How to change a flat tire on a Phaeton

[dsolis]

Talk about self fulfilling prophecy, i read this post, and thought i should re-read it thoroughly just in case this ever happened.... got a flat 2 days later! I was lucky enough to be able to fix it at home with a proper floor jack and wheel chalks, but other than that everything went very smoothly according to Michaels Post. I write because my car did not have any suspension errors after putting the new wheel on, however, i had turned the engine over in order to access the jack mode and allowed the suspension system to fully inflate (?! not sure this is proper terminology) before turning off the engine. I did take the precaution to cycle through the high and normal suspension positions just in case. This was yet another example of why the TPMS is at he end of the day a good system that despite its faults (pun fully intended) is best heeded rather than dismissed. Of course I say that having had all of my TPMS sensors and controller replaced under the platinum extended warranty!

thanks for the post Michael, it ended up being extremely helpful ( more than I would have liked!)

dan s.

[PeterMills]

Dan,

Could you explain what you do with wheel chalks?

Also, anyone, if you do not use the car's own jack but a 'proper floor jack' is there a specific position where it should be used to avoid under body damage? The car's own jack is designed to slot into a particular crease in the sill, as per the handbook, but I could not see an obvious lifting point for a conventional jack when I change my wheels recently.

PETER M

[PanEuropean]

Quote, originally posted by PeterMills »

...if you do not use the car's own jack but a 'proper floor jack' is there a specific position where it should be used to avoid under body damage?

Some information is available at this post, Lifting the Phaeton on a Hydraulic Lift - Precautions, which is listed in the Phaeton Forum 'Table of Contents' (FAQ by Category).

Michael

[dsolis]

I put a wheel chalk under one of the front tires as a safety precaution. I was changing the passenger rear tire, and to my knowledge the parking brake only holds the rear tires. There was a location for the floor jack just inside the slim metal frame that had a rubber foot, i will try and take a picture tonight, this provided a good pivot point for the jack.

[Zaphh]

Err... I guess you mean a wheel choke...
Chalk is... what a piece of chalk is made of (with which you write on a blackboard), hence the misunderstanding...

[ruddyone]

uh, it could be a regional thing but I believe its called a chock not a choke or a chalk.

[Bouviers]

The truth be known, and spelled correctly, the term for that device to place
in front or to the rear of a tire to help prevent movement is known as a 'chock'. Many aircraft especially have their wheels 'chocked' while on the ground, or least they used to. Just to clarify and/or prevent further misunderstanding.
Daniel

[Zaphh]

Oops, very embarrassing You are right of course !
I am a bit tired and my fingers typed on their own.

[Bouviers]

Zaphh,
My response was not aimed at you specifically but to all that continue to belabor an honest mistake made by another forum member. There are more than enough spelling mistakes made by almost all that subscribe to this forum.
I say it's time for everyone to either start using spell check or begin to overlook others spelling shortcomings and concentrate on Phaeton shortcomings or idiosyncrasies.
Again, this is not a 'dump on Zaphh' day.
I apologize if you took it this way.
Daniel

[dsolis]

Sorry for the misunderstanding, I believe the culprit in this case was spell check!

[Zaphh]

I think one should not write on a forum with less than 50% active neurons, but unfortunately, when this is the case, you are not conscious enough to realise it

[PeterMills]

Dear Dsolis, Zaph & Bouviers,

I think I started the chalk talk, sorry.

I genuinely imagined there was some chalk marking exercise required to properly change a wheel that I had missed! I was certainly not trying to pick up someone on a spelling error. Perhaps it is the way we pronounce things this side of the Atlantic that left me unable to tie 'chock' to 'chalk'.

Michael's link above to his hydraulic jacking post contained very good advice though I apologise for not first looking that up in the TOC.

PETER M

[cai]

I was doing some work on my car this weekend and pressed the two buttons indicated. However, the display did not show "tire changing mode" as the instruction book says. It did show that the car was in the lower or raising mode.

Did yours show a message when you pressed the two buttons? Did the car go up automatically?

Thank you,

cai

[Zaphh]

The car doesn't go up. I just says it is in "mode atelier", which would be the French translation for "workshop mode". So it should definitely say something special about it (maybe "jack mode" ?)

You need to keep both buttons down for several seconds, btw.

P.


Modified by Zaphh at 7:21 AM 5-5-2009

[mindat]

when i changed the front wheel,didn't put the suspension into jacking up mode before lifting the car up.When i put the car down,it didn't look collapsed,but got the message error "Level gearshift fault",sometimes it is yellow,sometimes red.
How can i resolve this problem?
Thanks

[PanEuropean]

Quote, originally posted by mindat »

When i put the car down... I got the message error "Level gearshift fault",sometimes it is yellow,sometimes red. How can I resolve this problem?

Hi Mindaugas:

That is the easiest problem to solve in the whole world of Phaeton problem-solving.

