Winter Changing the tyres - any pointers?

[Skaven252]

As I've mentioned here and there, I'm getting a bit worried. Winter finally arrived here in southern Finland, and I'm still on summer tyres. All tyre shops are fully booked for the next two weeks, and I have to travel to another city on Saturday. If the saturday morning non-stop drive-in tyre change fails, I'll have to change the tyres myself.

I've done a tyre change maybe once or twice in my life, and that was with steel wheels. I've heard that the lug nuts of alloy wheels have to be tightened very carefully with the just the right amount of torque, as to avoid cracking the alloy. So, do I need to purchase a torque wrench or just, er, apply common sense?

How good are the jack and the wrench that come with the car? Do they do the job just barely or well enough? Would it be a good idea to at least buy a proper, bigger wrench?

Any other pointers? (The tyre rotation direction is marked on the wheel, right?)

Thanks to everyone, this forum has been most helpful.

[Skaven252]

Phew! A relief. A gas station nearby had one time slot available (cancelled by previous customer) so I got my tires changed without exercise. Problem solved. However, just in case I need to change the tyres later on, any answers will still be appreciated.

[Uffe]

I changed my baby's tires the second time a couple of weeks ago, cause I got my baby last winter. Pretty easy to change them but the tires are extremely heavy if you have to lift them a bit. My back was sore the next day
I could have payed my dealer €10 (they had an offer) to change them but it's a bit of hassle also to pack and unpack the wheels for the change.
It took me just under 1 hour to change all four tires, so not any big loss of quality time

[Juuzi01]

Originally Posted by Skaven252

As I've mentioned here and there, I'm getting a bit worried. Winter finally arrived here in southern Finland, and I'm still on summer tyres. All tyre shops are fully booked for the next two weeks, and I have to travel to another city on Saturday. If the saturday morning non-stop drive-in tyre change fails, I'll have to change the tyres myself.

I've done a tyre change maybe once or twice in my life, and that was with steel wheels. I've heard that the lug nuts of alloy wheels have to be tightened very carefully with the just the right amount of torque, as to avoid cracking the alloy. So, do I need to purchase a torque wrench or just, er, apply common sense?

How good are the jack and the wrench that come with the car? Do they do the job just barely or well enough? Would it be a good idea to at least buy a proper, bigger wrench?

Any other pointers? (The tyre rotation direction is marked on the wheel, right?)

Thanks to everyone, this forum has been most helpful.

Use common sense when tightening the wheels, torque wrench is not needed. Remember to check tight of nuts after 500km

I have always changes wheels by myself and never have any problems.

[Uffe]

Originally Posted by Juuzi01

Remember to check tight of nuts after 500km

I tend to check mine a lot more often

hahaha, sorry I just couldn't resist

[Skaven252]

Originally Posted by Uffe

Pretty easy to change them but the tires are extremely heavy if you have to lift them a bit. My back was sore the next day

Oh dear. Well, I certainly got my part of that exercise too, even though the actual change was made at the gas station. I still had to haul my winter tyres into the car, then haul the summer tyres into the storage. Good exercise, phew. I had no time to book a tyre storage service, unfortunately. Should have acted in good time...

Sore back. I guess you only get it if you actually change the tyres, as you have to do a lot of bending down, and can't always lift the tyres with your thigh muscles (instead of your back muscles).

[Uffe]

Originally Posted by Skaven252

Sore back. I guess you only get it if you actually change the tyres, as you have to do a lot of bending down, and can't always lift the tyres with your thigh muscles (instead of your back muscles).

Exactly, my back got sore when I had to bend down in very uncomfortable position, chenged the tyres outside of my garage on the ground. Maybe would have have using some low chair

[Skaven252]

Funny enough, Lidl has good offers on tyre changing equipment next thursday. Isn't that a little late now? Well, I'm still going there to get myself that torque wrench. I'm sure it will be useful later. Not to mention that cover tarp. I had to brush my car clean of 10 cm of snow yesterday. If only I had had a tarp to cover the car with...

[Uffe]

yeah, I noticed that you mean this wrench I guess:



Some Lidl stuff is good, other just crap. So far I have no experience from Lidl tools, but still I would be very careful with them what comes to the quality. Still, €4.99 is not a big risk luckily

[Skaven252]

I actually meant this one. An adjustable torque wrench, which prevents you from over-tightening the lug nuts.

[Uffe]

auch, that piece goes for €24.99, some risk there... hope it's good for that price!

[Skaven252]

Well, I suppose that if it's actually no good, the worst scenario is that if it was used heavily every day, it would break pretty soon. But I'll probably use it once or twice a year, if even that often.

I read from Wikipedia that to keep the wrench in good condition, the torque should be set to 20% from maximum to keep the micrometer from losing calibration. Good point.

[Uffe]

well, so far I haven't had any problems with Honda's own tool toys that came with my baby. I'm used how to tighten the bolts correctly, it's pretty easy, just needs a simple short arm movement at the end for each bolt

[Miggins]

Originally Posted by Skaven252

I read from Wikipedia that to keep the wrench in good condition, the torque should be set to 20% from maximum to keep the micrometer from losing calibration. Good point.

Hi Skaven,
That should be 20% from minimum:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torque_wrench
For the click type, when not in use, the force acting on the spring should be removed by setting the scale to 20% of full scale in order to maintain the spring's strength.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++


Must confess I've always backed mine right off - thanks for identifying the requirement.

Due to the high torque required I would always recommend using a torque wrench (preferably calibrated). I came unstuck once and had to spend many hours getting several nuts off that had been over tightened - not easy on alloys where the nuts are recessed and chocolate soft! Drill, hammer, chisel, impact driver and a tight socket .......grrrrrr. All originally done with a short 12" bar!!!!

(Always use a breaker bar to break/loosen the nuts not the torque wrench)

[Skaven252]

Originally Posted by Miggins

That should be 20% from minimum:

Er. I actually meant that. Honest.

[Miggins]

Originally Posted by Skaven252

Er. I actually meant that. Honest.