Has anyone "made" a full-sized spare?

[Aquineas]

Would buying an extra front wheel and mounting on a tire work as a full-sized spare? Discount Tire thinks it wouldn't fit on the rear; something about the offset and clearing the brakes, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me as the front brakes are bigger than the rear ones. It also doesn't make a lot a sense considering the donut will fit either the front or the rear. Note I'm running 255/35R/20 in front and 285/30R/20 in the rear.

 

[Lord Humunculous]

coulda swore the manual showed that not only can a v8 run unstaggered that the awd can run staggered, I might call bs too in this case, gonna look it up right now thoughh...

 

[Lord Humunculous]

Ok, so the way I'm interpreting the chart on 8-4 of the manual is that conceivably all these cars 5.0, 3.8, awd, rwd, can run all the wheels in theproper way, ie, staggered 19 or non staggered 18. With that in mind, it would seem at factory offset you could just get an 18x8, wrap it in a 245/45/18 and it would fit all four corners.....now whether or not it will fit in the factory spare spot is what I would also be interested in. I can do that w my volvo, but not couldn't w my Hondas and vws

 

[BobinChicago]

Aren't you asking if a full-sized OEM wheel & tire will fit in the spare tire well? I'd like the answer to that, too?

 

[Lord Humunculous]

I think the op is saying the discount ppl said a front wouldn't fit the rear

 

[lobsenza]

Why don't you mount the front wheel on the rear and see? You can put the temporary spare on the front and test it. I would be very surprised if the front wheel doesn't fit in the rear. I would not expect a rear wheel to fit on front.

 

[dareckibmw]

I'm pretty sure rear wheels would fit in on front and vice versa. The difference is "only" 9mm offset and rear rim is half inch wider than front.

 

[jarred52]

This is the main reason that I will not consider buying any car with staggered wheel/tire sizes. I always have a full size spare in the trunk.

I bought a matching factory wheel and tire for my 3.8 Genny; after removal of the original spare and plastic "spacer" it fit in that space with only minor rearranging of the tools and cutting a small piece of plywood to place over the opening to give a flat surface and also to be used under the jack on a non-level or soft surface. Cost of a used wheel was $200 on Ebay and a cheap new tire of the proper size and mounting was under $100 from Discount Tire. The result was peace of mind on road trips.

 

[Midnightsun]

I can tell you the rears do not fit the fronts but the fronts do fit the rears sort of. Stupid tire people put the wrong tires on the wrong wheels. The rear wheel mounted up front rubs the strut, definitely a no go. On top of that, the centre hole is slightly smaller up front compared to the rear. Amazing what stupidities one must go through just to have tires changed by "professionals" Almost feel like buying a tire machine and do it on my own!

 

[dareckibmw]

I can tell you the rears do not fit the fronts but the fronts do fit the rears sort of. Stupid tire people put the wrong tires on the wrong wheels. The rear wheel mounted up front rubs the strut, definitely a no go. On top of that, the centre hole is slightly smaller up front compared to the rear. Amazing what stupidities one must go through just to have tires changed by "professionals" Almost feel like buying a tire machine and do it on my own!

Hmmm..... if you put rear wheel up front, it will be 17.7mm closer to the suspension strut and it rubs? that's weird. I though there would be still enough room to play with different offset.

As for the center hub bore - there is only one size, which is 67.1 for our cars. I never seen different sizes on front/rear axles.

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[jimbo1mcm]

This is the main reason that I will not consider buying any car with staggered wheel/tire sizes. I always have a full size spare in the trunk.

I bought a matching factory wheel and tire for my 3.8 Genny; after removal of the original spare and plastic "spacer" it fit in that space with only minor rearranging of the tools and cutting a small piece of plywood to place over the opening to give a flat surface and also to be used under the jack on a non-level or soft surface. Cost of a used wheel was $200 on Ebay and a cheap new tire of the proper size and mounting was under $100 from Discount Tire. The result was peace of mind on road trips.

Thanks for the info. I plan on doing the same thing. Done it with other cars that have a donut. Nice peace of mind to have a full size spare.

 

[Midnightsun]

Hmmm..... if you put rear wheel up front, it will be 17.7mm closer to the suspension strut and it rubs? that's weird. I though there would be still enough room to play with different offset.

Yep, after changing the tires I could not move the car, almost like the brakes were on. Took a while to figure out what was wrong. Put the correct wheel in the correct location and brought it back to where they mounted the tires to have the remounted and balanced.

As for the center hub bore - there is only one size, which is 67.1 for our cars. I never seen different sizes on front/rear axles.

When the rear was put on there was resistance, basically the lug nuts forced the wheel on the centre hub when they were tightened. Needed to use some elbow grease to remove it since it was basically a press fit so yes the centre holes are different from front to back, not by much but none the less different. These are the stock wheels on the 5.0 FYI.

See bold

 

[dareckibmw]

I have a 5.0 with staggered wheels as well. The second set of wheels that I did put on, has the same diameter. Yes, they have center bore 73.1 but they included the hub centric rings 73.1 to 67.1

I'll check the fitment of OEM wheels front/rear before winter hits us and see if they really rub/touch the struts.
(Not that I don't believe you....it's just weird if they are really not applicable in case of an "emergency" or whatever....)



edit.

On second thought.....it might be true. I just remembered, when I had my 540i with staggered wheels (from the factory) 17x8 and 17x9 rear....I bought another 2 of 17x9 to have a square setup and they wouldn't fit in on front without 2-3mm spacers!

 

[nickpike]

Am I missing the point here? I have a 'skinny' temporary spare fitted in the trunk as standard here in the UK. Do you guys not have a spare?

 

[Lord Humunculous]

We have a spare in this case, though many mfrs are moving away from spares and substituting "flat kits" of varying effectiveness. I still get the impression the op was referring more to the ability to move things around based on a statement made by a Discount employee.