General Spare wheel or not?

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General Spare wheel or not?

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What are your thoughts about the lack of a spare on the A500? Personally I prefer to have a proper spare rather than the inflation/repair kit for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, it will only work with punctures rather than a blowout and secondly, I have heard that once you use the goo (for lack of a better word) it might be impossible to then get the puncture repaired, meaning a new tyre is required.

Even a POP 14" steelie would be a better option (or a skinny) although if the puncture was on the front you would need to put first swap a full size wheel/tyre from the rear and then put the spare on the rear.

Does anyone already use something similar or does anyone know what is the maximum size wheel/tyre combo that would fit in the spare wheel well?

Of course you would also need to add a jack to the equation and with the lower sills on the A500 plus being lower overall cos of the flat, would you be able to get a jack under the car even?

Your thoughts would be appreciated.
 
Standard 16" Abarth wheel fits in the wheel well in boot. To fit you need to unclip a plastic panel at rear of boot which is easy & refit with wheel in place.

This is what Emma's dad Jon's Abarth has as he didn't like not having a spare.

I like having at least a space saver but on the Clio 182 models Renaultsport modified the shell by removing the wheel well & thenfitting a flat floor so they could then fit the twin back box exhaust system. Then provide two cans of tyre foam.

Even the integrale which again has a modified boot floor to accommodate the rear suspension, diff, prop & driveshafts manages to squeeze in a space saver spare.
 
And dont forget if you have had wheel damage, like in the recent pot hole plague, the goo probably wont inflate the tyre. Then you're stuffed. I dont like not having a spare either:mad:
 
On a previous 'performance' car that I had I used to have I would take out the spare wheel and carry a can of puncture repair as fallback. The car felt more response with it out and I reckon it was a little better on juice (it was a 323i). I did chicken out on long runs and put it back in ! Will a standard Fiat jack fit under an Abarth ? Would a space saver from a Marea be good enough for an Abarth - it looks a bit bigger than the one on a standard 500 ?
 
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The problem with the jack is you can't use the standard jacking points - the side skirts sit too low so they interfere with the jack. You need to find alternative jacking points and have something suitable to jack it up with.

One tyre place I went to resorted to a block of wood on top of their regular jacks (attempting to jack up both sides at the same time) at which point I told them to forget it and drove off to find somewhere that had some respect for their customers' cars...
 
The problem with the jack is you can't use the standard jacking points - the side skirts sit too low so they interfere with the jack. You need to find alternative jacking points and have something suitable to jack it up with.

One tyre place I went to resorted to a block of wood on top of their regular jacks (attempting to jack up both sides at the same time) at which point I told them to forget it and drove off to find somewhere that had some respect for their customers' cars...

I wonder what the AA (or RAC ?) would do if you had to get them out to do a flat ? Maybe the ideal 'thing' is to just have a spacesaver spare wheel and let them figure out how to 'lift' the car so the flat wheel can be changed without damaging the skirts. TBH I would be a little embrassed ringing them - it is something that my better half could get away with :).
 
Many trolley jacks wont go under the Abarth, the trick is to drive it up onto some pieces of wood raising the car sufficently to get the jack under
 
I wonder what the AA (or RAC ?) would do if you had to get them out to do a flat ? Maybe the ideal 'thing' is to just have a spacesaver spare wheel and let them figure out how to 'lift' the car so the flat wheel can be changed without damaging the skirts. TBH I would be a little embrassed ringing them - it is something that my better half could get away with :).

Some AA guys cant even handle the standard 500. If you search "crushed sills" in the 500 section. :)
 
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The problem with the jack is you can't use the standard jacking points - the side skirts sit too low so they interfere with the jack. You need to find alternative jacking points and have something suitable to jack it up with.

One tyre place I went to resorted to a block of wood on top of their regular jacks (attempting to jack up both sides at the same time) at which point I told them to forget it and drove off to find somewhere that had some respect for their customers' cars...

People think I'm nutty but when I get tyres fitted I take the wheels off and take the wheels and tyres in the other car to get fitted. Really don't fancy some moron with a trolley jack and an air gun crushing the sills and breaking locking wheel bolts/keys and overtorqueing bolts.

It takes me a while to change a full set of wheels but who cares how long it takes when you know it's done properly.
 
I have to admit that I hate taking the car to a tyre shop and also prefer to take the wheels only and at least then I can clean the insides and under the wheel arches at the same time.

ps. Daniel, is it 98.6NM torque for the alloys? This figure sticks in my mind but I can't remember where I got the figure from and I always wind my torque wrench down after use so no help there, lol.
 
