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No spare tire and a blow out in 2017 Prime

Discussion in 'Prime Main Forum (2017-2022)' started by Dan509, Sep 18, 2017.

  1. Washingtonian

    Washingtonian Senior Member

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    I bought a donut spare from eBay last week. Searched for one from a Lexus CT200h and total price was $61. including shipping from Wyoming. Size is T125/70R17. Decided to put it on today to see how if it would be practical for a 77 year old person. Had to look in the owner's manual to find the jacking points. Expected them to be flat to match the jack, but they are not. The lug nuts were not so tight that they would be difficult to remove with the supplied wrench. The spare came inflated to 28 pounds, so I filled it to 65 psi. Total time to jack up the car, remove the rear tire, install the spare, lower the car and drive down to my mail box and back, jack up the car again and remove the spare and reinstall the original tire was about 15-20 minutes. I noticed the tire pressure monitor warning came on the dash with the spare on and it is still on with the original tire, but expect it will go off after a cycle or two of driving. The plan is to store the spare in the garage until needed and maybe bring it with us if we take a cross country trip. BTW, the spare weighs 25.8 lbs.
     

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  2. ct89

    ct89 Active Member

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    If anyone is worried about taking lug nuts off, I have found this to be an amazing tool.
    Gorilla Automotive Products

    When you extend the handle, you halve the force required.
    I typically tighten with the handle in and have found that to be close to the proper torque. Then loosen with the handle extended and never have a problem getting the lug nuts off. Much better than having to stand on the wrench or other wise struggle when some tire jockey over-tightens my lugs.

    I replaced the factory wrench with the 1721 model in each of my cars. Still doesn't mean my wife or daughter will just change the tire, they prefer to call me but at least I know they can if they had to...
     
  3. Washingtonian

    Washingtonian Senior Member

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    Not sure I would replace the factory wrench with that. If you still have your hubcaps on, the tip of the handle is used to remove them. Next to the tip is a slot that is used with the jack handle to give mechanical advantage to operate the jack. And if you haven't already verified with the Prius factory wrench that your lug nuts are not over-tightened (which you should do at home), a 12 or 14 inch piece of half inch pipe will slip over the factory wrench handle and do the same thing as the "Gorilla Wrench".
     
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  4. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    And if you haven't previously verified that the lug nuts are not overtightened, then just have a 2-3 foot section of pipe to slide over the wrench.

    Looking at the Gorilla wrench online, I'm seeing prices much higher than a simple Harbor Freight breaker bar plus an appropriate socket.
     
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  5. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Not sure if it goes without saying, but always half-loosen lug nuts while the car is still on the ground.

    Also, there's one additional hurdle, in particular with alloy rims I think: they can rust-glue onto the hub. You take all the lug nuts off and nothing happens. :confused: At road side, without additional weaponry, I would suggest to put all lug nuts back on, quite loose, then lower the car, and listen for a pop as it breaks loose.

    This'll work better in the front with more weight. If it's not happening, try bouncing up and down a bit. Still not happening, drive it back and forth a foot or two: that should work.

    In a garage I put timber on the inside and wack into it with a large sledge hammer, but that's difficult or impossible on the road.
     
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  6. WilDavis

    WilDavis Senior Member

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    I carry a 25" breaker-bar (Harbor Freight) in the car, and a torque-wrench, and occasionally treat the hub/wheel mating surfaces with this stuff:

    ;)
     
  7. mad-dog-one

    mad-dog-one Prius Enthusiast

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    Has anyone used a spare tire/wheel from a Gen3 Prius on a Prius Prime?
     
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  8. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I know it's been done (by Top Gear, Myth Busters??) but somebody has GOT to trying putting on four of these, going for a little cruise around the neighborhood:

    upload_2018-1-5_17-50-38.png
     
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  9. mad-dog-one

    mad-dog-one Prius Enthusiast

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    That is just what I needed to know and looks like it would work to get off the road. Nevertheless, my girl says that I will be driving alone if I put them on all four. Thank you for the photo!
     
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  10. JMalmsteen

    JMalmsteen I love my Prius!

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    I got a flat and had a similar experience. You can see the 11 page debate started about the value of a spare. Some people think a spare is totally unnecessary. I disagree.

    My solution- I now have a full size wheel and tire as a spare in my trunk. Dealing with what happened made me realize I will not let that happen again. I was also near my house and the hassle was tremendous. Get a spare.
     
  11. Lee Jay

    Lee Jay Senior Member

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    Yesterday a friend of mine who has a Smart Ev got in her car, turned it on and it lit up with a dozen errors and would not get itself into run mode. She didn't know what to do, stuck at work far from her home.

