Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an integral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
Based on its evolving needs and plenty of user feedback, we are trying to bring some order and institute some rules. Please make sure you read these rules and participate in the spirit of this community.
Rules for General Chat
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Be respectful to each other. This is of utmost importance, and comments may be removed if deemed not respectful.
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Avoid long drawn out arguments. This should be a place to relax, not to waste your time needlessly.
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Personal anecdotes, puzzles, cute pics/clips - everything welcome
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Please do not spam at the top level. If you have a lot to post each day, try and post them all together in one top level comment
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Try keep things light. If you are bringing in deep stuff, try not to go overboard.
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Things that are clearly on-topic for this board should be posted as a separate post and not here (except if you are new and still getting the feel of this place)
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If you find people violating these rules, deport them rather than start a argument here.
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Feel free to give feedback as these rules are expected to keep evoloving
In short, imagine this thread to be a local community hall where we all gather and chat daily. Please be respectful to others in the same way
My hope for humanity grew a bit today. Woman in her mid-30s came in with her 10yr old kid, had 2 flat tires and thought it would take hours to do. I asked her if she wanted to learn how, and we spent the next half-hour replacing both tires using equipment they could get at a normal tool shop.
Good thing they don't have electric cars cos no spare tire in the trunk
Hard to admit this, I'm handy enough with a wrench, but I never knew one could change out a tire on the rim without dedicated machinery.
Unless I misread, I'm going to have to look into this. Wife's car needs new tires. 👍
It's extremely easy.
Jack up the car by putting it under the frame (or in the case of most toyotas/audis via the "designated jack points"), making sure there's a bit of clearance between the tire and the ground.
Set up a stand on the frame, making sure it's within a foot of the edge of the tire you're changing.
Slowly lower the car onto the jackstands by lowering the jack (oftentimes it requires you to turn the jack's handle).
Undo the bolts using an impact driver/torque wrench (if you get your tires changed at one of those "cheap" places they'll often overtighten the bolts, making it extremely difficult to get off).
Remove/replace the tire, making sure they're balanced first (there are tools like "bubble balancers" which allow you to do it yourself, if not most mechanics will charge about $60-70 per set). When putting the bolts back on, make sure to do so in a star-shaped pattern instead of clockwise to prevent imbalancing/one side being tighter. Oftentimes you'll want to "hand-tighten" the bolts first, then set them to the correct tightness using the wrench/driver which can usually be found in the owner's manual
Use the jack to re-raise the car, remove the jack stand, slowly re-lower the car, and you should be good to go.
Kudos to you for teaching people your trade.
Oh, I think of it more as life skills. If more people knew how to change/rotate their own tires or do oil changes, we'd see less stories about catalytic converters being stolen and cars breaking down extremely fast. If someone can do those tiny maintenence things and put rain-x on their windows every 6 months, they should realistically only need to see a mechanic once a year.