Tire Tale

This is what happened a couple weeks back with my tire. I went out to my car to drive to the bank. I got in the car started it up and pulled out into the street. Immediately I realized that there was something wrong and what was wrong is one of the tires was flat. I got out of the car and sure enough I had a flat. The right front tire on the passenger side was flat.

Then I noticed a note that was on my windshield. The person who wrote it said he thought a large group of teens punctured the tire as a prank. I looked a little closer at the tire and indeed it was punctured. There was about a three inch gash in the tire.

Oh well those are the breaks. The thing to do now was to change the tire. I drove the car around the block. I got out the owner’s manual and read up on how to change the flat. I don’t have a full size spare I have what is called a donut. It is in the back of the car. Actually it is underneath the back of the car.

The spare, for lack of a better way of putting it, is kept in cage. There is a bolt that is located in the trunk that holds it up. You unscrew the bolt and the tire is let down. I got out the jack and attempted to unscrew the bolt. Well I tried and tried and finally got it to move. And then I turned it and turned it and turned it and it didn’t work at all.

I thought to myself just great. How am I going to get this thing out. I decided I’ll call AAA and see if they can help me out.  Someone arrives from AAA very quickly. He tries just about everything possible to loosen the bolt. He jacks-up the car. He uses a high end bolt turner; it doesn’t work either. He apologizes for not being able to get the tire out. I say no problem. I didn’t think it was going to work because when you turned the bolt the washer turned with it too.

After this I thought the thing to do was have the car towed to a tire place and get the tired replaced. But then I would still have to deal with the spare issue. I called up my dealership. They said they could do what I wanted but the first appointment wasn’t until Monday morning at 10. I took that. I figured it would give me a few days to calm down from all the fun I was having.

I called AAA on Sunday evening to ask how far in advance I should call for the tow truck on Monday. They said around an hour so before the appointment. That’s what I did.

Things went really smoothly. The tow truck guy arrived (actually he had a flat bed truck that he put my car on). It took just about an hour to get to the dealership.

Turns out the bolt was bent and it needed to be replaced. They of course had to order the part. I was able to pick the car up on Wednesday.

And that’s my tire tale.