Just start the car, press the button aft of the gear selector that adjusts ride height, then select the highest ride height (you do this by watching the display screen in the middle). Let the car rise up to the highest setting, which will be confirmed in the display between the tachometer and the speedometer. This takes about 10 seconds.

Now, press the same button again (button with a picture of a shock absorber on it), turn the big knob on the front information display to reset the ride height to the 'normal' level, and wait another 10 seconds.

The car will rise up and then go back down as you go through this excercise, and when you are finished, the message will be gone.

--------------------------------

The "Level Fault Workshop" message will sometimes appear after changing a tire, or after the car has been lifted on a hoist. This is because the suspension system reacts a bit like a cat (house pet) when you lift it up off the ground - it tries to keep it's feet on the ground until the last possible moment. As a result, it triggers an 'out of specification' warning when it is put back on the ground.

Cycling the suspension height up and then back down recalibrates the system and clears the fault.

It is NOTHING to worry about.

Michael

[Aren Jay]

Losing your lug nuts.

When you have your lug nuts off and either lose them in a snowy ditch or muddy field or some other way, remember you can take one lug nut off each of the other wheels and use the three lug nuts to drive slowly to the nearest garage or home ...


Modified by Aren Jay at 9:40 PM 11-17-2009

[PanEuropean]

A better approach would be to avoid losing them in the first place, by just removing the foam tray that contains all the equipment necessary to change a tire, and putting the lug nuts in that tray as you remove them.

Michael

[PanEuropean]

Archival Note: See also this post, which provides details about Corrosion Prevention Precautions when removing and replacing Phaeton wheels.

It is unlikely that you will have a can of spray wax handy if you ever have to change a tire unexpectedly - but, later on, when you get the flat repaired, you can re and re the spare and apply the wax. I have two sets of wheels and tires (summer and winter), and I apply the wax each time I change wheels.

Michael

[n968412L]

I have two sets of wheels and tires (summer and winter), and I apply the wax each time I change wheels.

Michael

Me too - but the wax is hard to apply... it coagulates in the spray nozzle (or the tube attachment) and refuses to apply... it's easier in the summer than the winter... but still fiddly. And any excess, if not caught, spins out onto the alloy of the wheel and stains it. Sometimes I'm not sure that doing the right thing is the right thing to do... Still, I'll soldier on...

[PanEuropean]

...any excess, if not caught, spins out onto the alloy of the wheel and stains it...

Yeah, I have that problem too. I have learned that the excess will usually spin out within the first 10 minutes of driving at highway speeds (well, in the summertime, at least ), so; I take a cloth and a small container of solvent with me the first time I drive the car after changing the wheels.

It's more of a PITA in the winter. The excess wax won't spin out if it is a cold day - instead, the wax waits until the rims get warm as a result of braking action, then it spins out when you least expect it to.

Such is life... ...but at least it makes it easy to re and re the wheels at seasonal changeover time.

Michael

[PanEuropean]

Photos re-hosted.

Michael

[wouterjansen60]

Good evening,

I noticed today, when applying the "jacking up mode" nothing actually happend and after a few seconds i get a failure warning. Manually selecting to the highest level works fine however.

What could be wrong here?



Wouter

[PanEuropean]

I noticed today, when applying the "jacking up mode" nothing actually happend and after a few seconds i get a failure warning. Manually selecting to the highest level works fine however.

What could be wrong here?

Hi Wouter:

I don't think anything is wrong. "Jacking Up Mode" is just a fancy way of saying 'turning off the suspension controller'. Thus, it is kind of understandable that the car might give a suspension failure warning if the controller is turned off by invoking the 'Jacking Up Mode'.

Changing the height of the car (with the other button) simply wakes up the suspension controller and turns it on again, that's why it clears the fault message.

Michael

[n968412L]

Good evening,

I noticed today, when applying the "jacking up mode" nothing actually happend and after a few seconds i get a failure warning. Manually selecting to the highest level works fine however.

What could be wrong here?



Wouter

Hi Wouter - a few of us do have problems going into jack mode. There are quite a few posts in the past (can't just find any right now...) but certainly I've found that it is most reliably/repeatable if the engine has been run for some time before you try it (irrespective of what it says in the manual).

Might be to do with having sufficient supply of air... it has been speculated... ie not enough in the reservoir if the engine not been run for a bit.

Michael's advice sounds right. I nearly always get this immediately before the car announces it's finally gone into jack mode. This is based on my V6. I've only put my V10 into jack once.. and I can't remember if it behaved differently - but it might well do. This feels like the sort of thing that might at least display differenbliy between the various s'ware etc versions on the car.

Regards

Mike

[Expoman]

Just celebrated my acquisition (at last!) of a spare wheel and tyre at a reasonable price by searching this gem out and following Michaels advice ref printing out and storage of same.

Given that we have quite a few new owners on the forum recently, I thought it worthwhile to bring this back to the front page as anyone could be forgiven for expecting the procedure to be a little simpler than it is in reality.

All best,
Steven