2007 TOYOTA PRIUS Tire

366
Make sure to set the jack prop-
erly in the jack point. Raising
the vehicle with jack improper-
ly positioned will damage the
vehicle or may allow the ve-
hicle to fall off the jack and
cause personal injury.
 Never get under the vehicle
when the vehicle is supported
by the jack alone.
 Use the jack only for lifting
your vehicle during wheel
changing.
 Do not raise the vehicle with
someone in the vehicle.
 When raising the vehicle, do
not place any objects on top
of or underneath the jack.
 Raise the vehicle only high
enough to remove and change
the tire.NOTICE
Do not continue driving with a de-
flated tire. Driving even a short dis-
tance can damage a tire and wheel
beyond repair.
50p007a
Compact spare tire
The compact spare tire is designed
for temporary emergency use only.
The compact spare tire is identified
by the distinctive wording “TEM-
PORARY USE ONLY” molded into the
side wall of the tire.
The compact spare tire saves space
in your luggage compartment, and its
lighter weight helps to improve fuel
economy and permits easier installa-
tion in case of a flat tire.

367
The compact spare tire can be used
many times, if necessary. It has tread
life of up to 4800 km (3000 miles) de-
pending on road conditions and your
driving habits. When tread wear indi-
cators appear on the tire, replace the
tire.
See also the tire information on page
411 for details on the tread wear indi-
cators and other service information.
CAUTION

The compact spare tire was de-
signed especially for your To-
yota. Do not use it on any other
vehicle.
 Do not use more than one com-
pact spare tire at the same
time.
 Do not exceed 80 km/h (50
mph) when driving with the
compact spare tire.
 Replace the compact spare tire
with the standard tire as soon
as possible.
 Avoid sudden a cceleration,
sudden d eceleration and sharp
turns with the compact spare
tire.
NOTICE
Your ground clearance is reduced
when the compact spare tire is
installed so avoid driving over ob-
stacles and drive slowly on rough, un-
paved roads and speed bumps. Also,
do not attempt to go through an auto-
matic car wash as the vehicle may
get caught, resulting in damage.

368
50p008c
1. Get the required tools and sparetire.
1 Wheel nut wrench
2 Jack handle
3Jack
4 Spare tire
To open the luggage storage box, see
“Luggage storage box” on page 315.
To prepare yourself for an emergency,
you should familiarize yourself with
the use of the jack, each of the tools
and their storage locations.
50p009a
To remove the jack, unlock the tight-
ening strap.
To store the jack, make sure it is se-
curely held by the tightening strap.
50p010e
To remove the spare tire:
1. Remove the luggage storage box.
2. Loosen the bolt and remove it.
3. Remove the jack box.
Then take the spare tire out of the
vehicle.
When storing the spare tire, put it in
place with the inner side of the wheel
facing up. Then secure the tire by re-
peating the above removal steps in
reverse order to prevent it from flying
forward during a collision or sudden
braking.
—Required tools and spare
tire

369
When installing the jack box, align the
arrows on the jack
box with the ones
on the body.
50p011b
2. Block the wheel diagonally op-
posite the flat tire to keep the
vehicle from rolling when it is
jacked up.
When chocking the wheel, place a
wheel block in front of one of the front
wheels or behind one of the rear
wheels.
50p051b
3. Loosen all the wheel nuts.
Always loosen the wheel nuts before
raising the vehicle.
Turn the wheel nuts counterclockwise
to loosen them. To get maximum le-
verage, fit the wrench to the nut so
that the handle is on the right side,
as shown above. Grab the wrench
near the end of the handle and pull
up on the handle. Be careful that the
wrench does not slip off the nut.
Do not remove the nuts yet—just un-
screw them about one −half turn in the
order shown.
—Blocking the wheel —Loosening wheel nuts

370
CAUTION
Never use oil or grease on the
bolts or nuts. The nuts may loos-
en and the wheels may fall off,
which could cause a serious ac-
cident.
50p014e
4. Position the jack at the jackpoints as shown.
Make sure the jack is positioned on
a level and solid place.
50p015c
5. After making sure no one is in the vehicle, raise it high enough
so that the spare tire can be
installed.
Remember you will need more ground
clearance when putting on the spare
tire than when removing the flat tire.
To raise the vehicl e, insert the jack
handle into the jack (it is a loose fit)
and turn it clockwise. As the jack
touches the vehicle and begins to lift,
double −check that it is properly posi-
tioned.
—Positioning the jack —Raising your vehicle

371
CAUTION
Never get under the vehicle when
the vehicle is supported by the
jack alone.
50p052
6. Remove the wheel nuts andchange tires.
Lift the flat tire straight off and put it
aside.
Roll the spare wheel into position and
align the holes in the wheel with the
bolts. Then lift up the wheel and get
at least the top bolt started through
its hole. Wiggle the tire and press it
back over the other bolts.
50p017c
Before putting on wheels, remove any
corrosion on the mounting surfaces
with a wire brush or such. Installation
of wheels without good metal− to−met-
al contact at the mounting surface can
cause wheel nuts to loosen and even-
tually cause a wheel to come off while
driving.
—Changing wheels

372
50p018c
7. Reinstall all the wheel nuts fin-ger tight.
Reinstall the wheel nuts (tapered end
inward) and tighten them as much as
you can by hand. Press back on the
tire and see if you can tighten them
more.
CAUTION
Never use oil or grease on the
bolts or nuts. Doing so may lead
to overtightening the nuts and
damaging the bolts. The nuts
may loosen and the wheels may
fall off, which could cause a seri-
ous accident. If there is oil or
grease on any bolt or nut, clean
it.
50p019c
8. Lower the vehicle completely and tighten the wheel nuts.
Turn the jack handle counterclock-
wise to lower the vehicle.
Use only the wheel nut wrench to
tighten the nuts. Do not use other
tools or any additional leverage other
than your hands, such as a hammer,
pipe or your foot. Make sure the
wrench is securely engaged over the
nut.
Tighten each nut a little at a time in
the order shown. Repeat the process
until all the nuts are tight.
—Reinstalling wheel nuts —Lowering your vehicle

373
CAUTION
When lowering the vehicle,
make sure all portions of your
body and all other persons
around will not be injured as
the vehicle is lowered to the
ground.
 Have the wheel nuts tightened
with torque wrench to 103 N·m
(10.5 kgf·m, 76 ft·lbf), as soon
as possible after changing
wheels. Otherwise, the nuts
may loosen and the wheels
may fall off, which could cause
a serious accident.
 Do not attach a heavily dam-
aged plastic wheel ornament.
It may fly off the wheel and
cause accidents while the ve-
hicle is moving.
9. Restow all the tools and jack se-
curely. Then secure the flat tire
in the luggage compartment
with the tire tiedown belts and
tiedown hooks as follows
CAUTION
Before driving, make sure all the
tools and jack are securely in
place in their storage location to
reduce the possibility of person-
al injury during a collision or
sudden braking.
50p087
1. Before stowing the flat tire, removethe center wheel ornament by
pushing from the reverse side.
Be careful not to lose the wheel orna-
ment.
—Stowing flat tire