- Joined
- Apr 2, 2011
- Messages
- 57
- Points
- 19
Are you ready for my bargain story; are you all sitting comfortably 
When I purchased the Panda 1.2 Easy new last Sept (62 plate) I never thought about getting the optional Spacesaver Wheel / Jack set for £50.
Whilst the wife was driving the car last weekend she decided to mount the kerb and get a blowout! Great!! :bang: Tracking is fine thank god as I had it checked!
I wasn't in the car at the time but told her to read the instructions and try the fix and go foam repair via the compressor to see if the tyre will inflate to get her home. What a load of rubbish didn't do the job as the tyre was split and not the usual nail in it for which this system is supposed to be used for.
After getting a friend to run me down to her and put on his Honda spacesaver which didn't go on properly but managed to wobble home the 4-5 miles at 10mph so the wheel would come off!
Fiat wanted a ridiculous £300 for the 135/80 14 spacesaver wheel and jack set so I decided to look at ebay. See the cheapest on there for which I won was a Fiat Brava 135/80 14 spacesaver. I thought for the winning price of £13 It was worth the risk of buying it.
Got the spacesaver wheel on Tuesday and fitted it but noticed that the steel wheels of my Panda were a ET 35 (wheel offset of 35) the Brava wheel stated ET 43. For those that don't know this is how far the wheel sits either towards the inside of the car (a negative offset) or towards the wheel arch (a positive offset) 99% of road car will be positive offset.
The allowance if your were to permanently change all 4 wheels to alloys is 5-7mm. Therefore, the panda ET is 35 so that the max of 7mm would allow an ET of 42.
As the spacesaver would only be on for a matter of hours until changed the 1mm will make no difference on the car at all.
Anyway back to the fitting of the wheel. It went on perfectly no rubbing on the calipers etc so the £13 bargain worked a treat.
Now for the Jack set. This is the plastic moulding that the Jack, wheel brace, screwdriver etc sit in that go inside the wheel and screws into the bottom of the car.
I see the cheapest on ebay for a 14" was from a Fiat Stilo delivered for £19.50. This arrived Wednesday and went to fit it in the wheel that was in the boot. The moulding was about 2.5 inches to high so that the mat wouldn't sit flush in the car. So what I did was with the trusty hacksaw cut the bottom of the moulding of by approx 2.5 inches and now its slotted flush into the tyre and I now have the full set of spacesaver wheel and jack set for £32.50.
The pic below shows the wheel in the boot and the piece I cut off so that it fits in. HAPPY DAYS!!
When I purchased the Panda 1.2 Easy new last Sept (62 plate) I never thought about getting the optional Spacesaver Wheel / Jack set for £50.
Whilst the wife was driving the car last weekend she decided to mount the kerb and get a blowout! Great!! :bang: Tracking is fine thank god as I had it checked!
I wasn't in the car at the time but told her to read the instructions and try the fix and go foam repair via the compressor to see if the tyre will inflate to get her home. What a load of rubbish didn't do the job as the tyre was split and not the usual nail in it for which this system is supposed to be used for.
After getting a friend to run me down to her and put on his Honda spacesaver which didn't go on properly but managed to wobble home the 4-5 miles at 10mph so the wheel would come off!
Fiat wanted a ridiculous £300 for the 135/80 14 spacesaver wheel and jack set so I decided to look at ebay. See the cheapest on there for which I won was a Fiat Brava 135/80 14 spacesaver. I thought for the winning price of £13 It was worth the risk of buying it.
Got the spacesaver wheel on Tuesday and fitted it but noticed that the steel wheels of my Panda were a ET 35 (wheel offset of 35) the Brava wheel stated ET 43. For those that don't know this is how far the wheel sits either towards the inside of the car (a negative offset) or towards the wheel arch (a positive offset) 99% of road car will be positive offset.
The allowance if your were to permanently change all 4 wheels to alloys is 5-7mm. Therefore, the panda ET is 35 so that the max of 7mm would allow an ET of 42.
As the spacesaver would only be on for a matter of hours until changed the 1mm will make no difference on the car at all.
Anyway back to the fitting of the wheel. It went on perfectly no rubbing on the calipers etc so the £13 bargain worked a treat.
Now for the Jack set. This is the plastic moulding that the Jack, wheel brace, screwdriver etc sit in that go inside the wheel and screws into the bottom of the car.
I see the cheapest on ebay for a 14" was from a Fiat Stilo delivered for £19.50. This arrived Wednesday and went to fit it in the wheel that was in the boot. The moulding was about 2.5 inches to high so that the mat wouldn't sit flush in the car. So what I did was with the trusty hacksaw cut the bottom of the moulding of by approx 2.5 inches and now its slotted flush into the tyre and I now have the full set of spacesaver wheel and jack set for £32.50.
The pic below shows the wheel in the boot and the piece I cut off so that it fits in. HAPPY DAYS!!
Attachments
Last edited:
