The worst experience I've ever had - Changing a wheel!

[Essam Khafagi]

Guys I dont know if it is only me or anyone of you faced the same! Yesterday, I was driving to work, and there was a sharp rock on the side of the road and I did not see it. I drove over it with the right front tyre so it got broken from the side wall.

As it was the first time for me to change an X5 wheel, I pulled over, opened the trunk and tried to figure out what to do. Here are my negative notes:
- The spare wheel lifting mechanism is fine, but to take the wheel out you have to say goodbuy to your suit and tie
- Of course the wheel is so heavy. I wonder if that happened to a lady what would she do!
- Here comes the worst thing, taking the lifting jack out of its place. In spite that I am tall (190cm), i could not reach it from outside the car. I had to jump inside the trunk to reach it!
- I took it out and started to lift the car up from the right front side using the plastic hole as drawn on the jack. All of a sudden, the car moved forward in spite that the parking brake is up and i had some rocks on both sides of the opposite wheel. Thank god that the wheel was still there but the bolts were removed. I went down to see what happened and I found the plastic hole broken and the jack is slightly damaged.
- A guy with a Toyota Land Cruiser was passing and he noticed that I am facing troubles so he gave me his hydrolic jack which was just perfect! I wonder why BMW does not the same type of jacks.
- I finally changed the wheel with the 17" spare. The final disaster was putting the damaged wheel back inside the trunk, full of mud and brake dust ... I have 19" wheels and you can imagine how heavy it is and for sure I had to use my both hands and my right thigh to push it up to the trunk ... and i had to say goodbye to my pants!

Finally I went to check if the tyre can be repaired but the technician said it cannot be fixed because the side wall is damaged and you have to buy a new tyre. Since i was planning to change the 4 tyres soon I took the chance and changed them all instead of having the same situation again. I got Pirelli Pzero Rosso tyres 255/50/19 front and 285/45/19 rear. They told me it is better than the Michelin tyres. Let's see. This costed me around 1,350$ installed.

To be honest, the car ride is now much much smoother and the tyres seems to have glue. The car is sticking to the road wherever I go or whatever I do.