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Secondary Latch System
Your vehicle may have an underbody mounted tire hoist
assembly equipped with a secondary latch system.
It is designed to stop a tire from suddenly falling off your
vehicle if the cable holding the spare tire is damaged.
For the secondary latch to work, the tire must be stowed
with the valve stem pointing down.
Front-wheel-drive vehicles use the underbody tire hoist
assembly to store either the compact spare or a at
road tire. See “Storing a Flat or Spare Tire and Tools”
later in this section for instructions on storing the
spare or at tire correctly.
If your vehicle is equipped with AWD, the underbody tire
hoist assembly stores only the compact spare tire.
See “Storing the Spare Tire and Tools” later in
this section for instructions. To store a at full-size tire
correctly, see “Storing the Flat Tire on an
All-Wheel-Drive Vehicle” later in this section.{CAUTION:
Before beginning this procedure read all the
instructions. Failure to read and follow the
instructions could damage the hoist assembly
and you and others could get hurt. Read and
follow the instructions listed below.
To release the spare tire from the secondary latch, do
the following:
{CAUTION:
Someone standing too close during the
procedure could be injured by the jack.
If the spare tire does not slide off the jack
completely, make sure no one is behind you or
on either side of you as you pull the jack out
from the spare.
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1. Place the jack under the vehicle, ahead of the rear
bumper. Position the center lift point of the jack
under the center of the compact spare tire.
2. Turn the folding wrench clockwise to raise the jack
until it lifts the secondary latch device under the
wheel plate.
3. Keep raising the jack until the compact spare tire
stops moving upward and is held rmly in place,
this lets you know that the secondary latch
has released.
4. Lower the jack by turning the folding wrench
counterclockwise. Keep lowering the jack until the
compact spare tire is resting on the folding wrench.5. Grasp the compact spare tire with both hands and
pull it out from under the vehicle.
6. Reach under the vehicle and remove the folding
wrench and jack.
Have the hoist assembly inspected as soon as you can.
You will not be able to store a spare or at tire using
the hoist assembly until it has been repaired or replaced.
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Removing the Wheel Covers
If the wheel has a center cap, use the handle of the
folding wrench to pry it off. Then, with the other end of
the folding wrench, loosen the nuts.
If your vehicle has the plastic bolt-on wheel covers,
loosen the bolts completely using the folding wrench,
and remove the wheel cover.
Removing the Flat Tire and Installing
the Spare Tire
1. Loosen the wheel
nuts — but do not
remove them — using
the folding wrench.
Turn the handle about
180 degrees, then
ip the handle back to
the starting position.
This avoids taking
the wrench off the lug
nut for each turn.
For wheels with a wheel lock key, use the wheel
lock key between the lock nut and folding wrench.
The key is supplied in the front passenger door
pocket.
Notice:If your vehicle has wheel locks and you use
an impact wrench to remove the wheel nuts, you
could damage the lock nut or wheel lock key. Do not
use an impact wrench to remove the wheel nuts if
your vehicle has wheel locks.
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