I had a tyre blow out a few weeks ago. And today I saw a mate I shall call Jim, and he told me his next door neighbour had had a puncture yesterday. This is the comparison of our experiences.
Me -
1 Get the puncture, pull to a place of safety, turn on hazard flashers.
2 Get jack and wheelbrace out of car.
- Remove wheel trim and slacken wheel nuts.
- While wheelbrace is in my hand, wind down and remove spare wheel.
5 Jack up the car.
6 remove wheel,
- fit spare wheel.
- put knackered wheel in the rack and wind it up.
9 Lower Jack, tighten wheel nuts, fit wheel trim.
- Stow jack and wheelbrace, get in, Drive away.
Time from incurring puncture to driving away, approx 20 mins. (OK, I'm 63 now, and not as fast as I was).
Him - (as told to me by Jim)
1 Get puncture, hopefully pull to a place of safety.
2 Get Jack and wheel brace out of car.
3 Jack up car.
- Discover the wheel turns when trying to undo wheel nuts, lower car to the ground.
- Slacken wheel nuts, Jack up the car again.
- Remove wheel and put behind car.
- Attempt to remove spare wheel, discover that the lowering bolt is seized.
- Step back, fall over the punctured wheel, bang elbow/forearm on the ground, causing considerable loss of blood.
9 Call Jim and ask for advice. Advice is to try tightening, then slackening the bolt.
10 Putting all his weight on it, he manages to tighten it slightly. Can now undo it very slowly,with that awful shrieking sound we've probably all heard, with each turn of the screw.
11 attempt to remove spare wheel, fail, go back up top and turn screw a few more turns.
- Remove spare wheel from cradle. In the process, get some crap in an eye. Removing crap from eye, lose a contact lens.
- Discover spare wheel is also flat. And bald.
14 Call Jim again. Jim gives him the number of a local tyre place. It's shut.
15 Call out the AA!! Jim thinks it was a matter of pride that he thought he could do it himself and didn't want to call them.
- AA man arrives, and advises our hero to turn on hazard flashers. He does.
- AA man puts car on a towing dolly, and leaves the scene.
18 1 mile down the road, the AA van gets a punture, and has to be helped out by another AA van.
- AA man, concerned about the elbow injury, drops him off at A&E, and takes the car to his home.
- After some considerable time at A&E, get the injury treated, and head home. Get the one stroke of luck that day, as another neighbour is fortuitously also there, and able to give him a lift home.
Time from incurring the puncture to getting home - 7.5 hours.
Now matey is off work with his arm in a sling, Jim is still pissing himself at the thhought, his wife is telling everyone they know what a silly old bugger he is, and the car is sat on the drive. With a flat tyre.
Steve