:hug: - best I can do from here.

How tight were the wheel nuts? I'm wondering if you've maybe pulled something.

My neck is still agony!! I need a massage :(

normally id offer my services... but considering you wouldnt give me a massage when i needed one, it just wouldnt seem right :grumpy:

:hug: - best I can do from here.

How tight were the wheel nuts? I'm wondering if you've maybe pulled something.

By the look of this thread (and all the knights in shining armour ), it seems that she could have pulled more than a muscle!

normally id offer my services... but considering you wouldnt give me a massage when i needed one, it just wouldnt seem right :grumpy:

lolz aww sowwie! But I think that as you've been ignoring me for the last week you owe me one! AND you were asleep in my hour of need! How can you ever forgive yourself???

lolz aww sowwie! But I think that as you've been ignoring me for the last week you owe me one! AND you were asleep in my hour of need! How can you ever forgive yourself???

Im sure ill get over it one day

besides.. isnt changing wheels what those highways agency wombles are for?

I once did that to a tyre on one of my mini's drving in the outside lane of the motorway i heard what sounded like something bounce round inside the rear wheel arch (it think it came from the opposite carriageway cause I never saw it), thinking this could be bad I attempted to look at it with the mirror but couldnt really see, so continued on my way. After a couple of miles it was starting to feel a little unstable but not too bad (bear in mind I was on low profile 13" tyres), I continued on the basis of leaving at the next exit, but unfortunately, the tyre destroyed its self 3 miles short of the junction, smoke pouring off the rear wheel. As I was already in the slow lane due to the instability this wasnt a problem, I put the space saver on and was on my way, but im a mechanic in my spare time so I should be able to do that.

I did however later regret having to have the spare tyre in the car with me though (it was too wide to fit in the boot properly) as the stench of burnt rubber hung for quite a while.

I must say well done on doing that Loz I know if it had been my sister i would have been going up there to do it for her, or getting my mate to do it as he would be closer.

If I had happened to notice 2 girls stuck at the side of the road late at night weather i knew them or not I would attempt to stop and help.

For tyres check here they are the cheapest suppliers of tyres that I have found.

When it come to swapping look for the place that the taxi drivers use, its probably the cheapest one locally.

£12 or so here - must be cheap with all the immigrant labour you have up there :P

besides.. isnt changing wheels what those highways agency wombles are for?

I thought so...I seem to recall from theory test days the advice was to let the police/recovery people (and so nowadays the wombles) do it, on account of most motorway accidents occuring as a result of traffic hitting stationary vehicles on the hard shoulder.

That said, having done the 1am-standing-on-the-side-of-the-M62-with-a-knackered-tyre thing I think if I'd had a spare then I'd have changed it myself...and the weather then was a *lot* warmer than last night!

Oh, and less than £20 will get a 12v electric wrench which will allow for wheel bolts to be undone without causing undue muscle strain...

Rob.

And wasnt there talk of having things like "how to change a wheel" as part of the driving test? :confused:

There may have been, but it would be a Lowest Common Denominator wheel change test, or else a practical demo on something with a 4 nut and stub hub, which may not have helped Loz, who's main problem seems to have been the lockbolt.

Oh, and less than £20 will get a 12v electric wrench which will allow for wheel bolts to be undone without causing undue muscle strain...

Agree with this and the wheel brace that comes with the Fabia (and most cars) is useless because it's too short. Extendable ones can be got for not much money and really make the job much easier and save straining those muscles!

Chris

isnt changing wheels what those highways agency wombles are for?

lol that would mean they actually had a purpose!

They cannot legally touch your car to help you repair it as they are not insured to! so if they repaired something wrongly you could then sue them, what a joke!!

In fairness My tyres and everything else on my car DOES get checked regularly and my car is well maintained. It can't have been flat long because all I noticed was a few mins before it sounded loud going over cat's eyes, but before I had time to think about that it had come off. Even when it came off it wasn't THAT bad handling wise as it was a rear tyre, felt a bit odd, but not uncontrollable. We had stereo on so on the tarmac it didn't sound any different until it was off, the only indication before that was the cats eyes sounding a bit loud. Prior to all this we had been down twisty lanes and roundabouts with no change to the sound or the handling. I'm not a complete moron, I know how my car handles. If I'd had a flat front I would prob have noticed sooner as I'd have lost steering.

