A lot of cars these days come without a spare wheel - including my wife's Honda Jazz. So we have gotten a spare wheel. However, that isn't much use unless one can change it, and one can't change it without a Jack and a spanner - or whatever.
It's a 2017 Honda Jazz. Should I get a Honda Jack & Spanner set, or is some other spanner and jack just as good, and a lot cheaper?
All advice welcome.
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A decent scissor jack and wheel brace from Halfords should suffice. Does your wife know how and have the strength to change a wheel? If not just call your breakdown service.
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>>Does your wife know how and have the strength to change a wheel?
Undo each wheel nut a turn or two. immediately do it up with a torque wrench to the correct setting.
Odds are that the nuts were put on too tight using an air gun.
Then anyone can get the wheel nuts off.
"An Extendable Wheel Brace Wrench Telescopic 17 19 21 23MM Car Tyre Nut socket" would reduce the effort. £8 upwards
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I think that, while a jack is relatively generic, some cars have proprietary fittings for their own jack which are easier to use than faffing to find the strong points in the cill.
My own experience, over 50+ years, is that the biggest problem in a wheel change is loosening the fixing nuts/bolts. OEM wheelbraces don't cut the mustard here and a combination of the right tool - an extendable brace - and ensuring nuts/bolts are not silly tight is the key.
Even with 'know how' etc Mrs B would rather have a Breakdown Service sort it for her.
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Definitely extendable wheel brace. And knowing where the locking nut is should it have one…mine is always in the glove box next to tyre pressure gauge, headtorch and roof mounted orange flashing beacon
Ex Boy Scout. Be Prepared !!
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Just call the breakdown service.
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I seem to recall that you live in a fairly remote location Tyro? Probably wise to have a bit of self help kit on board.
Yes, a generic scissor or bottle jack and an extending wheelbrace would be handy.
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>> Definitely extendable wheel brace. And knowing where the locking nut is should it have one…
That. The Skoda's is in the boot along with the jack etc. Th 'lingo's in a drawer under the front seat.
As noted elsewhere my son was caught without his at a tyre depot. They could have dealt with it but at the roadside you'd be waiting for a van and then maybe a tow rather than being on your way in under 30 mins.
The other trap, the one that had me needing Britannia Rescue, is getting the wheel off the hub. On the Roomster it was corroded on and nothing I had at home could shift it. In that case I'd lived with a slow puncture - or maybe a valve problem - for a while.
It turned fast over 24 hours but at least the car was on the drive at home.
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>> >> Definitely extendable wheel brace. And knowing where the locking nut is should it have one…
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>>The Skoda's is in the boot along with the jack etc.
So is my Jaguar X type, under the carpet on its own moulded location.
>> Th 'lingo's in a drawer under the front seat.
A better idea in case boot is full.
>> The other trap, is getting the wheel off the hub.
>> On the Roomster it was corroded on and nothing I had at home could shift it.
At or near home, the following has known to work.
On a quiet road with no parked cars etc. On the offending wheel slaken of the wheel nuts a turn then drive at very slow speed and turn the steering wheel quickly left and right.
I have known this to work where an alloy wheel has got stuck and survived a frustrating assault with a large Birmingham screwdriver and avoided further indentations in the wheel.
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One of the first things I do when any new tyres are fitted to the households cars - check tyre pressures and undo-retighten lug bolts to correct spec (120Nm for most VAG cars).
Ebay is a good place to find new or nearly new (breakers) parts like a complete Honda jack kit - might fit in the wheel well or surround like OE spec.
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Would a kit come with a polystyrene block for holding the jack and wrench?
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If you are of the mind the other preventative measure in slow time is to remove the wheel and sparingly put some copper or aluminium grease on the hub/wheel mating surfaces.
nothing worse than getting caught out at the side of an unlit road on a busy wet and windy night
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I don't think that's a good idea. It's the friction between the hub and wheel that stops the wheel slipping and snapping the studs/bolts.
Last edited by: Kevin on Wed 13 Dec 23 at 19:21
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>> I don't think that's a good idea. It's the friction between the hub and wheel
>> that stops the wheel slipping and snapping the studs/bolts.
I was under the impression that the majority of the torque transfer was because of the friction between the wheel and mounting and raised this many years ago. Number Cruncher (remember him) suggested it was partly true, but that using something between the wheel and mounting wouldn't adversely affect it.
My previous car (Nissan) had some sort of coating from new.
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Wheel "glued on to hub" suggestion
A solution I have used once.
1) Partially loosen off all the nuts a little of the way.
2) Jack up the car until the wheel is off the ground
3) Slowly unscrew the jack lowering the car
4) As the wheel is "loose on the bolts" the tyre meets the ground the weight of the car will break the "glued on wheel" from the hub.
The key point is loosening the bolts sufficiently to allow movement on the bolts but still screwed in to ensure the wheel does not come off!
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>..using something between the wheel and mounting wouldn't adversely affect it.
I'd like to see his explanation of that. My Physics stopped at A-Level.
I guess that he was calculating that the clamping force of the wheel fasteners would be enough to overcome the loss of friction coefficient between the mating faces. We could of course try an experiment BT. Slacken the wheelnuts on the driven wheels of your car to just finger tight and then take it for a spin.
If the friction between wheel and hub is reduced enough to where the wheel is allowed to move then all the force is going to be taken by the studs and you may be able to see some negative effect when you get back and inspect the wheels/studs.
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The suggestion is a sparing application of copper grease. It is not intended to be, nor I assume effective as, a lubricant but for applications such as this to prevent corrosion.
Does that make a difference?
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Our once new Hyundai i10 came sans spare wheel and so I purchased the genuine one from Germany. I then had to source a suitable jack and settled for some ebay scissor jack which I didn't try for several years.
One warm Summer's day I decided to try it out and whilst I could shift the wheel nuts, just, the Scissor jack was complete useless and when I inserted the slippery metal turning handle into the jack I could not turn it with enough force to open the scissor jack especially when it became loaded. I guess you get what you pay for. A small hydraulic jack or an inflatable bag one would have been better.
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> Does that make a difference?
I don't know how much difference it will have. I suppose it depends on how much you put on and whereabouts on the surfaces that you put it. How much is a 'sparing application'? 3ml per wheel, 5ml per wheel?
The User handbook for my Jag has nothing to say about it but the "Changing a Wheel" section in my Chevy handbook has a "Warning" box highlighted with a yellow "!" saying that the surfaces should be cleaned with a scraper or wire brush. It also says that oil or grease should not be used 'as this could cause the wheel to become loose'.
Ass covering for litigious Yanks eh?
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>> Ass covering for litigious Yanks eh?
No, as I discovered after painting my caravan wheels when one fell off on the M6. Anything that gets between the wheel and mounting that can subsequently be compressed, will be, resulting in slackening of the wheel nuts.
Although of course, I may have been neglectful in fully tightening the thing!
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Well, in the end, I just went into Halfords and got a scissor jack and a wheel brace. And this week, they got used, since I finally took off the wheels with winter tyres and put the other set of wheels on.
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Honda Jazz/Fit - Getting a jack & spanner for wheel changing - CGNorwich
