Motoring Discussion > Where's me spare wheel ?	Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Ted	Replies: 28

New Fri 5 Mar 10 16:34   Where's me spare wheel ? - Ted

No, not another mini-pump/aerosol/small wheel/ thread. I was thinking of a car I used to service for a good friend......I remember the wheel was under the bonnet on top of the engine. IIRC it was a Volvo 360 but I could be mistaken. I wonder if the engine heat had any detrimental effect on the rubber ? Any other unusual positions ? I know Bristol put their's in the front wing between the wheelarch and the A post. The most difficult to find was another friend's car. I always checked the spare at service and this particular car caused me some head scratching........anyone think what it was and where the ( full sized ) spare was ? Ted Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 5 Mar 10 16:38   Where's me spare wheel ? - jc2

Where it says in the Driver's manual!!! Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 5 Mar 10 16:49   Where's me spare wheel ? - Ted

Didn't have a manual at the time. Rang the owner, he didn't know. Found it eventually ! Ted Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 5 Mar 10 17:29   Where's me spare wheel ? - ....

FIAT X1/9 mounted side by side with the petrol tank ahead of the engine directly behind the seats. FIAT used to have the spare wheel under the bonnet on top of the master brake cylinder. That was when the washer bottle looked like a colostomy bag held on the inner wing with a couple of tin clips. Another great hide was Ferrari 348 battery located between the dash and bulkhead. Bit of a headache to change. Last edited by: gmac on Fri 5 Mar 10 at 17:32 Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 5 Mar 10 19:10   Where's me spare wheel ? - spamcan61

My mate's Talbot Samba also had the spare plonked on top of the little engine. Can't remember for the life of me where it was on SWMBO's Skoda Estelle, although that had the battery behind the rear seats. Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 5 Mar 10 19:39   Where's me spare wheel ? - Iffy

Battery in the boot of the Rolls Royce Silver Spirit and some Rover saloons. Just thought - weren't some Mini batteries under the rear seat? Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 5 Mar 10 19:46   Where's me spare wheel ? - BobbyG

Some Scenic's had the battery under the driver's seat. Picasso the same? Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 5 Mar 10 20:41   Where's me spare wheel ? - bathtub tom

There was a '50s or '60s car that had the spare wheel slid in horizontally behind a panel at the rear. Presumably below the boot floor. If it had a panel under it, then that would effectively hide it. Standard eight? Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 5 Mar 10 21:05   Where's me spare wheel ? - Ted

That's right...Fiat X19. Very cleverly hidden behind the drivers seat but the cover made it look like the bulkhead. Mini was in a pit in the boot floor. We had a Samba, I'd forgotten about that. Neighbour had a Shadow. Could just get in his garage but had to put the lowest shelf on the end wall just above boot height. One day, got a flat battery, car locked in park, electrically, couldn't lift boot lid or move car forward. had to dismantle shelves !! Ted Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 5 Mar 10 22:30   Where's me spare wheel ? - ....

I have to admit the FIAT was not my immediate thought. I went off along the has there ever been a car with a roof mounted spare line to begin with. I have childhood memories of Talbot Matra Rancho's with the sparewheel on the roof area over the front seats. Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 5 Mar 10 21:11   Where's me spare wheel ? - PhilW

"There was a '50s or '60s car that had the spare wheel slid in horizontally behind a panel at the rear." My old 1949 Sunbeam Talbot IIA had a similar arrangement Renault 5 had spare under bonnet on top of engine(pre-cursor of airbag??!!) Ren 4 also? (not sure about that! may be confusing spare with gear linkage which went from dash over engine to gearbox on front of engine!) Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 5 Mar 10 21:41   Where's me spare wheel ? - Ted

Ren 4 and Mk 1 5 had spares under floor in back. A cheap wire cage. Just sold my 4 but I had to modify exhaust with box at back instead of under wing. Had to mount the spare on the rear door on a Suzuki 413 mounting. It was a van , though. Umbrella gear change ran across top of engine on all 4s and early 5s. Ted Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 5 Mar 10 23:16   Where's me spare wheel ? - bathtub tom

Here you are, Standard eight with no boot lid: www.carandclassic.co.uk/uploads/cars/standard/1168531.jpg And a Standard ten with the boot open: www.carandclassic.co.uk/uploads/cars/standard/1165393.jpg Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 5 Mar 10 22:55   Where's me spare wheel ? - Avant

SWMBO's first car was a Mini-Traveller. which had the battery under the back seat (in the boot on saloons). Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 5 Mar 10 23:08   Where's me spare wheel ? - Ted

Must have been a messy job getting a wet, muddy deflated wheel back into the X19 after a flat. I bet it could smell a bit too if on some country lanes ! Ted Reply to this message | Report message

New Fri 5 Mar 10 23:15   Where's me spare wheel ? - ....

