Full-size spare questions

Jul 08, 2006 15 Replies

I want to have a full size spare on hand in my 2005 Toyota Corolla. I sometimes travel to some pretty remote spots (Death Valley, Mono Lake, etc.) that are some distance from the nearest sizable town and would hate to be stuck with a tiny spare I can't go very far on.



Two questions:


1) To have a full-size spare, I just need to get another rim and another tire that are the same size as the wheels I already have, correct? (I already have a large jack that I carry with me, and spare lug nuts.)


2) Has anybody fit a rim + wheel for a 2005 or similar Corolla (which I think takes a 195 size wheel) into the spare tire well. (I'd probably get the extra spare and keep it in my trunk if it didn't fit in the well, but I'm just wondering.)



Thanks, Peter


try a tape measure - if room buy same rim/tire at wrecking yard

The full-size spare may stick above the floor of the trunk a little, but it should fit into the well no trouble.

The floor of your trunk will be uneven, see if this will be an issue for you.

What you can do is to jack the rear of the car up and remove one of the rear wheels. Use a Jack Stand for this, or you'll be asking how to replace your wheel bearings after your foot heals!

Then, place the wheel and tire into the spare well and see if you can live with it!

You don't technically need spare lug nuts. The flat tire comes off, the spare goes on, and the same lug nuts are used.

Yes, all you need is a rim and tire that are the same size as the tires on the ground.

Everybody has. Where do you think the flat tire goes while the spare is on the ground? Why don't you simply put the spare on, and place the tire in the well and see if it fits? It has to fit because otherwise, people that are travelling with a trunk load of s*it would have to leave the flat tire laying on the side of the road.

You mean like a Corvette owner?

The only time you need "spare lug nuts" is when the car rims are alloys that take flat-back nuts with washers, and the spare is a steel rim that takes conical (V-seat) lug nuts.

You can not substitute one type nut for the other type rim safely - they'll chew up the rim and loosen, and then nasty things happen like the wheel falls off while driving...

Go to a local wrecking yard (excuse me, "Auto Dismantler") - you can pick up matching rims off a wrecked Corolla, and the tires might even have some tread life left in them.

If you find them, and they are a reasonable price, get two or three and toss the extras up into the garage rafters - that way you are prepared if a vicious curb ever jumps out and bends or breaks a rim.

Well of COURSE a Corvette owner can afford to abandon the flat tire and rim at the side of the road. They're made of money, right? ;-P

The cheap ones will stuff the flat tire in the passenger seat, or the "back seat" or tie it on the luggage rack, and take it with them.

Or if all available space is packed they leave their wife there by the side of the road, and put the flat tire in the passenger seat to go into town and get it fixed. Got to have your priorities... ;-P

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LOL! The wife sitting on the side of the road is a lot less likely to get stolen than a Vette wheel!

'Vettes use run-flat tires. None of them remain resting at the side of the road.

I know they use run-flat tires now, I was talking about before the advent of run-flats.

They had spare tires then.

Do you think they give us spares because they like us? They give us spare tires because the government MAKES them. They get around providing spare tires by using tires that cost your first born male child to replace, but can be driven on with no air pressure.

The road tires on some previous model year Corvettes did not fit in the space where the spare tire is stored because the space saver tire is smaller than the road tire. If you have a flat and a full load of luggage, something had to be left behind.

And more important, you can actually get the tire fixed most of the time, put it back on the car, and drive happy for many miles. ;-)

Once she graduates from Fiance to Wife, she's beyond any "fixing" efforts you can devise, and outside assistance may not help either. >_<

If it's a choice of what to leave, I can gua-ron-tee she will still be there when you get back with the patched tire. Be nice, find her a shady spot to wait, and leave her lots of water, her cellphone, and the iPod.

If you don't get all the problems you find corrected during the Test and Adjust period (called the engagement), once you put that ring on her finger and say the Vows and the "I Do's" she's now yours "As Is."

People who walk down the aisle before figuring this out, and making REALLY sure this is the person you want intimately involved in every single aspect of your life for the next 50 years or so, well, they deserve exactly what they get.

And that's the Truth.

"Bachelorhood forever, bachelorhood forever..."

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Ever see "A Christmas Story" ? LOL

Not just the Corvette, many of todays cars can't handle the flat tire in the compact spare well.

The Vette will be left somewhere, if it's too far to a replacement tire. Run flats have very limited speed and distance specs.

*** If a car can't handle a full sized spare in the spare well my *** solution is to leave that vehicle at the dealer and look elsewhere. I've been replacing compact spares with a matching one for years, because where I usually highway drive a compact or run flat spare is useless.

Mine doesnt - my space-save doesnt even fit properly, it sticks up 2 inches into the boot (trunk) - no idea where a full size would fit!

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