A flat tire is not only inconvenient, but can be scary, especially if the driver is on a highway and feels a sudden wrongness in a spot where one of the tires is.The first thing is to gently drive the car to a safe place. The breakdown lane is possibly not the safest area to fix a flat tire, but it will have to do if an empty lot just can't be reached without the tire being shredded and the rim being damaged.The driver should check the owner's manual for the best place to position the jack for their type of car, because where the jack is placed is different for tire changing as opposed to an overall repair job.Once the driver's found a place to change the tire, the engine should be cut off, the car put in park and the emergency brake turned on. The spare tire should be removed from the trunk, and rolled to the flat tire.The jack should never be placed on anything that can break. It should be put firmly on level ground. Next, the wheels have to be blocked, with bricks, wedges or wheel chocks which will prevent the car from rolling. Blocks, like other emergency items, should be kept in the car's trunk.The hubcap should be removed. The hubcap can be prided off with a screw driver. The lug nuts should be loosened before the car is jacked up. The hubcap should be laid on its back and the lug nuts put into it so they don't roll away. Lug nuts may be hard to get off, but the driver, of course, should have a lug nut wrench in the trunk. Lug nuts on the right side of the car are right-handed. Lug nuts on the left side may or may not be left-handed.The car can now be jacked up.The flat tire should be grasped and pulled toward the driver till it comes free, then it should be rolled out of the way. Both the flat tire and the spare will be heavy. When the spare is in place, the lug nuts should be replaced and tightened by hand. The car should be lowered to the ground and jacks and blocks removed. The lug wrench should be used again to tighten the lugs as much as possible without stripping the threads. The driver might even want to step on the wrench to give it extra power. Then, the hubcap should be replaced.Both the flat and tools should be stowed in the trunk.