Wish my car had a spare wheel...

HAL9000 · May 13

I was speaking, several years ago, to someone who works in car retail. I can’t remember the details but essentially he told me it’s all Toyota or Honda’s fault. Apparently one of them carried out a customer survey where the question was along the lines of ‘would you be interested in a puncture repair solution that didn’t involve having to jack the car up and manhandle a heavy wheel (possibly in torrential rain at night!)?’. Obviously most respondents answered ‘Yes’. I believe there may have also been the ulterior motive that a car without a spare and it’s associated tools weighs less and thus helps the official fuel-consumption figures.

Kittyfrisk · May 13

HAL9000 said:

I was speaking, several years ago, to someone who works in car retail. I can’t remember the details but essentially he told me it’s all Toyota or Honda’s fault. Apparently one of them carried out a customer survey where the question was along the lines of ‘would you be interested in a puncture repair solution that didn’t involve having to jack the car up and manhandle a heavy wheel (possibly in torrential rain at night!)?’. Obviously most respondents answered ‘Yes’. I believe there may have also been the ulterior motive that a car without a spare and it’s associated tools weighs less and thus helps the official fuel-consumption figures.

Definitely this, it's about cost cutting & the fuel consumption numbers.

darthed1981 · May 13

Haych said:

TTBZ said:

darthed1981 said:
I ended up with the baby-SUV MG ZS EV..

My wife decided she wanted an MG ZS (non EV) and there was no convincing her otherwise. As expected it's a steaming piece of shit. Around 30k miles and it's already needed a new gearbox (luckily under warranty) and now the clutch is on its way out by the sounds of things - not covered under the warranty this time. Steering feels clunky and makes an odd noise sometimes now. Head unit screen coating is blistering and needs replacing. Poor fuel economy and feels underpowered for a 1.5. Garages don't seem to want to deal with MG as they're a hassle to get any parts for, have to get everything direct from a main dealer. I also don't feel like it has much more space inside than a decent sized hatchback, wish we'd just got a Golf or something reliable! Sorry, mini rant over hope you have better luck with yours!

Last October I had the misfortune to be given one of these as a hire car to drive from south Wales to Heathrow for work.

It was easily the worst car I've ever driven and, keep in mind I do not ever buy even nearly new cars, that's saying something.

Underpowered, couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding, but by far its worst features were the steering and suspension- it felt so light, vague and floaty as to be unsafe. The steering felt like somebody had loaded a tonne of bricks in the boot, it had absolutely no feel to it at all and even keeping it in a straight line on the motorway was a challenge.

It wasn't just me, either. My colleague drove the first leg of the journey and he felt exactly the same about it - after we flew back into Heathrow and went to pick up the hire car from Europecar, we flatly refused to take another MG!

That sounds plain faulty to me, nothing to do with the vehicle or brand.

I've not driven the petrol one have to admit, obviously no BEV lacks for punt.

DefaultM · May 13

Run flats were awful on my car. I was constantly replacing them to the point I started getting paranoid that someone was intentionally damaging them.

Got a car with normal tyres 5 months ago and I haven’t had a single problem.

ToneControl · May 13

I can remember changing the front right wheel on a Polo on the hard should with a cheap jack in the 80s, not sure I ever replaced any other wheels whilst out, certainly not after 2000

robgilmo · May 13

sev112 said:

For past 10 years I’ve used RAC to switch a tyre even if at home. As a weak late 50s bloke I find it bloody hard to get the wheel off and don’t have a rubber hammer to help with.

was really pleased when we looked at what became our current Citroen cactus to find a spare wheel. It’s been used 2 or 3 times in 6 years
even my 2009 Peugeot 1-0-piece of tin can has a spare wheel (albeit for quite a while partially submerged in the guitar amp space)

I really wouldnt chance a hammer on a standard car jack to get a stuck wheel off, if needs must always smack the wheel at the top towards the car, never from behind unless the car is properly supported. And only take the wheel nuts off a little bit.

What I do is clean the hub with a wire brush, clean the inside of the wheel , make sure both mating surfaces are very clean and flat, apply a small film of copper grease to both, it stops the corrosion that binds the wheel to the hub.

crunchman · May 14

DefaultM said:

Run flats were awful on my car. I was constantly replacing them to the point I started getting paranoid that someone was intentionally damaging them.
Got a car with normal tyres 5 months ago and I haven’t had a single problem.

They don't always work either. I've got friends who had a run flat that got completely shredded. They had to get their recovery service to go and get another tyre and replace it by the roadside. If that happens at 11 at night, when all the tyre places are shut, you are stuffed.

Jalapeno · May 14

DefaultM said:

Run flats were awful on my car. I was constantly replacing them to the point I started getting paranoid that someone was intentionally damaging them.
Got a car with normal tyres 5 months ago and I haven’t had a single problem.

My experience of Run Flats is that they're the answer to no-spare cars.

For

You're not totally stuffed when you get a puncture

Against

Except in rare circumstances they are not repairable

They are more expensive

I've got them on my BMW, wife hasn't on her Mini. It's a pain getting punctures sorted on the Mini !

State of the roads these days is such that potholes and big stones are everywhere, meaning you WILL get a flat

JohnS37 · May 14

My Mercedes SLK is a tiny sports car with little cargo space. It has a space-saver spare tyre, understandably, but it’s weird - you have to deflate it to extract it from its cubby hole in the boot, then reflate it, using the electric pump, before fitting it. You also have to use the special wheel nuts that are supplied, because it needs a different length from the standard ones. Imagine trying to work all this out if your first flat tyre occurs on a dark, rainy night . . !

