Anyone have the spare tire "upgrade" on their 500?

fiatmonkey

fiatmonkey

Tim Hoover
low tire light is coming on and my daughters mom is borrowing the 500 right now. I don't want her stuck having to use the tire fix inflation doohickey. Has anyone done the upgrade to the spare tire setup? I have the 500 "pop".

Thanks,
Tim
 
Did it

Very easy install. The worst part was cutting the hole in the trunk floor (I made sure it was neat). There is tape covering the mounting holes on the underside which easily peel off. A simple bolt on.
 
HazN said:
Very easy install. The worst part was cutting the hole in the trunk floor (I made sure it was neat). There is tape covering the mounting holes on the underside which easily peel off. A simple bolt on.
Click to expand...

Thanks! How did cutting the floor impact warranty? I just called Fiat dealer I bought the car from and they want $285 for the kit (which is about what I see for it online) and $150.00 labor. I think I am going to have them do it.
 
Floor cutting

What you need to cut is the "carpet" and Masonite underlayment. No metal. From underneath after determining the location, I pushed through with a straight pick so I could locate the center from above. I cut through with a utility knife. It IS easy. Do it yourself, save the money, then take the wife out to dinner with it. Happiness will abound!
 
Nice!

Thanks Has and Mark. I think I have a project! Might be a good excuse to test fit the abarth exhaust too!!
 
You may have a problem.

The Abarth exhaust, if it's like the one I've seen, would interfere with the spare. The transverse pipe for the dual outlets would be in the way (and I'm not going to mention the heat problem).
 
Pic of interference area

Yes, the spare tire and 500 Abarth exhaust occupy the same space. In this pic you can see the spare tire well, and the Abarth exhaust tee where the spare tire would go. Notice no muffler, the Abarth system uses only the CAT and turbo to muffle the sound.

IMG_0984_zpse3e742f4.jpg
 
That helps however not all abarths use that setup. My abarth exhaust is the cat back muffler with 1 in 2 out tips. I think however it would make the fitting of the kit even harder :(

I need to put the car in the air see what room I might have.

link to pics
 
Very cool looking exhaust, very different from the normal NA Abarth cars.
 
Different?

This is an Abarth put up on the rack by one of our local dealers for FEN to look at. I'm pretty sure it's stock. I drove one as well, zippy little thing.
 
Since the car does have TPMS, I feel adding the spare tire is non-essential since the very reason you became concerned over the tires is that the system of letting you know a tire is underinflated is working beautifully.
Save the $300 and the 30lbs of extra curb weight being added to your Pop.
Just my .02.
 
two comments:
1: Back to the original post, the light came on due to a low tire pressure, so did you inflate it and is it now holding pressure? Might be no big deal. The kit that comes with the car works OK for inflation, but it's not very heavy duty. Mine already died after using it a lot at some autocrosses.

2: The photo of the big ol' muffler-looking thing reminds me that the first 2012 Abarths in the US also had that. On another Fiat board they refer to it as a "suitcase", since it's not really a muffler, just an empty chunk of metal with a scorpion on it that weighs about 17 pounds. If nothing else, the 2013 and newer Abarths don't have the "suitcase", so weigh a few pounds less than the 2012s.
 
trumpet77 said:
two comments:
1: Back to the original post, the light came on due to a low tire pressure, so did you inflate it and is it now holding pressure? Might be no big deal. The kit that comes with the car works OK for inflation, but it's not very heavy duty. Mine already died after using it a lot at some autocrosses.

2: The photo of the big ol' muffler-looking thing reminds me that the first 2012 Abarths in the US also had that. On another Fiat board they refer to it as a "suitcase", since it's not really a muffler, just an empty chunk of metal with a scorpion on it that weighs about 17 pounds. If nothing else, the 2013 and newer Abarths don't have the "suitcase", so weigh a few pounds less than the 2012s.
Click to expand...

The inflation system is a poor replacement for a spare. I know 2 people who were stuck do to a major blow out. One was unavoidable and the tire was wrecked when they had to drive on the flat to find a safe place to pull into a shoulder. No inflation system will fix side wall damage.

I checked and all tires had equal and proper air so I don't know why the light came on actually. I will take it to the dealer to make sure its working proper. We have had some extremely cold whether lately (for NorCal) possibly having an affect?

I hadn't heard the muffler referred to as a suit case but I get it. It IS a working muffler and was hoping it would some pep to the 500 and some aggressive sound however I will do some additional research on it. I also need to decide on which upgrade the car gets since I can't do both.
 
Before I bought my 500T, I owned a 5 speed Pop, and the best exhaust system for a manual trans non turbo 1.4 is a straight pipe in replacement of the rear muffler. Nice weight savings and the sound is louder not unlike a stock Abarth, and with zero drone and nvh buzz thanks to the extrodinarily huge oem resonator under the mid section of the car.
 
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