    I went out and took a look. 12V battery at 9.4V. I gave her a jump (how many times has an Ev jumped another Ev) and she drove it to service with lots of warning codes still flashing. The point being she was absolutely stranded without help from others and a spare tire would have made no difference.
     
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  12. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    A spare tire doesn't help with a dead battery. Got it.
     
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  13. Lee Jay

    Lee Jay Senior Member

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    And a dead battery is more likely than a flat tire.
     
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  14. padroo

    padroo Senior Member

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    There are a lot of reasons cars break down and I see no relationship between a battery and a spare tire. If not having a spare tire gives you anxiety then get one. If you sleep well without one, go back to sleep. JMO
    Once you have been burn because of a dead battery or a flat tire you will never forget especially if it turned out to be a major event.

    You just reminded me, I need to put my jump pack in the Prius. If someone asks me for a jump I would not use the Prius and it is cold outside. Good chance you will see a car hood up on cold days but not like the old days.
     
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  15. Lee Jay

    Lee Jay Senior Member

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    If there was a place to put it. I have the cargo area full or nearly full probably half the time I drive it.

    Why not? I've done it close to 10 times.
     
  16. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Speak for yourself.

    It has become clear to me that some folks here benefit from cleaner, relatively debris-free roads compared to what I normally travel.
    I used to give jump starts to strangers (before Prius), but stopped after an expensive ignition system failure possibly related to those jumps.

    Based on the many Prius failures posted here over the years, I'd rather pay for strangers' aid calls out of my own pocket than risk using my Prius as a jumpstart donor. Your 10 successes don't even begin to sway me. Based on the cost of Prius electrical repairs, update us again when you have achieved 100 successes without any Prius issues.

    (Now I have a separate jumpstart battery pack ... )
     
  17. Lee Jay

    Lee Jay Senior Member

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    I had one 12V battery failure during the 13 years I owned my 2004. I had three tire punctures during the same period. The battery failure left the car inoperable. The tire punctures did not. All the punctures led to slow leaks which I caught long before they left the car inoperable. The same is true of all the other punctures I've had in my entire life, and the same for my wife.
     
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  18. Beachbummm

    Beachbummm Senior Member

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    why all this "no spare" drama.. you knew the car didn't have one when you bought it, you know you can buy a space saver spare from a gen 2 or 3 to fit it all you need to do is put it in a trash bag and put it behind the passenger seat or strap it down in the cargo area.. I carry a full sized mounted spare and the space saver on road trips.. anyone stupid enough to have a car without a spare should be stuck on the highway in the snow for hours waiting on a tow truck.. this is no different then running out of gas.. use common sense and you will be fine.
     
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  19. Lee Jay

    Lee Jay Senior Member

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    I have kids in the back seats and cargo and luggage in the cargo area. If I took a spare I'd have to leave a person behind.
     
  20. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    As long as we are making sweeping judgements for everybody based on personal experience, here is mine ---

    In more than four decades of driving, I've never had any passenger vehicle left inoperable by a 12v battery failure, i.e. requiring battery replacement before the car could drive away. Sure, I've had dead batteries during that time, but all were chargeable at home or jump-able away from home, with enough life remaining to get home again or to a shop.

    While most of my flats have involved slow leaks from nails or screws, which can be driven home or I can now plug to get home, a few were quick deflations. 16 months ago, it was a 5/8" bolt on I-405 that found my Prius twentyfive miles from home. From TPMS alert to the very next exit, about two miles, the tire was dead flat. And dead for good because of the edge location. On the previous car, it was good-sized j-hook pipe hanger like this:
    j-hook pipe hanger2.GIF
    Before that, it was a flange or bracket.

    This sort of tire-killing FOD (foreign object damage) is random, and not user preventable, no matter how new or high-quality (short of run-flat design) the tires are. OTOH, dead batteries nearly always fall into either the user error category or the old age (for the local climate) category. Both are preventable, the former by careful operation and checks (and substitution with LED lamps), the later with preemptive replacement, something many PC users practice. I play looser on that score, taking greater risk by keeping my batteries far longer, but still experience fewer battery problems than tire problems.

    Though my spouse has witnessed a true battery failure that rendered its car inoperable. It was a coworkers car, where the battery suffered 'rapid catastrophic disassembly' under the closed hood, while parked sometime during the work day. But I've personally never seen such.
     
    #80 fuzzy1, Jan 6, 2018
    Last edited: Jan 6, 2018