Spare full sized wheel for M3 - UK

[zoros]

So my spare tyre kit now consists of:
1. Second hand Tesla M3 (OEM) alloy wheel - £99. [Tesla confirms the oem numbers ending in A,B or C are all interchangeable].
2. Budget (new) tyre with correct load rating for sidewall (98W or Y in UK).- £70.
3. Low profile 3 tonne scissor jack (stronger than 2 tonne jack) with ratchet handle and bag - £30.
4. 2nd scissor jack (to jack up other end of car if punctured end of car is too low to get a jack under vehicle). £15.
5. Telescopic handled wrench (21mm). £7.
6. 1 x chock to prevent car from moving when on jack(s). £3.

Miscellaneous: gloves. plywood square to act as base (for soft/uneven ground).
Total cost (UK): £225.

Why am I carrying a full sized spare?
1. UK Tesla RA tell me they don't change wheels on the side of the road. They flatbed you to a destination of your choice (up to 50 miles). Basically that is either a garage or home.
2. Tesla RA drops you off at destination STILL with puncture. If at home, you still need a spare. If at garage - it may be closed/out of hours/too far away. What then? Taxi? Hang around for hours? Pay full price for a "special tesla tyre" because you have no choice?
3. I may be travelling to an important meeting; to the airport for a flight; catching a ferry; on holiday. No spare - no continue!
4. A space saver limits me to 50mph. Not clever on a motorway! Not clever if I have hundreds of miles to complete my journey.

My wife reminds me that if she is driving and experiences a puncture - she will not be changing the wheel. That's fine. TRA simply brings her home and I will do it on my drive.
Failing that, we have an alternative breakdown service and they have stated they will change a tyre on the side of the road and use our spare.

In summary - for the sake of £225, I have peace of mind. And the beauty of it all is that when I sell the car - the spare wheel kit will be sold separately (either to the new buyer or online). I expect it to sell quickly because the nearest equivalent in the UK doesn't exist.
(a) Only space saver kits exist.
(b) The cheapest of these is £200 without 2nd jack, torque wrench or chock.

 

[Andrew_SE23]

I can’t even imagine how good you will feel when you next get flat tyre

 

[Burley]

This sounds sensible. Can you post pics of where you're fixing it in/on the car? Wheels weigh a fair bit and you definitely want them attached if you have to emergency brake or hit something. Does it fit in the boot well?

 

[WannabeOwner]

UK Tesla RA tell me they don't change wheels on the side of the road

RAC (or AA I forget which) have a fits-any-car wheel (or a pair) which is free wheeling - i.e. they can tow an EV 'coz the motor won't be turning. So they could get you home / to garage.

But I doubt Garage will have a tire in stock, so its going to be 24-hours minimum of inconvenience.

I have Winter Tyres, and I'd be happy to run other-season-tyre (or a pair ... or even all 4) for a few days. If we go somewhere where a puncture would be inconvenient (e.g. long trip on continent) we take one other-season-wheel with us, in the boot. Its large, awkwardly shaped to sit well with other luggage, and the rubber is smelly (we wrap it in dustbin liners). I have RAC/AA/similar cover, and they will be happy to change the wheel

But most of the time I would hope to be able to plug the hole. Clearly not if I rip the side wall out of the tyre. Although I've never tried it, theoretically I can do the Plug myself, without taking the wheel off the car. I have a 12V tyre inflator in the car (but folk here say coreless/battery operated is better, they usually have a 12V cord as a backup), but spray cans of gunge would do (risk that the eventual repairer is narked about having to sort out the inside of an acoustic-foam lined tyre and/or that the gunge doesn't work well on such tyres. And/Or the valve is gunged up too ...)

I definitely would not want the weight of the spare tyre, jack etc. 100% of my journeys (just the one where I'm going to have the puncture would be good though!)

I haven't had a spare tyre provided with the car (nor a cubby hole with provision for it under the boot) for at least a decade, probably longer.

Some people have used slim-line spares. BMW ones I think?

 

[Adopado]

Some people have used slim-line spares. BMW ones I think?

Road Hero is one supplier of Tesla specific slim spares.

 

[WllXM]

Can you post a picture of how much space this whole setup takes in your boot?

