S4 Flat Tire

"Big Bubba Ray" (eganward01)
12/13/2013 at 11:34 • Filed to: None

So I'm hanging out at work when this guy comes in and hangs out for a while. After about half an hour I ask if I can help him with anything. He tell me he's just here waiting for a tow truck to arrive. Naturally, I ask what's wrong with his car and he tells me he's got a flat tire.

A flat tire. Waiting for a tow truck. This jabroni didn't know how to change his own damn tire. I immediately offer to change his tire for him so he can continue on with his day. He refuses my help and continues to wait another 45 minutes for a tow truck to arrive. I offered two other times during his wait to change the flat for him but he kept refusing.

It blows my mind that people don't know how to change a flat tire. I can understand not changing your own flat if you're either old or disabled, but this run of the mill, younger looking guy's pride wouldn't allow him to ask others for help.

Sorry for the rant. I'm just annoyed that he kept refusing my help in this situation. Not only did he refuse help, but he was also being a dick. Ok I'm done.

DISCUSSION (30)

ddavidn > Big Bubba Ray
12/13/2013 at 11:36

Seems like the sort of guy that should have run-flats.

WhiskeyGolf > Big Bubba Ray
12/13/2013 at 11:36

I know not all vehicles come with spares, is the S4 one of them? Perhaps it also has something to do with mismatched tire sizes and the 4WD system.

Cebu > Big Bubba Ray
12/13/2013 at 11:38

Yeesh, remind me to not carpool with that guy.

Decay buys too many beaters > Big Bubba Ray
12/13/2013 at 11:38

Is it really that hard to believe that people do not know how to do this? It's not like they teach us how in driver's education (or as I like to call it "sign reading school").

Big Bubba Ray > WhiskeyGolf
12/13/2013 at 11:38

I think it comes with a spare, but I could be wrong. He never mentioned that there wasn't a spare in the car so who knows. I think even if the tires are mismatched, he could have limped a few miles to a close by service station without doing damage to his car.

Big Bubba Ray > ddavidn
12/13/2013 at 11:39

They would definitely be a good investment for him.

Big Bubba Ray > Decay buys too many beaters
12/13/2013 at 11:40

Ya I guess you're right. I shouldn't be surprised by this but I always am. It seems like such a simple and mundane task to me!

davedave1111 > Big Bubba Ray
12/13/2013 at 11:40

Not to be That Guy, but is it possible that he didn't want the wheel changed there and then? Maybe he was a skiver waiting around on company time, or something?

HammerheadFistpunch > davedave1111
12/13/2013 at 11:42

or he didn't want you to see whats in the trunk?

Decay buys too many beaters > Big Bubba Ray
12/13/2013 at 11:42

Not to mention that it is probably the one task that appears in EVERY SINGLE OWNER'S MANUAL EVER! But yeah, who really spends the time to read that rag?

davedave1111 > HammerheadFistpunch
12/13/2013 at 11:43

Is it big enough for dead hookers?

Hindered23 > Big Bubba Ray
12/13/2013 at 11:43

the s4 does come with a spare. I had an 05 this looks like an 06+, so I'm sure it did,

PatBateman > Big Bubba Ray
12/13/2013 at 11:44

To be quite frank, if he was being a dick about the situation, I would have started laughing at him for not knowing how to do the most basic of car maintenance (next to pumping gas). To his face.

But that's just me.

Hindered23 > davedave1111
12/13/2013 at 11:45

it would be kinda tight but yeah it is

Union of Smog Techs of CA > Big Bubba Ray
12/13/2013 at 11:46

This is how the economy works, affluent people waste money on things they don't need because of laziness or incompetence.

Also stupid fucking German lug bolts, if I had the money I think that might make the tow worth the waste of time and money.

Destructive Tester > Big Bubba Ray
12/13/2013 at 11:53

Pardon the ignorance, does the S4 actually have accommodation for a full-size spare?
I know how decidedly un-OPPO this is, but I would have had to rely on AAA had I ever had a flat with my last truck because I couldn't store a 35" spare under the bed without replacing/re routing my exhaust. I wasn't about to smoke a diff running off-sized tires on an axle if I ever had a flat.

THOMAS5 > Big Bubba Ray
12/13/2013 at 11:54

I was sitting in bed one night and I heard a woman talking on my street. I looked out the window and this is what I saw.

1. woman didn't know how to change her tire (I don't blame her, she looked about 70)

2. She calls a tow truck to come change the tire

3. After 30 minutes the tow truck driver arrived and couldn't find the spare tire on her x5

4. After 20 minutes he finds the tire

5. the tow truck drivers tools were about 15 feet behind (and downhill from) the bmw so instead of the tow truck driver bringing the tools to the x5 he backs the bmw down the hill to an even steeper part of the hill to where his tools were.

