As reported recently in one of the trade rags, a driving instructor was fined £60 and received three penalty points for an offence under the construction and use regs after he was stopped by police when conducting a lesson with a spacesaver wheel on his car. He had punctured during the lesson and after fitting the spare he continued with the lesson intending to have the punctured tyre repaired as soon as he finished. The court ruled that as the spacesaver was intended strictly as an emergency get you home device his continuing to use the car normally, for however short a period, was an offence.
Worth bearing in mind if you have one of these stupid items supplied in place of a proper wheel, anything other than a trip to a tyre shop could land you in trouble.
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Yeah and how many people have I seen driving around here on one of these things ?
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Yeah and how many people have I seen driving around here on one of these things ?
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Me too. I was passed recently, on the M40 by a Boxster doing 80mph plus with a space saver fitted on the rear nearside.
Perhaps the warnings on the tyre walls should be in big white letters. On second thoughts, I doubt if it will impact on many of these clowns.
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Are you sure it was a Boxster?
My wife's doesn't have a spare.
It has a canister of Finilec Tyre weld stuff and a nice little compressor in a fancy case.
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Hope she doesn't damage the rim or get a cut or split in the tyre.
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An interesting point would be how much lee-way they would give. For example, I once punctured on a Saturday evening. Nowhere to get the tyre repaired until Monday, had to go to work on Monday morning before I could get out at lunch to have it fixed, plus had to take my (then) girlfriend home on the Sunday.
Legally, would I only have been allowed to drive home, would have had to send my GF home on the bus and would have had to take the Monday morning off work to get it fixed? Or would they accept that as long as I got it fixed as soon as is reasonably practical I would be OK?
If it comes to it, the ruling would suggest you can only use the tyre for one journey - either home, or to a garage if read literally. Maybe this is a reason to carry a can of foam rather as well?
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Space Saver Tyres 'Yuk'
My spare tyre on the Xantia is the same size as the others, so how it could be called a space saver heaven only knows.
I suspect that it is a cost cutting measure to stop Citroen having to give you an extra alloy wheel.
Why can't manufacturers just provide a spare just like the other wheels, especially for those that use their cars for their jobs, so if you have a puncture, you can time the repair to suit you rather than having to fit your own schedule around the repair?
H
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The whole business of skinny spare tyres is a grey area SFAIK. Years ago there was a suggestion that they were not legal but that there would have to be a test case to set a precedent. This has not happened but some manufacturers stopped fitting them and went back to full size spares. Others (Porsche?) supplied a can of sealant and an electric pump to effect a puncture repair. If the spacesaver is of a different rolling circumference to a normal tyre then there will be some problem with the differential if the spare is fitted to one of the driven wheels, or will there?
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I'm amazed that anyone could be prosecuted under the construction and use regs for using a spacesaver. Here's a quote from a recent Ford Owner's Guide about spacesavers:
"If the size of the spare wheel - rim or tyre - differs from the other fitted wheels, these rules must be followed:
Do not exceed 50 mph (80 km/h).
Drive the shortest possible distances.
Drive cautiously and replace the spare wheel as soon as possible."
There is also some advice concerning using snow chains (don't), car washes (don't), multiple spacesavers (don't), and turning off the Electronic Stability Program. There is no indication that these guidelines are legal requirements. I think something else must have going on to cause this prosecution.
Ian
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Here's a laugh then. Take a TT Roadster and have a puncture. Replace punctured tyre with space saver spare and where do you put the original? Not in the boot, not in the spare wheel well... you could muck up the passenger seat but what about your passenger?
Answers on a postcard.
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Porsche used to supply a nice plastic bag so that it could go on the passenger seat or lap.
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Right, I was following all this until I got to the bit about not using your space-saver in the car wash. Eh?
What could possibly go wrong at 0mph in a car wash?
H.
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In case the snow-chains come off and re-design your (or a later customer) paint job.
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What could possibly go wrong at 0mph in a car wash?
Mark
Is this what went through your mind just before it took your aerial away the other day ;-)???
H
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I call these things 'costsavers'. It's not the cost of a proper wheel and tyre so much that they're saving, it's the cost of re-designing the car to provide the space to accomodate it.
BMW Z3s are good. Get a puncture on one of these babies and the missus in her nice white summer dress has got the punctured wheel on her lap.
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