Check your spare tire!

Bigwig - January 4, 2024

My daughter was over for a visit.  We were checking her vehicle fluids and I asked if she has ever checked her spare tire.  She didn’t know where it was.  I showed her where it is and we took it out to check the tire pressure.  The max PSI is 60.  The air gauge read 11.  She filled it up using the DC powered pump that she has in her kit.  It must have taken about 10 minutes but it felt like a lot longer. 

Check your spare tire!

12  

Great reminder! I’ve only once needed the spare, and luckily it was in good shape. But I’ve also gone about 4 years since I last checked it, even though it would take only a few minutes. I’m making a note to check this weekend on both the spare tire and associated emergency tools.

 

Well that was a useful exercise. Turns out I don’t have a spare! 😀

The emergency compartment under my trunk has an air compressor, a jump box, and free space to add some more tools. Of course the jump box was dead.

I’m charging the jump box tonight and will think about what tools to add.

 

I recall a smaller vehicle that I leased did not have a spare either and had some kind of Fix-A-Flat.

 

That’s the case here as well. What I initially thought was a jump box is actually used for tire repair. Even though there are instructions included, I’d like to learn how it works before I need it. And I would still like to have a jump box back there.

 

A lot of modern cars (in the UK at least) don’t come with a spare, just some gunk to go in the tyre to fix it. Apparently its only good for 50 miles or so at low speed, to get you to the nearest garage. Space where the wheel was is now often part of crumble zones for impact protection. Just checked, and the UK MOT only checks your in use tyres, and not your spare.

 

In the US, I think it varies with vehicle model and year.  I recall ordering a vehicle and one of the options was a spare tire, so I assumed it didn’t come with the base model.

 

My car in the US didn’t come with a spare but clearly had a location for a reduced sized (donut) one.  It does have a DC inflator and fix-a-flat injectable instead.  I think this was for 2 reasons:  it reduced their costs and reduced weight to improve mileage.  I purchased an aftermarket kit that included a jack that stores in the hub of the wheel.  The peace of mind was worth it.  

 

 I would like to add:  Find your jack, practice getting it out, and learn where to place it on your vehicle.  On my previous car this was straight forward, but on my current car, not so much.  I found out last summer (after owning it almost a year) that the jack I found in with the spare tire when I first got the car was the wrong one, and not safe/compatible to use (it had a flat surface, and I needed one with a slot in it) I presume the previous owner put it in there because they couldn’t find the real one.  I located the proper jack wedged into a secret compartment in the side, but couldn’t get it out. After consulting the owners manual, found out I had to turn it – basically “jack it down” to get it out of it’s special compartment, which is what the short little screwdriver in with the lug wrench is for.  

And my realization that I had the wrong jack in the first place only came up because where to place it was also very different than what I’m used to. I was confused by the prospect of placing a jack on such a narrow edge (it made much more sense once I found the one with a slot in the top) and very confused by the fact that it looked plastic (turned out there was steel behind the plastic, so the jack fits over both.) 

I was glad to be figuring all this out in my driveway in broad daylight, instead of by the side of the highway on some rainy night. 

The only other car I’ve owned in my adult life had the same type of jack and same exposed frame to place it on as every car my parents drove while I was growing up did, so I had no idea how different “changing a tire” could be.

 

Having had newer lease vehicles and roadside service for decades, I was out of practice as well. Turns out for my truck I have to use the jack rod to lower the spare that is attached by a cable.  

 

+1 on this one.  Our truck was lifted when we bought it, and we learned that the existing jack wouldn’t reach the frame – thus useless.  

 

I’ve learned this after getting a flat on the road!  It’s now in my list of things to check before I lend out the car and include whenever I have to pump up the main tires.  Last year we received a rechargeable portable pump as a gift that has really been useful.  It does take a bit of time to fill the tire, but it did all of them on one charge just a few weeks ago.  

 

I recently learned to do this the hard way a couple days before Christmas with a flat in the middle of running a million errands :/