I wouldn't even think about driving around without the spare. Murphy's Law would have me trying to phone AAA in the middle of the year's first snow storm and probably 100 miles from the closet cell tower.

One of the best facial expressions I had seen, is the one by my buddy when he saw the spare, full size, alloy in the trunk. Are you sure its a Canadian thing? I thought all but the 2000 got a full size alloy as a spare?

 

yea i took mine out a long time ago and my tire had a bubble one day and it blew out on me in the parking lot so i had to call my dad to bring my spare and of course i got the 3itchin.. coz he lives 45 mins away from wer i was at..and guess what? i still dont carry one! but it sure do feel light back there.. but just to be on the safe side and not be stupid like me i think u should carry urs..

 

Weird, my 97 se came with the full size spare.

 

Last summer, i got 2 flat tires in a week. Thank God for that.


I put away my donut and through in a full size 15" tire that came w/the car.

I now have AAA, spare tire, jumper cables, jack + tools, flashlight, etc etc

Better be safe than sorry.

 

 

My tire jack is stored behind a panel at the right rear of my trunk and is not in the wheel well. My car also has limited-slip differential, heated leather seats, heated mirrors and I believe came with a a heavy duty battery. I believe the cold-weather package is available on US cars, but not the LSD on 4th Gens - just another anomaly with cars for the Canadian market. I guess I had to get something for my Cdn$35K.

 

would of sucked more if ur spare went flat

 

I was so surprised when I saw a full size spare in my trunk. Also when I saw that the rims were spankin' new and the crappy Goodyear RS-A was brand new...I wanted to take it out but every time my gas tank has around 15L left in it, the rear end feels too light. So might as well leave it in.

Bobo, are you sure we (Canadian eh hehe) can get the LSD in the 4th Gen?

 

Mine has LSD and I strongly suspect yours has to. My car is a 5-speed. I'm not sure if they all came with LSD or whether just the 5-speeds did. However, with the LSD the Canadian 95s and 96s are less prone to the dreaded differential-bearing problem than their US counterparts.

Do you have a plate on your firewall (look under your hood under the windshield) stating the particulars about your transmission? I am not referring to the VIN.

 

i prefer my cars like my women: both gotta have junk in tha trunk!

that was my ghetto moment of the day...

 

My spare tire is a slick

Originally it was a sawblade with a normal tire mounted on basicallly the same as all my other wheels.

 

Both times I've had a flat were in places with no cell phone reception. Once deep in the countryside in Maine and anothertime on the highway in Connecticut. You don't want to be caught at night on some quiet road with no spare.

Those extra 20 or 30 pounds won't affect you that much and a little weight in the rear will just balance out our weight distribution. Keep the spare there, you never know what might happen.

 

WoW I just don't get how people think. The spare is there for a reason, so is the use of seatbelts.

Would you not wear you seatbelts because you've never been in a accident?

A flat tire can happen anywhere/anytime even if you didn't want it to happen.

 

yea all i need is some flares... and a traingle yield or soethign sign.. i have all the other necesities including portable pump

this year i used my spare a few months ago... my spare was untoiuched since.. 1998 when teh car was built.. it was ncie and clean.. and even had the nipples.. heeh

 

Subscribed!

Oh, back on topic, mine is out, but then again I have the hook ups and the money so if I am in need a quick tow and a new tire is right around the corner. But if you do not have easy access, keep it in.

 

Yeah but when you slam into someone with out the air bags good luck, you slam into someone without the spare but still have the air bags, much better rate of survival. Nice try but your comparisons dont work.

 

he was just saying that not being prepared for any kind of accident, be it a flat or a crash, is dumb. just because he hasn't had a flat yet doesn't mean his chances of getting one are so low he doesn't need the spare.

 

Ive had a flat, and no spare in my trunk, but never a collision and no air bag.

 

^^^ sorry, the 'he' i was refering to in the 2nd sentence was the guy who started this thread saying that he has never had a flat, so why carry around the spare. i knew my post was oddly worded. don't even worry about it.

