I manage to finally jack up the car and undo all the wheel bolts. And the wheel won't come off. It seems welded on. No give at all. Maybe I am missing something I think, an extra bolt perhaps. I get out the manual. I examine the wheel. I examine the manual. I kick the wheel. I check the manual again. I grab the wheel and yank it. I check the manual. I hit the tyre with the spanner. None of this works. Finally I admit defeat and have to call out the assistance people (definite advantage of a company car). I have never failed to change a tyre before, I am really quite disappointed with myself. Finally the mechanic arrives at 2000 hrs (no, I won't be seeing A" before she goes to bed). He doesn't seem phased. Instead he gets a big rubber mallet and whacks the tyre a few times until it finally surrenders and comes off. So brute force really was the answer.
Then he puts on the spare. Which is one of these "temporary" tyres. I have never looked closely at one before. They look like they should be used in a soapbox derby. And you aren't allowed to go over 50 mph with one. And you aren't supposed to go long distances. So whose bright idea was it to start issuing these things. If I need to change a tyre then I want something that I can actually use, not something out of a lego kit. Because, you know, maybe, just maybe, I might have a long journey ahead. Something like a 500 mile round trip the day after I get back from Hannover. Just possibly. And having to first go to get a new tyre might not be how I planned to start the day when I needed to get to a meeting 250 miles away. I mean, I am just hypothesising, obviously. That wouldn't be the reason I got home after 2130hrs two nights in a row would it.
1 comment:
little trick I discovered when this happened to me the other year was to get the spare tyre out early and swing it at to hit the stubborn one as near to the outer edge of the tyre. It didn't take much to dislodge the stuck one, probably two or three gentle-ish thumps.
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