AngieW in Texas Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 My 22yo just bought her first car, but it did not come with a spare tire. It actually came with just a pump and a can of fix-a-flat. We bought a spare tire today, but we still need to get a jack and a lug wrench. What kind of jack should we get? We do have roadside assistance, but I still want a jack for the car. It's a 2011 Hyundai Elantra. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bootsie Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 We bought DS a used car that had run-flat tires and no spare. We bought a spare "just in case." The first time he went to change the tire, he could not get the lug nuts off. He is not too large, but he is very athletic and strong. He and one of his friends from his boxing club could not get the lug nuts off between the two of them. We were waiting for roadside assistance when a police officer came up and was determined to get the lug nuts off--he looked like the Incredible Hulk--finally the three of them got the lug nuts off. But... the spare tire had bolt spacing that was different than the wheel! So, make sure that the spare will actually work on the car. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzanne in ABQ Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 Most cars come with a scissor jack, like this, but if there's room to store it, get a small hydrolic bottle jack, like this. They're more stable than scissor type jacks, and easier to use, and aren't prone to getting stuck due to rust and grime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pawz4me Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 If the lug nuts on her tires were put on with an air wrench (which they almost certainly were) then it's unlikely she'll be able to get them off, no matter what kind of lug wrench you have, unless she's a good sized person. Maybe not even then. We have a humongous wrench that you can stand on, and when one of ours was flat last fall I couldn't make it budge standing on the wrench. So I bounced a bit. Still not the slightest hint of loosening. DH had no luck either, and he hovers around 200 pounds. If we'd had a pipe to put over the lug wrench we might have been able to get some extra torque, but alas being fairly typical suburban homeowners we didn't have any extra metal pipe laying around. We're old and lazy and weren't in a hurry, so we'd planned on calling our roadside assistance to come change it anyway (it was in our own driveway). But we tried it just for grins and informational purposes, even though I was already sure I wouldn't be able to budge it. Way (way) back when I was a new driver, which was before everybody had some form of roadside assistance, my father taught me how to change a tire and wouldn't let any tire place put lug nuts on with an air wrench because of the difficulty with manually removing them. I doubt you'd be able to get away with that nowadays--they'd insist on doing it due to potential liability. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngieW in Texas Posted July 25, 2018 Author Share Posted July 25, 2018 Even though we have roadside assistance, I still want to have a lug wrench, jack, and jumper cables just in case. I have changed my own tires before, but the last time was more than 20 years ago, before I had a cell phone. I couldn't get the lug nuts off, but a kindly driver who was built like a lumberjack pulled over and helped me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanny Posted July 27, 2018 Share Posted July 27, 2018 On 7/24/2018 at 10:12 PM, jdahlquist said: We bought DS a used car that had run-flat tires and no spare. We bought a spare "just in case." The first time he went to change the tire, he could not get the lug nuts off. He is not too large, but he is very athletic and strong. He and one of his friends from his boxing club could not get the lug nuts off between the two of them. We were waiting for roadside assistance when a police officer came up and was determined to get the lug nuts off--he looked like the Incredible Hulk--finally the three of them got the lug nuts off. But... the spare tire had bolt spacing that was different than the wheel! So, make sure that the spare will actually work on the car. This brought into my memory a mistake I made years ago. I was in NY and going to TX and didn't need the 2 Snow Tires I had on the car. I sold them to someone with a similar model, but one year older than mine. He talked me into swapping with the Wheels. Well, the wheels were not the same and I had to buy 2 new wheels. Lesson learned. I think a "Scissors" Jack, i think what it is called, may be the safest kind to use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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