{"id":10,"date":"2026-10-03T00:08:04","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T12:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-towline\/flat-tyre-on-the-road-change-it-or-call-for-help\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T00:08:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T00:08:04","slug":"flat-tyre-on-the-road-change-it-or-call-for-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-towline\/flat-tyre-on-the-road-change-it-or-call-for-help\/","title":{"rendered":"Flat tyre on the road: change it or call for help?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A flat tyre rarely comes at a good time. Whether you change it yourself depends far more on where you have stopped than on how handy you are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">First, get somewhere safe<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Driving a short distance slowly on a flat tyre to reach a safe, level spot is better than stopping on a narrow shoulder or a bend. Switch on your hazard lights and put the parking brake on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Change it yourself only if<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>You are well away from moving traffic, on firm, level ground.<\/li>\n\n<li>You have a usable spare (or space-saver), a jack and a wheel brace, and you know where the locking wheel nut key is.<\/li>\n\n<li>It is light enough to see, and you feel confident doing it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On a motorway or fast road shoulder, do not try to change a wheel yourself. Get out on the side away from traffic, wait behind the barrier and call for help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The basic steps<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Loosen the wheel nuts slightly while the wheel is still on the ground.<\/li>\n\n<li>Jack the car up at the lifting point shown in the handbook. Never put any part of your body under the car.<\/li>\n\n<li>Remove the nuts and the wheel, fit the spare, and tighten the nuts by hand.<\/li>\n\n<li>Lower the car, then tighten the nuts firmly in a criss-cross order.<\/li>\n\n<li>Check the spare&#8217;s pressure as soon as you can, and keep to the speed limit printed on a space-saver.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">When to call instead<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>There is no spare, the spare is flat, or the car has a tyre repair kit you are not sure about.<\/li>\n\n<li>A wheel nut will not move or the locking key is missing.<\/li>\n\n<li>More than one tyre is damaged, or the wheel itself is bent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A roadside tyre change takes most of the risk out of it, and if the tyre cannot be fixed at the roadside, the car can be towed to a tyre shop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How to tell whether it is safe to change a flat tyre yourself, the basic steps if it is, and when a roadside tyre change or a tow is the better choice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":19,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-towline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-towline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-towline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-towline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-towline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36,"href":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-towline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions\/36"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-towline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-towline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-towline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/block.ltheme.com\/lt-towline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}