Whether you’re on your way to work or enjoying a pleasure cruise in your Mazda 3 or CX-50, a flat tire is always a colossal inconvenience. Below your Mazda dealer tells you precisely what to do when your car has a flat.
Pull Over in a Safe Place
The moment you notice you’ve got a flat find a safe spot next to the road and pull over away from the traffic. The longer you drive on the tire, the more you will damage it and destroy any chance of repairing the tire.
Turn on your hazards to be more visible to other road users. Put your car in park, or if it’s manual, shift into reverse to minimize the risk of rolling forward or backward while changing the tire. You are covered by 24-hour roadside assistance if your Mazda is under warranty. Call us, and we’ll change your tire for you.
Loosen the Lug Nuts
If you want to change the tire yourself, open your trunk and get the jack, lug wrench, spare tire, and if you have them, wheel wedges out. Use the wheel wedges or stones in front of and behind the tires to prevent our car from rolling. Now, loosen the lug nuts with the wrench, but don’t remove them.
Jack Up Your Car
Place the jack in the jacking points underneath your car closest to the tire that needs changing. Jack your car up just enough to remove the wheel. You can take the nuts off completely and keep them in your pocket to avoid losing them. Take the tire off and put it under your car to protect your vehicle if it slides off the jack.
Mount the Spare Tire
Line the rim of the spare up with the lug bolts and push the tire inward until you see the lug bolts poke through. Fit the nuts onto the bolts and with your hand, turn them as tightly as possible with your hand. You will use the lug wrench later for the final tightening.
Lower Your Car
Lower your car until the spare is just touching the ground. Now you can use the lug wrench to tighten the nuts in a clockwise direction. If you’ve got five nuts, tighten every other one. If there are four nuts, tighten them in opposing pairs. Jack the car down until the wheel is on the ground, remove the jack and give the nuts a final tightening.
Spare tires are not designed for long distances, and it’s best not to drive with them for more than 50 or 60 miles. Unless you have a full-size spare, get your car to Flood Mazda as soon as possible to get the tire fixed or, if it’s beyond repair, replaced. We stock a wide range of quality tires, and our qualified Mazda technicians will mount your new tire expertly.
Image by Christian Bollow from Pixabay
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