ToneControl · May 14

robgilmo said:

sev112 said:

For past 10 years I’ve used RAC to switch a tyre even if at home. As a weak late 50s bloke I find it bloody hard to get the wheel off and don’t have a rubber hammer to help with.

was really pleased when we looked at what became our current Citroen cactus to find a spare wheel. It’s been used 2 or 3 times in 6 years
even my 2009 Peugeot 1-0-piece of tin can has a spare wheel (albeit for quite a while partially submerged in the guitar amp space)

I really wouldnt chance a hammer on a standard car jack to get a stuck wheel off, if needs must always smack the wheel at the top towards the car, never from behind unless the car is properly supported. And only take the wheel nuts off a little bit.

What I do is clean the hub with a wire brush, clean the inside of the wheel , make sure both mating surfaces are very clean and flat, apply a small film of copper grease to both, it stops the corrosion that binds the wheel to the hub.

conventional wisdom in the 80s/90s was to loosen the nuts before jacking up the car

ToneControl · May 14

and while we are at it
AFAIK most people aren't aware that getting super-low profile tyres is a bad idea, unless you do track days every week:
You get a rougher ride, and more chance of a fractured wheel on a pothole or kerb, or tyre damage.

I opted for the least-low-profile setup when I bought my car

robgilmo · May 14

ToneControl said:

robgilmo said:

sev112 said:

For past 10 years I’ve used RAC to switch a tyre even if at home. As a weak late 50s bloke I find it bloody hard to get the wheel off and don’t have a rubber hammer to help with.

was really pleased when we looked at what became our current Citroen cactus to find a spare wheel. It’s been used 2 or 3 times in 6 years
even my 2009 Peugeot 1-0-piece of tin can has a spare wheel (albeit for quite a while partially submerged in the guitar amp space)

I really wouldnt chance a hammer on a standard car jack to get a stuck wheel off, if needs must always smack the wheel at the top towards the car, never from behind unless the car is properly supported. And only take the wheel nuts off a little bit.

What I do is clean the hub with a wire brush, clean the inside of the wheel , make sure both mating surfaces are very clean and flat, apply a small film of copper grease to both, it stops the corrosion that binds the wheel to the hub.

conventional wisdom in the 80s/90s was to loosen the nuts before jacking up the car

If self centering, cracking them off slightly rather than making them loose, same with tightening, with the wheel in the air you tighten them so they are centred, not doing so could damage the wheel.

Kittyfrisk · May 14

ToneControl said:

robgilmo said:

sev112 said:

For past 10 years I’ve used RAC to switch a tyre even if at home. As a weak late 50s bloke I find it bloody hard to get the wheel off and don’t have a rubber hammer to help with.

was really pleased when we looked at what became our current Citroen cactus to find a spare wheel. It’s been used 2 or 3 times in 6 years
even my 2009 Peugeot 1-0-piece of tin can has a spare wheel (albeit for quite a while partially submerged in the guitar amp space)

I really wouldnt chance a hammer on a standard car jack to get a stuck wheel off, if needs must always smack the wheel at the top towards the car, never from behind unless the car is properly supported. And only take the wheel nuts off a little bit.

What I do is clean the hub with a wire brush, clean the inside of the wheel , make sure both mating surfaces are very clean and flat, apply a small film of copper grease to both, it stops the corrosion that binds the wheel to the hub.

conventional wisdom in the 80s/90s was to loosen the nuts before jacking up the car

It still is.

robgilmo · May 14

ToneControl said:

and while we are at it
AFAIK most people aren't aware that getting super-low profile tyres is a bad idea, unless you do track days every week:
You get a rougher ride, and more chance of a fractured wheel on a pothole or kerb, or tyre damage.

I opted for the least-low-profile setup when I bought my car

The same people are out there taking corners with their car tittering on the edge of traction, people seem to think they are some sort of race car driver when they have 'sporty' things attached to their cars.

Haych · May 14

ToneControl said:

and while we are at it
AFAIK most people aren't aware that getting super-low profile tyres is a bad idea, unless you do track days every week:
You get a rougher ride, and more chance of a fractured wheel on a pothole or kerb, or tyre damage.

I opted for the least-low-profile setup when I bought my car

I used to work with a guy who was running a fancy Mercedes with 19" alloys. He ended up having to replace them all because the wheels kept cracking over bad road surfaces. He'd had them repaired a few times before but after so many cracks have been repaired they become unsafe to keep repairing, apparently.

ICBM · May 14

robgilmo said:

ToneControl said:

conventional wisdom in the 80s/90s was to loosen the nuts before jacking up the car

If self centering, cracking them off slightly rather than making them loose, same with tightening, with the wheel in the air you tighten them so they are centred, not doing so could damage the wheel.

This - you only want to just take the tightness off the nuts, not loosen them so they're not holding the wheel onto the hub. (And likewise in reverse.)

Also, make sure the car is in gear as well as with the handbrake on, that will lock all four wheels and remove the chance of it rocking forward/backward off the jack as the brace tries to turn the wheel - and mean that it's also easier to tighten the nuts with the wheel in the air since it won't try to rotate.

(I'm one of those old-school people who always put the car in gear when parked anyway, so I don't have to remember that...)

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Wish my car had a spare wheel...

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