One Thing Every Driver Should Know How to Do in Lagos

The owner’s manual of any car will tell you—in the most excruciatingly simplistic step-by-step manner possible—how to operate everything from the seatbelts to the trunk lock and how to finely tune the rear headrests with ferocious, compulsive precision. Every driver in Lagos must have seen one of these.

The average owner’s manual overdoes it, that doesn’t mean we can’t all use an occasional refresher course in automotive common sense. Here is our free guide to the most elementary challenge of automotive operation, how to Change a Tire.

Thankfully, modern tires rarely shed a tread or spontaneously deteriorate. But guaranteed there will come a time when you’ll be forced to change a tire.

If a tire blows, find a level, solid, well-lit surface and park, even if that means driving a mile at low speed with your hazard lights on. Don’t block the road such that other drivers will find it hard to maneuver. Then make sure the car can’t roll. The parking brake should be on, and the transmission in park (in an automatic) or in gear (in a manual).

Grab the spare, lug wrench, and jack. Most newer cars use scissors-type jacks that raise the car up at a predefined point on the car’s structure. All the info on where the tools and jacking points are is in the owner’s manual.

Now, lift the car using the jacking point nearest the disabled wheel so that the weight of the car is on the jack but the tire is still in contact with the road. If there’s a hubcap, that will need to be removed so the lug nuts can be accessed.

With the tire still in contact with the road, the lug nuts should be cracked loose (counterclockwise) but not removed. The car can then be jacked up farther and the lugs removed. With the nuts off, the tire and wheel assembly can be removed.

Put the spare on, and hand-tighten the lug nuts (clockwise). The car can now be lowered so the tire is touching the ground, although the car’s weight should remain on the jack. The lug nuts should then be tightened further using a star pattern (around the wheel, skipping every other lug) to ensure that they snug down evenly on the wheel.

Lower the car all the way onto the ground. Tighten the lug nuts down as snugly as possible and hit the road.

When you hit the road and find yourself looking for a place to park in Victoria Island, you can visit the GilGal Car Park.