Oh I dunno, is it any worse than trying to get the punctured wheel and tyre back into an underbody cradle then getting back into the car, the driver being covered in whatever... You've done it now, got me looking for an X1/9 as a play thing... www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C117064/ Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 6 Mar 10 03:34   Where's me spare wheel ? - Iffy

Some Focuses - I suspect hire ones - have a full-size spare which is mounted under a tray in the boot/hatch, rather like the Standard Ten. Looks odd when you open the hatch, because the boot is much shallower than you are expecting. ...Silver Shadow with a flat battery... I saw a Silver Spirit in Soho, London, years ago in a similar predicament. The battery had flattened with the car in park. You could move the column stalk - PRNDL - into N, but it did nothing because there was no power to operate the solenoids. That was when he discovered the battery was in the boot - buried under several bits of plywood and a thick piece of Axminster. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 6 Mar 10 09:22   Where's me spare wheel ? - Boxsterboy

It's mainly the French who are inventive for locating things where you don't normally find them: Spare wheel under bonnet: Cit DS, Pug 104/Talbot Samba/Cit LNA (as if there wasn't enough weight over the front wheels already!). Spare wheel vertically in front of rear wheel arch: 2CV van Battery under drivers floor: Cit C8 Boot mounted batteries are getting more common and is not a bad way of distributing the weight more evenly. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 6 Mar 10 10:18   Where's me spare wheel ? - ....

>> Boot mounted batteries are getting more common and is not a bad way of distributing >> the weight more evenly. >> That's fine as long as the manufacturer remembers to put some jump lead contacts under the bonnet so the boot doesn't have to be emptied to get to the battery. A couple of years ago I was coming off the ferry at Hull, there was a motorist and the deck crew standing scratching their heads with a pair of jump leads and the bonnet up on a Volvo S60 - he hadn't switched off the motion sensor on his alarm, one dead battery. The motorist didn't look too chuffed when I told him his battery was under the boot floor...let him think about that for a second or two, boot full of holiday stuff to unload on the parking deck of a North Sea ferry, then showed him the contact points under the bonnet to his relief. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 6 Mar 10 11:07   Where's me spare wheel ? - -

It's a must to have connector points for the battery under the bonnet seeing as so many cars now have an electric boot release and no way to open the boot otherwise. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 6 Mar 10 13:46   Where's me spare wheel ? - Bagpuss

I rather like this arrangement for storing the spare wheel, courtesy of the Renault Dauphine. www.philseed.com/images/r-dauphinespare.jpg Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 6 Mar 10 14:04   Where's me spare wheel ? - Fenlander

I looked after a car for a lady in the village who called me to help when she trashed a tyre/rim. I asked if she had the spare and jack OK to which she replied no they're in the shed. The answer to why was that they were a nuisance in the back of the car. I commented there was proper cradle under the car so why put in the loadspace and the reply was that it was too much of a nuisance to get out of from the cradle when you had clean clothes. I decided this was on callout her husband deserved. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 6 Mar 10 18:01   Where's me spare wheel ? - Bromptonaut

I also had the Pug 104 with spare over the engine. Risk of heat damage to tyre much reduced by regular use - tube type tyres seemed much more susceptible to p*nctures. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 6 Mar 10 18:50   Where's me spare wheel ? - ....

>> It's a must to have connector points for the battery under the bonnet seeing as >> so many cars now have an electric boot release and no way to open the >> boot otherwise. >> Do manufacturers really make cars with only an electric switch into the boot ? The S60 has a hidden lock if the electric switch fails. There's one car I know of if the battery is dead you cannot open the drivers door and therefore cannot open the bonnet. Last edited by: gmac on Sat 6 Mar 10 at 18:54 Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 6 Mar 10 18:57   Where's me spare wheel ? - Iffy

...Do manufacturers really make cars with only an electric switch into the boot ?... The boot lid on the CC3 has only an electric latch to release it. Of course, it opens two ways, one to get to the luggage, and another to make room for the folding roof. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 6 Mar 10 19:19   Where's me spare wheel ? - Fenlander

Both our C3 & C5 have elec latches on the outside. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 6 Mar 10 19:44   Where's me spare wheel ? - -

>> Do manufacturers really make cars with only an electric switch into the boot ? When my sisters W210 MB boot release failed it was a dickens of a job for our excellent indy to get in....funnily enough thats an R reg with well over 100K miles, fixed when it breaks with no particular extra care and there's not a spot of rust on it. A mechanical method of boot opening like many other common sense things including a spare wheel is on my list of must have's on any vehicle i buy....the list of possible purchases has fewer possibilities than ever these days. There's quite a few vehicles now made with only one keylock in the front passenger door, some costing in excess of £50K and made here so why is the (covered) keyway on the passenger side? Last edited by: gordonbennet on Sat 6 Mar 10 at 19:45 Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 6 Mar 10 20:10   Where's me spare wheel ? - Bagpuss

>> There's one car I know of if the battery is dead you cannot open the drivers door and therefore cannot open the bonnet. TVRs were like that. Relying on electric door releases on a car with such a dodgy electrical system really is asking for trouble. I remember a motoring reporter getting trapped inside one of the very first Cerberas during a test drive when the car ground to a halt (as TVRs inevitably do) and he couldn't open the door from the inside. My mate's Chimaera would periodically not react to pressing the electric door release cleverly (or stupidly, depending on your point of view) hidden in the door mirror though he never actually got trapped inside it. Reply to this message | Report message

New Sat 6 Mar 10 23:43   Where's me spare wheel ? - Ted

As I've posted before, the Note has only a microswitch, operating a small electric motor in the boot catch to open it and return the catch to it's ' ready to lock ' position. Recently fitted a new lock unit at £109........3 yrs old ! When the battery failed I couldn't get in the car. I rang main dealer and they told me where a secret keyhole was. Trouble was , it was on the nearside, 6 inches from a 6ft fence. Had to go next door and we removed the fence panel to open the door and lift the bonnet. Good job it wasn't a brick wall or there would have been a bit of trolley jack ballet ! Ted. Reply to this message | Report message