 

If a 15-20 pound doughnut spare is worth 10hp, then I think I'll keep my spare and loose some weight, or maybe make my wife walk.

 

10char

 

Its black so you don't change the tire and forget that its your spare, if it looks just like the 3 other wheels, you may not remember that its a spare. Because if you do and get another flat, your screwed.

 

With the spares we have I will notice it regardless. We dont cruise in Jeeps so there is not a full size spare on the back.

 

Exactly, the guy I was quoting was talking about an MBZ

 

i did the same thing but now the carboard and all the carpet doesnt lay flat like it used to.

 

Wrap it in a blanket and put it in your back seat.

 

Due to my custom system, I carry the same setup as in the Mazda RX-8. That car doesn't come from the factory with a spare. Instead I carry two bottles of TIRE SLIME and a portable 12v tire inflator. Its good for holes up to 1/4" wide. Since I am always within the city environs, a major rip in a tire, would have me on the cell phone with a tow truck. If I was going on a long distance drive, I'd have the donut behind the front seat in the passenger footwell.

 

maybe i will try that and when i dont have enough room for passengers becasue of the spare, i put the people in the trunk.

 

I used to work at a tire shop, and that slime is a bi*ch to clean out before fixing a tire.

 

Or just throw the spare and blanket back there rather than under the board and carpet?

 

Well, maybe I should of said that I have had about four nails or tires go flat because of nails or road crap. Each time I did not use the spare. I just used the tire puncture repair kit and that air pump I keep in the car.

Some of your logic is flawed. If you do use your spare you don't have a spare anymore until you get home. So you are riding without a spare tire. You have four tires on the road and not four spares. So you do not have a spare for each tire.

Since I have been driving I have only one puncture that went through the sidewall and had to replace the tire.

Also this isn't the early 70's. There is a Wal-Mart and gas station every three blocks or miles. I could practically have a flat anywhere and roll right into some tire service center, wal-mart or gas station. On the freeways there are call boxes every three miles.

I might put in the 15" spare though I am running 16's, on long journeys but that donut has got to go. Nothing looks worse than a car running on a donut (other than having a flat).

 

Um.....
Again, knock on wood.

 

That sounds like the best idea, especially if you have aftermarket rims.
I only take mine out when I'm racing (b/c I have too).

Usually you can just get away with using that tire gue crap, if you're not intending on replacing it right away (AND you're not racing).

 

I have a full size spare in my '98 barebones GXE but it is a steel wheel. I would never take it out, as it has saved me twice now.

 

lol, i keep a sawblade in place of it.

 

I use to not keep it in my car, but I didnt like the way the car felt without the weight of it in the trunk so I put it back. I actually got a flat about a week ago and it really came in handy. With piece of **** roads in this country and especially this city, I would NEVER drive without a spare.

 

This is what my car came with:



It fits fine in the wheel well and the carpet lies flat overtop. I would never take it out because its not in the way, and living out in the country I drive on gravel roads all the time where theres no cell phone reception. Of course I would be screwed anyway cause I wouldn't know how to change it...but at least I have a brand new rim if one of my other 4 get damaged! I was surprised when I bought the car and looked in the trunk though.

It must be a Canadian thing...my Dad's Accord Hybrid has a donut spare and the US versions only come with a can of that repair spray.

 

Mine didn't come with the connector to the jack so I took my jack and spare out and replaced it with some cans of tire gunk. Serves the same purpose much less time and effort, and weight.

 

I didn't have tools for 2 years (car didn't come with them) so the tire would have been useless anyway. I did take it out, making room for system. I got a flat in my pathy, just got air in it and got it home. If you complelty destoy a tire, changing to your donut will prob be the last thing to worry about. join AAA and reap the benefits.

 

For those of you that do not know, the reason all 4th gen Canadian maximas have full sized spares is that they came equipped from the factory with a VLSD.

The viscous coupling used in our trannys is not designed to dissipate the heat that would be generated from continuous driving with the left and right axles rotating at significantly different speeds.

People doing VLSD tranny swaps would be wise to lose the donut and get a full sized spare.