Cars 101

We want to thank Jayna Smith for teaching the activity on basic car maintenance. Changing a tire was a lot easier than we all thought it would be! We want to thank everyone for coming and had such a great turnout!

Here are the tips she gave us!

Changing a Tire:

1. Find a stable and safe place to work and make sure that the car cannot roll

2. Take out the spare tire and the jack. Place the jack under the METAL part of the frame near the tire that you are going to change.

3. Raise the jack until it is supporting, but not lifting the car. Remove the hubcap and loosen, but do not remove the nuts by turning counterclockwise.

4. Pump or crank the jack to life the tire off the ground.

5. Remove the nuts the rest of the way and remove the tire. If the tire does not move, a nice kick sometimes does the trick!

6. Place the spare tire on the hub and replace and tighten the nuts. It is the best to do this in a star pattern to insure that the tire fits snug on the hub.

7. Lower the car to the ground. Finish tightening the nuts as much as possible.

8. Place the flat tire in the trunk and remember to put away all tools.

JUMP STARTING A CAR:

1. Turn on your headlights. If your headlights or dash lights are dim, your battery is most likely your culprit.

2. Park working car near the disabled car as close as possible, open hoods of each car and locate the batteries.

3. Make sure the RED and BLACK ends of your jumper cables never touch each other once they are connected to the batteries. Failing to do so can result in serious shocks and damage to both cars.

4. Connect the jumper cables in the following order:

RED clamp to the POSITIVE terminal of the dead battery.

RED clamp to the POSITIVE terminal of the good battery.

BLACK clamp to the NEGATIVE terminal of the good battery.

Black clamp to the NEGATIVE terminal of the bad battery.

5. Start the working car, wait 30 seconds and then start the disabled car.

6. Remove the jumper cables once the car starts. Do this in reverse order in which they were attached.

7. Keep the disabled car engine running for a minimun of 20 minutes.