Personally, I simply carry a can of Holts Puncture Repair if I'm desperate, as well as a simple tyre puncture repair kit with a dozen of rubber plugs and the metal handle to remove a nail. Purchased on amazon.
Granted, in case of catastrophic slashed sidewall damage, it won't help, but will cover most cases of simple nail/screws punctures you can get on the side of the road, it only cost me £15, and it all fits in the glovebox...

 

[zoros]

I don't want to upset peeps with my views on what has become a 'hot' topic on the USA site and elsewhere. These are my views/plans and I have put them on here for anyone else to use should they have occasion to think about what they would do.
I will respond to a couple of comments here if I may:
The spare wheel will simply sit inside the boot. Unless I need every spare inch of space (like long distance/long time touring hols where loads of luggage is requred, I cannot think of a time when all my boot space is required. Golf clubs/bags/cases all fit alongside the wheel.

I have no intention of securing it. In an accident it would have to propel itself through the back seats before striking me in the head! The same would have to be said for large cases enroute to the airport / heavy shopping (cans of beer/wine). White goods (microwave/Iron). It goes on and on! None of these are "bolted down" during transit, so why secure the wheel? Thousands of the RoadHero kits are sold worldwide - how many are secured?
Let's worry about children not wearing seat belts in buses before we worry about a spare wheel catapulting itself fwd into the front seat. Or dogs loose in the cabin area!

Plugging a hole with the trye plugs seems to be very popular. I wonder what it's like in reality though: You'd have to drive the car fwd a couple of inches at a time until you discover the hole - good luck with that at night with your iphone torch. And even if successful, what then? Do you continue with your journey to your aunt mavis 100 miles away? Course not. You wouldn't want to risk many miles with that plug in (what is the max speed with a plug in?). So your journey ends while you limp home and wait for the tyre depot to open.

Space savers - already discussed. Speed limited (same as temp repair kits) so continuing a long journey is going to be very time consuming (and dangerous on the motorway). You have to add to the space saver kit (extra jack / chock / torque wrench). ALL space saver kits cost more than my made up kit.

My last puncture was in September this year in my Range Rover. Gawd knows what I hit but it penetrated the tread and wall. I was going to pick up my daughter from the airport 60 miles away. Without a spare - just imagine the inconvenience:
Waiting for breakdown. Probable detour back home or to a garage. Unable to collect family.
All my previous cars either had a spare or I made one. Time to change this one: 8 minutes and on my way.

 

[WannabeOwner]

You'd have to drive the car fwd a couple of inches at a time until you discover the hole

Finally! A good use for Summon (which is seriously knobbled in UK, and will only move at snail-speed)

good luck with that at night with your iphone torch

I have a proper torch in my car. Lots of reasons I might need a decent light at night ...

what is the max speed with a plug in?

The ones I have are a permanent fix - some doubt about when used with a foam lined tyre, and it needs to be within the safe area (of the width of the tyre), so useless for side wall damage.

just imagine the inconvenience ... Time to change this one: 8 minutes and on my way

No argument from me on that point! Back when cars I drove did have spares I have changed wheels and its was straightforward. Back then I even carried a pair of rubber gauntlet gloves, in case I was dressed up at the time

 

[GlynG]

I think the demise of the spare wheel is a backward step for motor vehicles but its been oh so many years since i had a vehicle with a spare, indeed I may well have had cars with a spare but because i never needed to use one I cant properly remember if one was fitted.
I've been driving now for almost 50 years and i cant ever remember getting a puncture that stranded me by the side of the road, I know i have had a nail or two in tyres and used to slowly deflate - so i would pump them up, and as soon as i could either get then repaired or replaced.

I think most punctures are the simple nail or screw or sharp implement stuck in the tyre and these very slowly leak air - with modern electronic monitoring you now get an early warning of low pressure when just a few PSI is lost, whereas previously the tyre had to loose a lot of PSI so i could see the tyre bulging or the steering felt a little woolly -so nowadays plenty of advanced notice of an issue.

Sidewall damage - well I've never had any at all on any car so for me the risk doesn't prompt me to have a solution just in case

Its sensible to carry a spare but I think the risk is so tiny that carrying all that kit all the time in the boot for me would be a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

I appreciate the likelihood of a puncture is very dependant on your geographical area of travel and the number of miles you drive - so the logic behind my reasoning wouldn't be the same for others.

