This guide is here because changing a wheel is one of the most basic roadside repairs that you are likely to have to deal with - punctures can happen to any car, regardless of age, condition, maintenance etc - and there's quite a large number of people who've never had to deal with it. Sure, if you're a member of a breakdown recovery group like the RAC or the AA, you could call them out to fix it, but many schemes have a "no call out" bonus, and it would be a shame to lose that for something trivial that you could fix yourself.

  Obviously, if you don't have any kind of breakdown assistance, you're left with little choice but to fix the problem yourself. If you do have someone you can call, weigh up whether it's worth waiting for them to come out to you. In some situations (you're in your best suit, you're a woman on your own etc), you may decide it's better to sit tight and wait for help. It's your call. If you do decide to change the wheel yourself, it'll involve something like this:

Equipment
Essential:
• Spare Wheel
• Jack (Probably in your car's kit)
• Wheel Nut Wrench (Likewise)
• Locking Wheelnut Removal Tool (If required)
Nice To Have:
• Warning Triangle
• Hi-Viz Vest etc.
• Torch/Worklight (if it's dark)
• Pump
• Wheel Chock
• Large Bin Liner/Plastic Bag
• Baby Wipes

Guide

  I'm going to assume that the reason you need to change your wheel is that the tyre is flat due to a puncture etc. Now, first thing to do is get yourself out of the way of traffic. Most of the time this will be the roadside, so ensure that you have the side of the car with the flat facing the kerb. Ideally, a car park, driveway or layby will offer you more shelter. Driving on a flat tyre can damage it, so avoid moving any more than necessary, preferably keeping down to a walking pace.

If you're stopped at the side of the road, it's definitely worth putting your hazard warning lights on, and also placing a warning tiangle (if you've got one) "upstream". A Hi-Viz vest or jacket can help protect your clothes from crap, and also makes you more obvious to other drivers. They tend to be reasonably waterproof, too, which is nice if it's raining. Also, anyone in the car should get out while you're changing the wheel - this goes for pets, too.

Surface
  First of all, ensure that you're on a good, firm, fairly level surface. Gravel, grass and so on aren't much good because they don't offer much stability when you're jacking. If the entire area looks about as flat as Raquel Welch's chest (ask your dad), try and have the car facing across the slope, so it's less likely to try to roll.

Manual
  Check your car's manual/handbook. This should give you information about where your jack and spare wheel is kept, where the jacking points are and so on. If you don't have a manual (they have a tendancy to go walkabout), I shouldn't worry too much, as most cars follow a few basic rules in these departments.

Handbrake
  Put your handbrake on nice and firmly. Also, put the car into first or reverse gear (with a manual gearbox) or into park (with an automatic gearbox). If you're driving a 4x4, put it into four-wheel-drive, or engage the differential lock(s) as and where possible. The idea is to make it as hard as possible for the vehicle to roll anywhere while you're working on it. Don't forget that you'll need to take it back out of gear etc when you're done.

Wheel Chocks
  Sometimes, a car's tool kit will contain a wheel chock, or there may be some rocks, bricks, wooden blocks etc nearby that you can use to chock the wheel opposite the one needing changed. This isn't always necessary, but is a useful safety backup. Don't forget to put whatever you use back where you got it afterwards and, if you're in a rural area, don't go pinching bits of dry stone wall to use.

Jack & Tools Location
  On this Fiesta, the jack and wheelbrace are held in place behind a trim panel in the boot. Other common locations include under the boot floor or in the engine bay. On the Fiesta, there's a little yellow sticker identifying the jack location - If you don't know where your jack is, have a hunt around.

Jack & Wheelbrace
  This is what you should find - a wheelbrace to undo the wheelnuts, and a jack. Normally, the jack is a scissor or cantilever jack like this one, which uses a screw thread to wind it up and down. Most wheelbraces also have a wedge on one end for levering off wheeltrims.

Wheeltrims
  Most wheels have cosmetic trims covering them, usually made from plastic. These can sometimes just be pulled off by hand, but sometimes they're too tight and need to be levered off. In this case, working your way around the trim a bit at a time is often easiest. In this picture, you can see how filthy the back of the trim is, thanks to road muck and brake dust - not nice.
  Alloy wheels sometimes also have covers over their centre portion. These can be a very tight fit, and need levering off - though some are held in place with screw fasteners, especially on aftermarket wheels. These standard Ford wheels can have their cover levered off with the other end of the wheelbrace, which is made from soft plastic to avoid scratching the wheels.

Locking Wheel Nuts
  Most cars with alloy wheels have one nut on each wheel replaced with a locking or security nut. While some designs are actually locked with keys, the most common type has a unique pattern to it, and a special extension piece that mates up to this so it can be undone with a regular socket or wheelbrace. These nuts have an unfortunate tendancy to get damaged, or for the adaptors to go missing. If you can't get it undone, then you're stuck - it's time to call one of the assistance services out. Getting an uncooperative locking nut off without trashing the wheel in the process is not fun.

Spare Wheel
  Find your spare wheel. The two most common locations are under a cover in the boot, or in a cage under the boot floor. On this Fiesta, the latter location is used. In order to remove it, the cage needs to be lowered down by unscrewing a bolt located at the rear of the boot using the wheelbrace. Once the bolt has been loosened sufficiently, the cage can be unhooked from the end of it and lowered fully.

  With the cage lowered, it should be fairly easy to slide the spare wheel out from under the car. Be aware that it'll most likely be covered in seven kinds of crap, particularly if the roads are wet. Not much you can do about that, really - so just try to get it out of there without covering yourself in muck in the process.

