Have you ever driven the highway at night and heard a "hissing" noise and then felt the steering wheel *shake*?

Then the whole car started to tremble?

Guess what?

You probable just had a blow-out, or at least you were having a flat tire-that's what happens when all the air goes out of a tire.

Do you know how to change a tire?

It's different on most cars.

And then there's that little *toy* tire somewhere in the back that you have to put on to get to where you are going (if it's not too far).

It all depends on the type of vehicle you are driving.

If it's a pickup truck, you're in luck. At least your spare will be either in the back of the truck, or, underneath the bed near the rear bumper.

That could be good, or it could not be good. It all depends on where you are and which tire went flat, the front, or the rear.

Anyway, let's assume you can get to it on a pickup.

Usually, the manufacturer has it fastened up to the bottom of the bed with a cable that has a crank or twist mechanism.

If you are in a passenger car, or van, or station wagon you will find the spare tire in the back, or in the trunk (where you store your luggage when you go visit your in-laws).

On my wife's Ford Taurus station wagon the spare is located in the back, on the left, behind a panel...the *toy* tire.

But, in the very back there is a flap you can pull up and get to the *real* tire if you have one.

Usually the jack is stored with the spare but sometimes, like hers, the jack is under the flap in the floor bed and the spare is stored in the side panel.

This brings up another situation.

Does your vehicle have *locking* wheel lug nuts?

Hers has them, and if you don't have the key (a special lug nut looking thing with a funny-looking end on it, you can't get that locking nut off.

Okay, we have the spare, the lug wrench, the jack, the locking lug nut tool.

All we have to do now is break the lug nuts loose, while the vehicle is still flat on the ground (no pun intended).

Take the lug wrench and place it onto one of the lug nuts and turn it to the *left* (I don't think there are anymore left-handed nuts around, unless you own a Chrysler product from the '60's). :-)

After you break all the nuts loose (you did use the little tool to loosen the lock nut, didn't you?) you can put the jack under the car to jack it up so the tire will roll free.

Now you can remove all the nuts and then the tire so you can put the spare on.

Where are

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