86nM so says RobW and that's what i used and they've not fallen off..... YET :D

BTW a 14" spare tyre would do just fine and fit over the rear brakes of the Abarth :) 15" would be even better as it would probably fit over the front brakes.
 
Apparently a 16" will fit quite snugly with a minor mod so that is what I will aiming for but will settle for a 15" if it appeared first. If I can get a set of 4 and get some winter tyres on them then I will use one of them as a spare and vice versa when it gets colder.
 
Apparently a 16" will fit quite snugly with a minor mod so that is what I will aiming for but will settle for a 15" if it appeared first. If I can get a set of 4 and get some winter tyres on them then I will use one of them as a spare and vice versa when it gets colder.
Winter tyres in 195/45 r16 flavour are almost non-existant. 15" wheels would be a better bet IMHO :)
 
Winter tyres are easily available for the Abarth 16" wheels. 8 pages of suggestions on the Abarth forum (y)

I read the thread on there. People were having to call Pirelli up directly. Plus you don't want a 195 winter tyre when it's properly snowy.
 
On the 2009 funk 500 that I got this week it has a spare wheel. I was told that it was an optional extra that year - so I'm lucky to have it. I was thinking about taking it out altogether and just leaving an Aerosal puncture repair aerosol in the boot. I would put the spare wheel & kit back in for a run down the country (which is only occassionally). Alternatively I could buy the compressor kit (around €110) that I had on the 08 1.4 that is much lighter than the optional spare. Given that the 500 1.4 has a keen weight of 930kg I would like to keep it as light as possible. m I mad buying a repair kit ? I was looking at increasing the power to weight ratio so I thought it might make sense.
 
On the 2009 funk 500 that I got this week it has a spare wheel. I was told that it was an optional extra that year - so I'm lucky to have it. I was thinking about taking it out altogether and just leaving an Aerosal puncture repair aerosol in the boot. I would put the spare wheel & kit back in for a run down the country (which is only occassionally). Alternatively I could buy the compressor kit (around €110) that I had on the 08 1.4 that is much lighter than the optional spare. Given that the 500 1.4 has a keen weight of 930kg I would like to keep it as light as possible. m I mad buying a repair kit ? I was looking at increasing the power to weight ratio so I thought it might make sense.

I just realised that I'm in the Abarth forum. Is this something that would be of interest to the 500 forum ?
 
I just realised that I'm in the Abarth forum. Is this something that would be of interest to the 500 forum ?

I have removed the spare wheel and the jack etc and I'm now just carrying an aerosal can. The exra boot space is useful. And the car feels a little lighter particularily on the back end :). Reckon around 10kgs lighter but I haven't weighted it.
I have attached a pic of the 'spare' wheels that I have. Standard 500 spare is 14 x 135/80 whilst the red one is off a Marea and is T125/80 R15 95M (stud holes seem to be in the same place). The Marea spare wheel seems higher off the ground at 58cms. Would this wheel not be an ideal spare for an Abarth given that the majority of them are 17s. When the Marea goes to the scrappie I might keep the 'spare' bits. Just need to work out the portable 'jack' problem.
 

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I have removed the spare wheel and the jack etc and I'm now just carrying an aerosal can. The exra boot space is useful. And the car feels a little lighter particularily on the back end :). Reckon around 10kgs lighter but I haven't weighted it.
I have attached a pic of the 'spare' wheels that I have. Standard 500 spare is 14 x 135/80 whilst the red one is off a Marea and is T125/80 R15 95M (stud holes seem to be in the same place). The Marea spare wheel seems higher off the ground at 58cms. Would this wheel not be an ideal spare for an Abarth given that the majority of them are 17s. When the Marea goes to the scrappie I might keep the 'spare' bits. Just need to work out the portable 'jack' problem.
The fact that one wheel is bigger than the others makes no difference when using it as a spare. The circumference of the tyres on any 500 whether it be running 14" wheels or 17" wheels from the factory is near as makes no difference to equal.
 
The fact that one wheel is bigger than the others makes no difference when using it as a spare. The circumference of the tyres on any 500 whether it be running 14" wheels or 17" wheels from the factory is near as makes no difference to equal.

I would have thought that if you have a blow out on your front wheel that it would be best to put the good wheel from the back on the front and then the spare at the back. I would have thought that any differences in wheel sides on the front interfere with the traction control / electronics. Realise that you wouldn't be exceeding 50 or should I say 40mph and that the spare is only so that you can 'limp' home.
 
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