Spare tire size?

carl

carl

True Classic
I had an iron cross wheel with an ancient Michelin 165 SR 13 on it and decided to use it as my spare tire in the 77X but it's too damn big to fit in the spare tire well. I went to look at my Bertone to see what size the spare was in that car and it was a 145 SR 13 Pirelli on a steel rim.

So what is the biggest tire to fit in the spare tire well?
 
Good question - I have a 4.5" steel rim and may put a 145 on there, or get a real compact spare tire (hard to find in 13") and mount it to a 4.5" steel wheel.

Are you saying it's too tall? or it just sticks out too far?

I have a 185/60/13 mounted to my spare CD91 - and it does not fit inside the tire well very well either, it fits radially - but axially it's preventing the cover from laying flat (huge gap all around).
 
Hi Carl. A couple of years back a friend up here bought 5 new 165/70-13 Hankooks for his '76 or '77 X1/9. Of course back then the stock tire size was 145-13. He was still using the stock 4.5" steel wheels the car came with. We were unsure whether to mount the 5th one as his spare, so after mounting the 1st one we tried it. It fit just fine in the spare tire compartment. Even the cover fit fine with no bulging - but I recall it was pretty close.

Dunno about any other years/wheels/tires combos.
 
The space saver spares are heavy and not good for higher speeds or many miles.
I have a 155/80/13, If you can still find them, on a cd91 that I sometimes carry.
Fits behind the seat with plenty of room and can go fast and long ways with it plus the rim matches the others.
 
My spare tire is this:
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My tire would not fit radially, it was just too big to fit into the spare tire opening. Sad part is I can't remember if this was the spare tire in the car when I bought it.
 
145 was the OE size for all years. When I bought my ‘85 it had a used up P3 on it. I replaced it with a P4 in 1993, it has been in that hole ever since and never seen daylight aside from me needing to get at the distributor recently.

155 may fit but may not. 165/70 will be too deep but about the right diameter.

A cheap tire from Tireseasy.com would be a good choice for this. I bought two Achilles 122 145/80 13 tires for my new X and my 850 Sport Coupe last summer (it had a really old bias ply, like 1969 old). They were cheap and balanced well.
 
The only caution I'd consider with buying really "cheap" tires as a spare is they tend to lose air more rapidly than "good" tires. Especially on the spare where we tend to ignore it until we need it, and ooops its also flat.
 
My Achilles cheapo tires are holding air just fine, better than my ‘good’ BF Goodrich or Bridgestone tires on my daily drivers which has been frustrating.
 
My spare is one of the 145-13 Michelin XAS tires that came with the car new. The XAS is a tube type tire and holds pressure well. The XAS was a high performance tire of the day and had an asymmetric tread which was pretty radical back then. Toward the end of the 74 model year, Fiat started shipping the cars with Pirelli Centurato (sic?) tires of the same size. Unfortunately, the grip was poor compared to the XAS. The guy I was renting a house with at the time bought an X about a month after me and it had the Pirellis - what a difference. Fortunately, most early cars came with their suspensions set with way too much toe in front and rear, so whatever tires your car came with, they would probably be gone in under 10K miles. That was when we began experimenting with 185/70-13s since their were no 60 series available yet.
 
That brings back memories of the early "performance" tires. Pirelli was pretty much the leader at that time. And yes, all tires were still tall.
 
I've had a 80 X1/9 and now have an 89 X1/9 and they have always had a full Mag and Tyre as the spare, not an alternative wheel or space saver. My '89 has now has 165/70 R13's Yokohama A Drive as the running wheels (the original Pirelli's whilst had heaps of tread were hard as rocks as car still has only 16.5K on the clock). Didn't replace the spare, which is still the original Pirelli 165/70 R13 on factory Mag. It is a snug fit, so possibly any change in the profile could cause as issue.
 
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