Corsa - spare wheel

Strider590

perthperson wrote: »

Cars on the A9 tend to go a bit faster than that - everyone will hate me!

(bovvered)

I know, I had to do it once.... 40mph all the way home, it drove me mad, I even put the hazards on when I got to an NSL. Shocking when you see people driving at 30 (in an NSL) like it was a "normal" thing...
I actually felt like a hazard on the road!!

mchale

Strider590 wrote: »

I know, I had to do it once.... 40mph all the way home, it drove me mad, I even put the hazards on when I got to an NSL. Shocking when you see people driving at 30 (in an NSL) like it was a "normal" thing...
I actually felt like a hazard on the road!!

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :mad:

perthperson

Have googled and looks like it is the tyre supplied and not a space saver -http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=56425

Strider590

mchale wrote: »

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :mad:

Im sorry, but it's dangerous to sit doing 40 in a 60mph road at nearly 2am. Nobody expects to come round a corner and be faced by the back end of a slow driver.

Inactive

Strider590 wrote: »

Im sorry, but it's dangerous to sit doing 40 in a 60mph road at nearly 2am. Nobody expects to come round a corner and be faced by the back end of a slow driver.

Well they should.

mchale

Strider590 wrote: »

Im sorry, but it's dangerous to sit doing 40 in a 60mph road at nearly 2am. Nobody expects to come round a corner and be faced by the back end of a slow driver.

So by driving with HL on you don't think your confusing other road users, also at 2am you would have lights on anyway, if you think its dangerous to do 40 in 60mph limit, I respectfully suggest you give up driving

Strider590

Hazard light warn of a hazard and doing 40 in an NSL I personally felt like a hazard and in the interest of getting home in one piece, I decided to warm other road users of my slow moving vehicle.

Kilty_2

TBH when I was driving at ~35MPH in a 60 I would routinely flash my hazards and raise my hand to make following drivers aware that I was not just doing it for the hell of it - my car was knackered.

Pulled over in laybys regularly to let people pass too.

Wig

I loved reading this thread :rotfl: thanks for the laughs.

OP,

I also have a 2003 Corsa, and I can tell you that all your wheels are wrong or rather, all your tyres are wrong.

The spare tyre you have is 175/70/14 that's too big, it's supposed to be 175/65/14 so you are about 17mm (8mm ride height) too big, that's why it wouldn't come out the wheel well This tyre (if you had two of them on the front) would have you going 2mph faster than you think you are.

I imagine the spare wheel is your original "steel spare" not a space saver. If it is a "steel" it will be black with holes around the outside like the picture below.

If it was a space saver it would look something like this (note, the pic below still shows a "steel" wheel but it is also a space saver)


But yours will have 4 holes in the middle. You notice the big yellow sticker, that's the clue to a space saver. The other clue yours is not a space saver is the tyre size fitted is almost correct for a normal road wheel, if it was a space saver it would be something weird like 145/70/15.

Now you must tell us are the 4 tyres on the car all alloy wheels? Alloy wheels look like this
http://www.google.co.uk/images?q=4+stud+alloy+wheel&hl=en&tbs=isch%3A1%2Cisz%3Am&prmd=ivns&source=lnt&sa=X&ei=tWllTeKLKsKxhQe5o4HnBQ&ved=0CA0QpwUoAg&aq=f&aqi=g3g-m3g-v3&aql=&oq=

If you have 15 inch alloys (or steels) You need to have tyre size 185/55/15
Yours, 195/50/15 are 8.5 mm (4mm ride height) too small, which is not a big deal, let the tread wear out and then change for 185/55/15 in pairs on the same axle. Whilst you drive them you are driving approx 1mph slower than you think you are which is fine because it's 'slower than' not 'faster than'.

If your car has alloy wheels you need to first check if they are Vauxhall alloys, or some other brand. If they are another brand you definately have to tell the insurer that you have modified wheels. If they are Vauxhall you need to check if the car was sold with alloys as standard spec, or if alloys were a optional extra for your model of Corsa. If they were an optional extra (A local dealer should be able to advise on this) You need to tell your insurer your car has alloys.

If your car has steel wheels you need to check if they are Vauxhall steels, - Vauxhall steels are all stamped with 'GM' in the centre. If they are not GM you need to tell your insurer that you don't have original wheels.

Whatever the case, you are running with wrong size tyres so should tell your insurer about this.

I just realised that you said you had difficulty getting the hubcaps off, this might indicate steel wheels, but alloys do sometimes have small hubcaps in the centre covering just the wheel studs.

So, what to do? If you have good tread left on your flat tyre, you could get it puncture repaired. and wait for the tread to wear out then replace to 185/55/15 in pairs

If tread is poor on this tyre might aswell change to 185/55/15 now, but also look through your other 3 wheels on the car for another wheel with poor tread to also get changed to 185/55/15 so you can have two the same on the same axle.

You will be fine (although illegal) to drive to the tyre shop with your spare fitted, it's not going to be a safety issue just a "nanny state" over bearing law breaking issue.

You can buy new wheel sets (original vauxhall) off ebay. If you don't like the insurance premium hike for having alloys, get 4 GM steels either 14 or 15 inch depending on what was standard issue for your car, I suspect 14" as that is what your spare is.

mikey72

Strider590 wrote: »

Im sorry, but it's dangerous to sit doing 40 in a 60mph road at nearly 2am. Nobody expects to come round a corner and be faced by the back end of a slow driver.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
You'd last about 30s here then, if you reckon you can't stop before you hit the back of the tractors or combine harvesters. (Yes, they go home when they've finished, not 9 to 5).