Ok, I wasn't suggesting you dont maintain your car, just saying how difficult it can be to tell you've got a puncture on modern cars.

Being a cab driver, I get lots of punctures due to the milage and type of roads I drive on, In the Superb with it's 17" alloys it was very difficult to tell you had a puncture unless you were driving round tight corners, and your comment about cats eyes is exactly one of the symptoms I listen for, this is because of the low profile tyres giving a generaly harsher ride, but then the modern suspension copes so well with hiding it that it really is very difficult to tell straight away.

The tyre wouldn't have needed to be totaly flat for that to happen, so it may have looked perfectly ok at a quick look, the reason the tread section has come away from the sidewalls is because the rim has cut it off due to the low pressure.

I would imagine you picked up a puncture at some point during the day, it may have only been a slow puncture so you wouldn't notice, but after a few miles on the motorway it'll soon cause trouble.

On older cars, or cars with high sidewall tyres it's very obvious when you have a puncture, but it really isn't on low profiles, especially if you have the stereo on.

As for putting the tyre from your spare onto your alloy, wont it be a different size?

The steel spare in the Superb is a different size, although the rolling radius is obviously the same.

Well done for changing it BTW, not being patronising towards women, but my mother and sister always end up calling me if they get punctures!

Actually, I'm sure its illegal / frowned upon to change a wheel on the motorway!

I think your right Angry Dog. I thought as well that you had to wait for assistance. But at that time of day and the RAC taking so long I'd have done it myself too.

Thumbs down for the RAC, I'd rather have the AA I think. The RAC once left swmbo waiting for nearly 2 hours. She rang them and they said someone would be sent. After a while she rang them again and was told basically that she'd been forgotten about. WTF. I could have driven from my work to Blackpool in the time it took them to get there. Women drivers should have priority IMO.

Glad you are ok Lorraine, and I'm sorry I couldn't have helped.

Mind you, you didn't ring me anyway......

Its quite legal to change them, but obviously if its the offside tyre (therefore closest to the passing traffic) it is more dangerous, thats where the highway patrol come in, so they sit behind you with there flashing lights on to make the approaching traffic more aware of you.

I stand corrected, having just checked. Your quite right Gizmo. It appears to be ill advised if your on your own but not illegal.

Glad your ok, loz, quite disgusted with the RAC tho.

good on you loz oh yea and good to meet you last night. i am dreading owt like that happening to me as i dont have a spare full stop ..

good on you loz oh yea and good to meet you last night. i am dreading owt like that happening to me as i dont have a spare full stop ..

it was a bit of a coincidence that we were actually discussing the spare wheel situation , or lack of, at the Malt House meet

glad your ok loz,and boo hiss to the rac:finger:

eeeeek wouldnt fancy having to change a wheel at midnight on a motorway....... bad enough doing it at half 7 in a bus stop just off a roundabout after running over part of an exhaust which caught the inside edge of my offside front wheel........ damaging the alloy... :(

Glad you're ok Loz.

Good to know that you have kept up the "girls can change tyres" end. :thumbup:

Hope you feel better soon, if not then I could come over & give you a massage;)

Thanks for your replies guys JohnJohnHealy I agree it's difficult to tell, there was no difference in sounds until the tyre came off and no difference in handling even when it did, certainly not in a straight line, and the thing is I'd been driving pretty slow and careful on the other roads as it was below freezing, so unlikely to notice handling differences.

I didn't care whether it was legal or not at the time, and I reduced the chances of the car being hit by driving off again before the RAC even got there!! The copper didn't have a problem with what I'd done, just checked everyone was ok and said 'looks like you've done a pretty good job' - he didn't even check the nuts.

I was very near the line to the first lane and certainly couldn't have changed it if it had been on the other side of the car as I'd almost certainly be dead by now if I had!! They made the car shake as it was and were pretty scary even from the other side!!

Glad you are ok Lorraine, and I'm sorry I couldn't have helped.

Mind you, you didn't ring me anyway......

I thought I had pestered you too much already that night after having gotten lost, and I figured you would be in bed by then lol. Thanks though