How to Lower Spare Tire Without Tool in 7 Steps
You’re out on the open road and your tire goes pop. You pull over to change it but wait, there’s no jack! What do you do? No worries though; you can still fix it if you know how to lower spare tire without tool. It can be done in a few simple steps without using any heavy or expensive tools.
How to Lower Spare Tire Without Tool
Most people think that they need heavy tools to lower down a spare tire but all you need is two basic tools: an ignition key and a jack kit. Follow these steps to learn how to get a spare tire down without the tool.
Step One: Park the Car
The place where you are going to lower the spare tire should be flat. To keep the car stable while you are lifting the spare tire, place a wheel chock just behind one of its rear wheels.
After doing that, apply the handbrake and make sure that the emergency lights are on. Put into gear (if manual) or parking mode if automatic – this will be necessary to stop the car from running on a sudden.
Step Two: Find the Spare Tire
It should be just below where your driver’s seat would be if you were sitting in it. There should be a license plate on the car’s passenger side. Underneath the plate, you will find a rectangular plastic cover. Removing it will expose a key entrance, which makes sure that your car has a spare tire.
Step Three: Use the Ignition Key
Once you have located the position of the spare tire (which is behind the tow hitch bar), position yourself underneath the bumper to get easy access to the tire. A bulge under the bumper is the spare tire that you are going to lower.
Now, insert the ignition key into the keyhole beneath the plastic cover. Apply a little force to drag the key towards you, so it gets detached from the hole. This will help with attaching the jack assembly to the car’s rear side.
Step Four: Use the Jack Kit
Get a crowbar and about two rods of the same size. One should have a wider head than the other. This broader part is known as the “female” end. You will have to insert this “female” part of the rod into the hole you created in the previous step. It has to fit snugly in there like Cinderella’s slipper.
Step Five: Use the 2nd Rod
In this step of how to lower spare tire without tool, you have to use the second rod and connect it to the first one that has to be inserted into the hole. Fit the second rod to the female-end rod to get enough space for connecting the pulley’s male end to the first rod. Doing so will also create the required space for you to detach the bumper.
The attachment between the first and second rods should leave no gap. It has to fit perfectly to move to the next step. Now, insert the female end of the first rod into the hole.
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Step Six: Attach a Crowbar to the Second Rod
When one end of the rod fixture is inside the hole, the other end should stick out of the bumper. Attach it to a crowbar and rotate it in an anti-clockwise motion. This will move the pulley and slowly detach the spare tire from the bumper. You will need to keep doing the anti-clockwise rotation until the tire lands on the floor.
Then, you have to remove the spare tire completely from underneath the vehicle. Apply force to separate the rim from the pulley carrier. Now, you are done. You have lowered down and separated the spare tire without using any heavy tool.
Important Tips to Note
Not all vehicles are the same. There could be differences in designs between one model to another. A vehicle’s exterior and interior features could be different depending on its make and the year model.
Unless your vehicle is too old, the above-mentioned steps of lowering the spare tire will be applicable to your car model. The location of the tire could be in a different place but the removal process will be the same.
If nothing works, don’t hesitate to call for a technician. A professional is the best person to do this safely if you are a complete noob.
Conclusion
The process of how to lower spare tire without tool is not quite straightforward or overly complicated. An amateur may struggle a bit in grasping the steps but there is actually nothing to be worried about. Since there is no involvement of heavy tools, you will be able to get the hang of it after putting in some effort.