step of taking care of her vehicle is important for both your and her peace of mind. In the end, the more she knows, the better equipped and safer she’ll be on the road.