Lose 40 ugly pounds. Take off that spare tire and leave it home!

That 40 pounds sits right atop your front axle in a 308, and helps balance the car. What are you replacing it with besides a can of fix-a-flat?

 

I would be most worried about crash protection. The spare offers crash protection in a front end crash. I wouldn't remove mine for that reason.

 

TRUE.

 

FALSE.

Without the spare, the front of the 308 is a better performing, hollow, contractible, crumple zone. With the spare in place, there is a solid object connecting the front end to the firewall ---- a hard front end collision is going to drive that spare right at the occupants.

 

Both of my Saabs and the Mercedes I drive now all have little "space-saver" spares. I've been assured that they're "just fine" (read: Only barely adequate), but I've always felt that an upper-end car should have a full-size spare. For this reason, I was delighted to see, upon purchasing my 308, that a full-size wheel and standard tire fit just fine in the front compartment.

Yesterday I tried to recharge the battery after a long winter, then ended up just replacing the battery. So I drove the car in almost back-to-back runs both with and without the spare wheel up front. If you don't believe that the absence of the spare wheel/tire makes a huge handling difference in a 308, I recommend that you try this.

I'm confused regarding why your "spare wheel/tire doesn't fit" in the compartment. Have you changed to larger wheels or tires from the standard?

 

If you've gone to bigger wheels / tires which won't fit in the spare well, you can remove the fiberglass inner shroud (item 1 in the diagram) to make considerably more space available. Probably not something to do as a permanent solution, but good for the occasional out-of-range trip.
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I am not sure about the USA but in Europe a car must be crash tested in a usable condition, i.e. as if it had come out of the showroom. I dont know when this rule was enforced from though.
So the spare wheel is part of the crash test. I do agree that it is just a pretty solid object that may transfer loading through the firewall and into the cockpit.

 

i remove the tool kit, jack kit, spare , and any other crap from all of my cars. i just call somebody if i have a problem. i detest having all that weight in the car. its a toy, not a necessity.

 

Used to leave "all my crap" at home too.

Headed back to work Sunday night. Navigated around a construction site in Wurzburg, GE.

Picked up something I did not see BUT I HEARD and a hole in the driver's side rear sidewall, 2 inches across. I was going about 30 mph so no big deal. No "spare-in-a-can" is fixing that. One TRX tire down the tubes.

Had to call ADAC AND my pissed off wife (another story) to get the situation resolved. Did not get back to the town in which I worked until 3:30 AM. A 134 mile trip took 8 hours.


I now carry "all that crap."

 

i dont drive my cars 130 miles anywhere,and i live 4 miles from my job.

 

I have a OEM 18 inch 355 space saver to get rid of anyone needs it pm me

 

Why the heck not?


My 308 is more reliable than my '92 BMW or '02 VW Polo (unless I but it back together wrong )

 

I agree. I wonder if the 40 lbs weight saving up front would be counteracting on the road by reduced front end grip and increased aero drag as the car noses up at speed.

 

Yes. That's exactly what happens. (See Post #6.) Yesterday I jumpstarted my battery, then drove the car - minus the spare - to see if the alternator would re-charge the battery. When that didn't work, I replaced the battery and put the spare back in. Then I drove the car again.

So I had the experience of driving the car both with and without the spare up front. Little noticeable difference around town, but once I was on the highway, then up in the canyons taking some serious curves, I could really tell the difference.

Try it yourself, and you'll probably agree: If for nothing else, you need that spare up there for proper balancing and handling of the car. It was engineered to be there.

 

Well, this is interesting to consider on the 328 series, as some of the cars came with a full size spare and
some of them came with lighter, space-saver spares. In this case, according to above posts, some of these
cars are either overweight or some are underweight...question is, which??????

 

I have used Prestone Tire Jack. Worked very well. They claim to not harm your rims. In my case, the slight leak that caused the tire to go flat in the first place was from a rim that was already slightly bent so I replaced the rim after the 10hr drive home. Tire Jack held the whole way. BTW, this was with 16" rims.


Lou

 

The space savers are very heavy. I doubt there is a big difference in weight.

 

+1, I removed mine several times to clean it, and it could not have weighed more than 6 or 8lbs less than the full size front or rear tire.

 

I would think the spare (when properly pumped up) would indeed act as a positive element to crash protection. Come to think of it I remember reading some years ago about ferrari crash testing with and w/o the spare and determining it was helpful in absorbing impact and distributing crash loads.

The issue isn't "overweight" or "underweight" it's weight distribution. That 40lbs right above the front axle makes a difference to the weight distribution. It's not meaningful just putting around town, however, it is meaningful at high speeds, both straight line and in the bends. The 308 front gets pretty light above 120mph (less so with the euro spoiler) so I wouldn't personally take that spare out for a number of reasons....

 

Recently I was driving a 456 through a less than wonderful part of Seattle (MLK way...)at 11PM. Cut a sidewall (debris from a new light rail project), no spare. Of course the 10yo can of Agip tire goo did nothing. Waited three hours for a flatbed while being surrounded by "the locals". Wished I can a spare.

Two weeks later I was driving an MBZ G55 in rural Wa State, again a flat. That car had aftermarket wheels and lug nuts....the aftermarket lugs were incompatable with the factory spare. 120 round mile trip to the MBZ dealer in Portland to purchase 5 new lugs....

This after 10+ years of no flats.

I'll take a spare, and the toolkit with me anytime. If I was ordereing a new Ferrari I would order with a spare, despite the fact they take up so much room.

 

In a 308 any weight up front helps. At speed, slamming on the brakes results in locked wheels - not good for controlled stopping. More weight up front = fewer flat spots on tires and better braking control. I would never use those "flat in a can" chemicals. I tried it once on one of my Benzs and it ruined the wheel finish. If weight is an issue, the last thing you would want to do is remove it from the front of the car.

 

http://www.conti-online.com/generator/www/com/en/continental/portal/themes/press_services/press_releases/fairs_events/iaa/pr_2003_09_09_comfortkit_en.html

 

Looks too good to be true.

Think I'll pass. . . Considering what "tire sealant" did to someone's Mercedes wheels!