so i've been having a lot of nails/knives in my tires lately, probably cause the area i'm in has constant construction going on.

anyway i have a '99 GXE and i'm considering just getting a full-size spare tire and taking out the tiny donut in the trunk. I'm not sure if the tire will fit though because i'm guessing my car's designed for a donut sized wheel in the trunk?

anyone verify this? thanks.

 

yes, a full sized wheel will fit in the trunk. Actually, you can fit more than one. But no, the full sized wheel will not fit like it would as the donut leaving all the space on top for the needed trunk space

 

My 97 came with a full size spare, it fits better then the donut my neighbor gave me.

i duno if this goes for all maximas but do they all i have a cloth covering the tire ??

What happened to the ply wood or whatever that every other car has ? well i was bored one day and needed an excuse to work on my car and made my own, but still...

 

Canadian Maximas came with a full size spare instead of the donut. There's no problem with the diameter of the full size tire, but due to the width of the full size tire it sticks up a good 3/4" or more above the rest of the trunk floor, so you always have an ugly bulge in the trunk carpet. I can't believe they sold them like that new, it really looks cheap if you ask me.

 

I have an 18x8 MMEV5w/245-40 in mine.

 

Would you rather have a flat trunk by running a donut and then destroy your viscous coupling the first time you need to use it for a front wheel flat?

I prefer my VLSD and really could not care less about the trunk bulge.

 

its really easy to solve the bulge problem, must i post pictures of everything i fix ? gees

maybe tomorrow

 

I don't care for the bulge ... meaning, I don't give a isht. A full size tire > donuts.

 

kv2: I actually pulled out my donut and replaced it with a full size spare; to be exact, it's a full size steelie. Fits almost perfectly. I can't use the screw that goes in the middle to hold down the spare though. There's a slight bulge up but not noticable as it raises the whole middle up < 1 inch.

andrei3333: on my max, I have a piece of cardboard that covers where the spare goes and then the carpet over that. All OEM.

 

When you change a set of tires, one or more tires in the old set may be almost brand new. Then it is time to find a steel wheel and make a full size spare out of it. When I do this on newer cars, it will always make a bulge in the trunk.

Now I have an almost new tire from the old set off my I30 and it is still on the old 15 inch wheel that got replaced. But I need the trunk space in that car.

 

aznprid972: why cant u use the screw, works perfectly fine with my full size steelie

i had that piece of cardboard as well, but its too small to make a big difference so here is what i did

Also i have a donut spare and considered for a while switching to the small tire to save weight but left it alone. When u rotate tires u have to use the full size spare as well, but no one ever does this, so we all have a single useless tire in the trunk.

here is what i did: strong cardboard cut to fit the layout of the trunk, i did not have one big piece to cover the whole trunk, so i used 2 smaller pieces, and now my trunk is flat like a wall

 

I can't use the screw since there is no more need for it. I put my full spare in with the face of the spare down over the bump where the screw goes into but if I tighten it down, it will not touch the spare anyways. If I turn the spare over, it will not get threaded down by the screw.

Hard to explain, but easy to show if I have time to get a pic in.

 

umm i know what u mean actually, well i duno i guess the rim on the tire is bulged (like wide i guess) cayse my 15 steelie gets screwed down easily with the outer rim side facing up.