Spare wheel safe to drive on?

Cyrus

woke up this morning to see my rear tyre totally flat, went up to my tyre guy, pulled the screw out, inner walls in bits tyre fooked.

he wont have a replacement til 2 jan.

My rear tyres are normally 265/35/18, the spare (in bmws wisdom) is a 225/55/16.

How safe/unsafe would it be to drive on with this on the rear (obviously taking it easier)

notwithstanding the issue of now no longer having a spare either!!

Eoin

Cyrus wrote: »

woke up this morning to see my rear tyre totally flat, went up to my tyre guy, pulled the screw out, inner walls in bits tyre fooked.

he wont have a replacement til 2 jan.

My rear tyres are normally 265/35/18, the spare (in bmws wisdom) is a 225/55/16.

How safe/unsafe would it be to drive on with this on the rear (obviously taking it easier)

notwithstanding the issue of now no longer having a spare either!!

Aren't most spares an awful lot smaller than the usual wheels?

peasant

According to this http://www.tyresave.co.uk/tyresize.html, your spare is only 11 mm or 1.71% smaller in diameter than the original ...so from that aspect there should be no problems.

The difference in width (and therefore the difference in grip on the road) on the driven axle could be very interesting (to say the least) in damp conditions.

I'd recommend you take it very handy.

JohnCleary

I've no scientific answer for you but I had to drive over 100 miles on a space saver before (Work of the devil) and just took it handy, absolutily no problems. Just put a note on your rear windscreen saying "WONKEY WHEEL, CAN'T DRIVE FAST, SORRY" so you've no prople beeping the sh1te out of ya on the motorway

Henry Ford III

A very temporary remedy only. Go slowly and no long distances.

Cyrus

okay, thanks for advice

just to be clear, it isnt a space saver (well not technically) its a 16" bmw alloy wheel

Seth Brundle

It should be alright but I would keep speeds much lower.

Incidentally aren't spacesavers are limited to 50km/h!

Eoin

kbannon wrote: »

It should be alright but I would keep speeds much lower.

Incidentally aren't spacesavers are limited to 50km/h!

80 I think, but cyrus said it's not a space saver, just a smaller wheel.

unkel

eoin_s wrote: »

80 I think, but cyrus said it's not a space saver, just a smaller wheel.

I'm in the same boat. Normal tyre is 255/45/18 and the spare is something like 225/60/16. I've never used it and if I'd need it in the future, I'd like to get the original fixed asap. Pending that, sticking to 80km/h would be more than safe imho...

Eoin

unkel wrote: »

I'm in the same boat. Normal tyre is 255/45/18 and the spare is something like 225/60/16. I've never used it and if I'd need it in the future, I'd like to get the original fixed asap. Pending that, sticking to 80km/h would be more than safe imho...

Still better than the little frisbee of a yoke in mine. I've had to use it a couple of times, but during rush hour, so anything over 80 was a distant memory.

Seth Brundle

eoin_s wrote: »

80 I think, but cyrus said it's not a space saver, just a smaller wheel.

I know it wasn't a spacesaver POS. I was just emphasising that there was a lower speed limit to the car when a (substantially) different wheel is in use

unkel

kbannon wrote: »

I was just emphasising that there was a lower speed limit to the car when a (substantially) different wheel is in use

That's exactly what I meant. The OP's spare wheel is a decent size one, but because of the difference between it and the other wheels I'd not go over 80km/h

cormie

Why don't they just provide a spare that's the same as the 4 on the car

peasant

cormie wrote: »

Why don't they just provide a spare that's the same as the 4 on the car

Because rubber-band 18 inchers are bloody expensive !

craichoe

I'm assuming he swapped them out for a set of different profile/size tyres ?
Hence his spare is the same size as the originals

Seth Brundle

I also had a problem with my last car in that the tyres on the car (can't remember the width/profile but they were 15") which were OEM but not the standard didn't fit in the spare wheel well - the tyres were too wide meaning that when lying in the wheel well, it was too high for the floor mat to be flush with the boot floor!
I suspect the OP sticking an 18" in the wheel well will also not fit snugly!

JackieChan

O/T...I had to use the space saver on my punto a couple of years back around this time of the year and the roads were very icy. Every time I touched the brake that wheel would lock up and very weird driving experience, weird noises and control from it.

Cyrus

craichoe wrote: »

I'm assuming he swapped them out for a set of different profile/size tyres ?
Hence his spare is the same size as the originals

nope its an e39 sport, fitted with 18" m paralell wheels from new, spare is a 16" bmw turbine style that was never ever oem fitment on a sport