6. After another 20 minutes he has the tire changed and leaves.

7. The woman drives the car about a foot before getting into a friends car and driving away. The car was gone by the next afternoon

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > Big Bubba Ray
12/13/2013 at 11:55

Un/related question - what's the tool wit the hook on the end that you use to turn a jack called? Hopefully I can find one on ebay (or a junkyard if i get off my butt and head over to one someday).

I bought my car used and it didn't come with one of these...I found out the hard way while on a roadtrip in the middle of nowhere in Oregon, right after I bought the car. Thankfully some farmer driving by was nice enough to stop and let me use his hydraulic jack real quick.

Big Bubba Ray > THOMAS5
12/13/2013 at 11:58

Wha...what the hell??

Big Bubba Ray > ZHP Sparky, the 5th
12/13/2013 at 12:00

I know the tool you're talking about, but honestly I have no idea! It never even crossed my mind that it would have a name.

THOMAS5 > Big Bubba Ray
12/13/2013 at 12:00

What makes the whole deal worse is that this all STARTED at about 10:00 pm. Morons annoy me

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > Big Bubba Ray
12/13/2013 at 12:05

ha, seriously. Right after I got the spare on headed into an auto parts store to try buying one...walk up to the counter, guy asks what I need...shit! what's the damn thing called? you know, the turny thing!

Parts stores don't seem to carry them, guy said try a junkyard. Might as well buy a small 2 ton hydraulic jack for $50 and call it good too though, so much more convenient and faster.

Ntovorni > THOMAS5
12/13/2013 at 12:07

Kinja'd!!!

FJ80WaitinForaLSV8 > WhiskeyGolf
12/13/2013 at 12:10

Spare tires are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

Montalvo > Big Bubba Ray
12/13/2013 at 13:04

Ohh now you have opened Pandora's box.... while this guy may have just been a moron there is a high possibility that there is no spare in the trunk. There have been multiple occasions where my family's BMW 550i have had flat tires or cracked rims, most of the time the runflats give you enough time to limp home. However, there was one instance where the tire just flat out exploded because of a huge cut in the sidewall. No problem, we just need to swap it for the spare in the back right? WRONG! In the back there is an indent where a spare could be held but there is nothing there. BMW's response was "having the spare would ruin the handling characteristics." That is all fine and dandy but I am not necessarily racing on a track right? So, stuck at the side of the road waiting for a tow truck and we are still talking to their road assistance. "Can we swap the tire at the shop and mount it ourselves?" They respond with "No, it needs to be done by our mechanics." I am just thinking wow this is some of the stupidest BS I have heard from them. Of course I could have just said screw you guys I am not waiting or getting jerked around by your mechanics for 3x longer than it should take, but the car was leased and their tire insurance can get really murky. Long story short, it was over an hour wasted, feeling pissed off and waiting for family to give a ride back because of a really shitty experience with BMW's road side assistance.

thebigbossyboss > Big Bubba Ray
12/13/2013 at 13:10

I thought this too. Then one day my brother (whom I was living with at that time) came home and said the van he drove "screeched" around all the corners. I said, (remembering a lesson our father had taught me when I was about 10), "that means the tire is flat let's go look". So we go out, and the van which had been sitting for a bit was on it's rim. I said "Did you drive on the rim?" Him "no, it had air when I got out"

me: "Oh good, well just change the tire and it will all be good." Him "I don't know how".

He was in 2nd year mechanical engineering! Goodness!

thebigbossyboss > PatBateman
12/13/2013 at 13:11

One time I asked a buddy of mine to put in gas, (I would pay) when I ran in to get gum or something. His response: "I dont know how, I have never put gas in a car before". Me: !!!!????!!!!

thebigbossyboss > Destructive Tester
12/13/2013 at 13:13

Yeah...but he's just on regular tires.

gabdere > WhiskeyGolf
12/13/2013 at 15:18

It probably came with a full size spare, like a 5th rim+tire.

Big Bubba Ray > Montalvo
12/13/2013 at 15:41

Wow, that sounds like scrappy day! I'm aware that not all cars, newer ones in particular, come with a spare in the back, but he never mentioned that to me if that was the case. I assume he would have said something after my first or second attempt to help. Someone else in the comments mentioned that their S4 did in fact have a spare in the back which leads me to believe that there was one in his trunk and he just didn't want my help, for some odd reason. I think it's insane that a lot of cars nowadays don't have a spare in the back.