Overage Spare refused?

yeah, not sure how someone could recommend you changing the tire, unless they didn't read your posts

 

Ah, I remember a couple of years ago when, after a life-changing episode, I was able to change the tire on my GEN II myself (still the original '08 spare). Such a feeling!

Fast Forward to last summer. My Subaru Outback (mini-spare is standard) front passenger side tire blew. Big tire. Plenty heavy. Not sure I would be able to change it. But, I did -- without much bad language.

No Good Samaritians stopped to help....maybe if I was still 20 in shorts???

I then drove around for about three hours --- only to learn that once I got home that SUBARU SAYS ONLY TO USE THE SPARE ON THE REAR .

So, I was using it on the front....You think they would put a warning on the spare itself.

I guess I was supposed to remove the flat front right tire. Then replace that tire with the good right rear tire and then put the spare on the right rear -- RIGHT!!!

The car is still running.

Why can the spare only be used on the back? | Subaru Outback Forums
Kris

 

i'm sure the conditions for not wanting the spare on the front are pretty drastic.

 

It has to do with the front drive differential, The differing contact friction of differing tire treads and contact areas between full sized and the donut spare would result in a dangerous control situation and excess wear on the differential if left on and used for an extended period of time.

Moving the donut spare to the rear right is the best compromise to reduced handling, although not ideal.

 

Unless the trunk is completely buried in crap, we always check the spare with routine servicing. I can say that after 32 years, I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen the spare even close to proper inflation when I performed the initial inspection (ie the first time I ever looked at the car). 10-40psi for a donut is typical. That includes a number of "less than one year old" cars. Guess that ain't really covered in the dealer's PDI.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

My son and I checked the spares on our 2007 Prius and 1998 Accord yesterday. Both were at around 32 PSI, which makes some sense since they were last inflated (way more than a year ago) at the same time. Turns out both are the original spares - the Honda spare is nearly 25 years old! That said, that tire is pristine (see 2nd image below). Somebody had driven on the Prius spare at some point, so it was a little dirty. Neither one of them had any visible cracks though. There was a little water under the spare on the Accord from a recent heavy rain (presumably), with no sign of where it was coming in. The area under the spare in the Prius was dry though.

 

^ Another good reason for checking the spare's pressure periodically, say at every other tire rotation.

Just a thought: for owner's using dealership maintenance: does the 10 billion point inspection include checking the spare tire pressure? Just for giggles, check it, just after a "full service"?

 

Well, when we bought ours in 4/2019 the car had a 10 billion point inspection report. These were the tire related categories, all checked in the "Meets stds" column:

Tires properly inflated and free of defects.

Minimum of 4/32" tread-depth remaining across tread width

Spare tire is present

Spare tire has no defects

Spare tire is securely fastened

Spare tire meets minimum 4/32" tread-depth standard

Notice that none of these say "tires are not too old". The spare at that time was 12 years old, which is beyond every age recommendation I have seen. The other tires were new, which I worried about at the time. Maybe the vehicle had some suspension issue that caused the tires to wear unevenly? (Bought a car once before with that issue, plagued me for years until it was finally resolved with a "crash bolt" in the rear suspension. As it turned out tire wear on this Prius is normal.)

It also didn't say anything about the state of the TPMS, and it seems those were not replaced with the tires, since one of them is now out, presumably with a dead battery. (They were all out for a while following A/C work, because they forgot to plug part of that system back in!)

 

perhaps extensive testing has been done on tire aging and safety in different climates and storage conditions.
but i doubt it

 

I'm rolling on 11 year old snow tires right now. I've sworn to replace them next fall...

 

My Tacoma has 15 year old all terrain tires on it. It sits outside with the sun hitting it everyday. However, I see no signs of tire cracking or the the like. The rubber is stiff and there not the best at riding comfort but there still going.

 

16 year old dakota with original everything except oil and filter. i wish i had never changed it, just for bragging rights