 

[MrBadger]

Sidewall damage - well I've never had any at all on any car so for me the risk doesn't prompt me to have a solution just in case

Potholes and raised ironworks is becoming more and more common. I lost a sidewall after hitting a join in road surface that was being repaired out of normal hours and had been left poorly cordoned off - I suspect in their defence someone else moved or hit the cone.

That said, and hope I don’t regret saying this, but I now rely on in car compressor, spare set of seasonal wheels, AA and a local Indy tyre garage for our flat tyre strategy. If swmbo got a puncture driving alone, if compressor couldn’t temporarily resolve I would still be called to sort, so not much more effort bringing a jack and a couple of spares along too.

Think we might have a very slow puncture right now and topped up once over last couple of weeks but it’s hard to really know this time of year with large variation in temperature tyres (cue posts with ‘tyre pressure warnings has gone off’) and I’ll be swapping to winters in a couple of weeks so will take it to Indy garage to check then - nothing visible on tread or putting ‘gob’ on valve.

 

[init6]

(cue posts with ‘tyre pressure warnings has gone off’)

Too early for this?

Winter with a Tesla

It’s the time of year when this forum starts to get new winter related posts. Thankfully there is already a wealth of information in the forum. We’ll take it as read that few people read the manual and the advice it contains for cold weather. Let’s start with probably the most common query as...

teslamotorsclub.com

After all Xmas decorations are in the shops now

 

[MrBadger]

Too early for this?

Nope. First hard frost of the season for us last night.
Quick peruse - no mention of TPMS warning though?

 

[DoricJim]

Ditto, as the late night, early morning temps are dropping into low single figures I fitted my winter set of wheels with CC2s on.

Got my first Amber TPMS warning as well.

 

[NewbieT]

Keep a spare in the garage at home. Get towed if I need to. Life happens.

 

[init6]

Nope. First hard frost of the season for us last night.
Quick peruse - no mention of TPMS warning though?

Your tyre pressures will also be affected by the cold weather. Pressure drops by about 1-2psi for every 10C drop in air temperature. Therefore if you pumped your tyres up in the summer, by the time winter comes - and don’t forget those cold autumnal mornings - you could see quite a substantial drop in your tyre pressures. It is also not uncommon for each tyre to have different temperatures especially first thing in the morning. I often see this when one side of the car has been heated by the sun and the other is in shade. I’ve even seen just one tyre heated by the sun and the rest at a much lower pressure. Keep an eye on them and follow best practice for winter use

 

[Watts_Up]

I think most punctures are the simple nail or screw or sharp implement stuck in the tyre and these very slowly leak air
- with modern electronic monitoring you now get an early warning of low pressure when just a few PSI is lost,
whereas previously the tyre had to loose a lot of PSI so i could see the tyre bulging or the steering felt a little woolly
-so nowadays plenty of advanced notice of an issue.

If the screw stays inside the tire... I had recently my first flat tire at low speed in a residential area.
The pressure immediately went below 20 psi and I was just able drove less than a block to find a safe place to park.

I wonder how it would have been if I was driving at a higher speed. I might even not felt it and the warning was
certainly a great help to prevent any accident as the flat tire was at the front.

I removed the wheel and could not find the puncture location. After adding air pressure I was able to localize the hole.
The hole seems to be very small, I had a puncture kit and it was very difficult to insert the repairing tool.

 

[pgkevet]

After 4 punctures I always drive with tyre pressures displayed.
One reason for not having spare tyres is the number of incidents when folk got wiped out by passing traffic while changing offside tyres on hard shoulder...

 

[WannabeOwner]

One reason for not having spare tyres is the number of incidents when folk got wiped out by passing traffic while changing offside tyres on hard shoulder...

last puncture I had was when the car did have a spare. That was on the Dartford crossing QE II bridge. Not really the ideal spot to change a tyre! A security vehicle was there within a few nanoseconds, and parked to cause the traffic to funnel past. Would have been handy if even one of the two blokes in the car had got out to give me a hand ...

 

[zoros]

I've just asked on the US forum (tyre replacement), do you need to change your existing TPMS valves each time you change a tyre (either because of repair or to change to seasonal tyres)? Thanks

 

[Adopado]

I've just asked on the US forum (tyre replacement), do you need to change your existing TPMS valves each time you change a tyre (either because of repair or to change to seasonal tyres)? Thanks

No