Loosen the nuts
  Before jacking anything up, you need to slightly loosen the wheelnuts - the weight of the car will stop the wheel rotating as you do so. You don't need to undo them much - about quarter of a turn each should be fine. Be aware that if the wheel was last put on by a fast-fit gorilla with an airtool, they're probably gonna be really tight. Avoid standing on the wheelbrace to try and force them if you can - if it slips, you'll do yourself a mischief. Wheelnuts that are too tight for you to get anywhere near loosening them are yet another reason why you may need to call for outside help.

Jacking point
  Get the jack in place at the jacking point - make sure it's sitting level, and is lined up with the jacking point. Then wind it up until it's just taking some of the car's weight, and re-check. It's absolutely vital that the jack isn't going slip under load.

  On the Fiesta, the jack had a sticker on it to help you find the jacking point. If you don't have your car's manual etc to let you know where the jacking points are, you're going to have to hunt around. Look for a point on the sills etc which exactly mates up to to jack. On the Fiesta, the point is marked on the seam of the sill by a notch in the panel, and a crease either side of where the jack sits.

Jack the car up
  Jack the car up high enough to give about an inch gap under the tyre. Don't forget - you need to have enough room to get the spare wheel on as well as getting the flat tyre off, so allow for the fact that the flat tyre may be smaller in diameter than the inflated spare.

  Speaking of the spare wheel, if there's enough room near where the jack is, shove it under the car - if the jack does fail, there's one more thing to stop the car landing on you if you're unfortunate enough to be in the way. This also goes for the original wheel once you've got it removed and are ready to fit the spare - not essential, but simple to do and useful.

Undo the wheelnuts
  Undo the wheelnuts and put them somewhere safe - using the wheeltrim as a tray to hold them is ideal. Bear in mind that the wheel may swing away from the hub as the nuts are removed, so watch out. Note that if the wheel is held on with bolts, rather than nuts, this is even more likely.

Remove the wheel
  With the nuts removed, the wheel should come off easily enough. However, sometimes corrosion can cause the wheel to stick to the hub, especially with alloy wheels. You may be able to get the wheel off by wriggling it, or thumbing the rear side of it, but you don't want to risk rocking the car off it's jack, so don't be too violent. If it isn't going to cooperate with you at all, you've just found another reason to call for outside help.

Fit the spare wheel
  First of all, get the spare wheel in position, and rotate it so the bolt holes line up with the hub. This way, you don't have to support the weight of the wheel while trying to line it up. Holding the wheel in place, put one of the wheelnuts on by hand, just to hold it in place.

Fitting the wheelnuts
  Put the other wheel nuts on by hand, doing them up as best you can with your fingers. It's important to do this by hand, as if you try and tighten them with the wheelbrace and they're misaligned, it'll cause damage. They should screw on fairly easily - if there's a lot of resistance, check you're putting them on straight and try again.

Tighten the wheelnuts
  Use the wheelbrace to tighten up the wheelnuts. Alternate between them in a cross pattern, gradually tightening them up more each time. You probably won't be able to tighten them to the level they were at originally without the wheel spinning round, but we'll be tightening them up fully later. Just do them up as best you can for now.

Lower the jack & perform final tightening
  Lower the car back down until most of it's weight is being taken my the wheel again. This will stop the wheel turing, and allow you to finish tightening the nuts. Again, work in a cross pattern. Aim to get the nuts about as tight as they were originally. Don't stand on the wheelbrace to do this - you should be able to get them tight enough with the leverage afforded by the wheelbrace just by doing them up by hand and leaning your body weight into it. Once this is done, the jack can be fully lowered and removed.

Replace the wheeltrim
  Put the wheeltrim back on. If you had to lever it off, a good whack should get it back on firmly. You may need to work your way around the edge to get it sitting level. If it was held in place with some kind of screw fixing, replace it in the reverse order to how it was removed. This only applies if your spare wheel is a match for the original. If it's a different design, you probably won't be able to do this, and you're better off refitting it to the wheel you removed in order to avoid losing it.

Put the removed wheel away
  The wheel with the flat tyre now needs to be put somewhere. The easiest solution is to put it back where the spare was kept. However, it may not fit, in which case you'll probably have to put it in the boot. This has the advantage of reminding you to get it fixed, but can get muck everywhere - a large bin liner or old rug wrapped around it will help keep everything clean.

Tidy up
  Put all tools, wheel chocks etc back where you got them from. Don't forget the adaptor for locking wheel nuts, if you used one - it's all to easy to leave it in place, and then when you drive off, it'll drop off and you'll never see it again. Putting things like the jack back where you got them doesn't take that long, and means you'll be able to find it again text time.

Clean yourself down
  There's a good chance you've got a fair bit of muck on your hands, so take the time to clean it off now, otherwise it'll end up all over the car interior. Baby wipes are ideal for this, though even wet grass at the roadside will give you a way of wiping the worst off.

Other stuff
  Some spare wheels are "spacesaver" designs which are much narrower than the regular wheel used on the car - having a spare like this helps avoid it cutting into luggage room, and saves money. You should be aware, though, that most of these designs are only intended to be used are a temporary replacement, and may come with a speed rating. The handling of the car will probably be affected, so you should stick to it.

  Also, it is technically illegal to drive a car on the road with a tyre that is a different size to it's opposite number on the other side of the car. While alllowances are generally made for the "emergency repair" nature of spacesaver spare wheels, you should get the original wheel and tyre repaired and refitted as soon as possible.

  Most spare tyres don't receive much attention normally, and so are often underinflated. If you don't have a pump with you, your first stop should be a service station etc with an airline to let you check and adjust the pressure. Bear in mind that if the spare wheel's tyre is a different size to the others, it may need to be at a different pressure - look for a label on the wheel or check your car's manual.

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