# No spare tire in new cars because of the 'guvmint? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 25, 2014, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-spare-tire-in-new-cars-because-of-the-guvmint/684507 "2014-03-25T06:53:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-spare-tire-in-new-cars-because-of-the-guvmint/684507/141 "2014-03-27T23:03:18Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Well, yes. You can add in obnoxious canned laughter to your list of complaints. > > For my risk assessment: a single tire that might be a little too old for driving, based on industry standards (which seems to be about 6 years or so), driven at less than 45 miles per hour, only long enough to get to a service station (the 20-30 miles I mentioned). And I don’t care if it blow out again, I just don’t want to end up end-over-end in some horrific accident. > > In your estimation, is that problematic? For me on my car? No, but I was drifting cars around corners decades before the term was coined. A blowout doesn’t scare me. You have to assess your own skills. I can (and have) dealt with sudden spins, the muscle memory is there. So for you, are you comfortable dealing with a car that wants to swap ends in the middle of a corner? If you can’t in all honesty say hell yes I love that shit, replace the tire. Your call, your car, your life. ---
**Author:** ![SpeedwayRyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@SpeedwayRyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpeedwayRyan)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-spare-tire-in-new-cars-because-of-the-guvmint/684507/142 "2014-04-07T20:57:46Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > :eek: > > Is this a woosh? If not, this is an extremely bad idea. The lug nuts are supposed to pull the rim tightly against the hub so that static friction between the two parts transmits the shear load created by accelerating, braking, and the weight of the vehicle. Any kind of lubricant results in the studs having to bear those cyclic shear loads, and that’s something they were not designed to do. It may be that your car has been fine, and will be fine until you sell it, but unless you have done the sort of rigorous testing that professional automotive engineers do when designing a vehicle, you are introducing an unknown factor into the situation that could well result in the studs breaking someday while driving, causing the wheel to separate from your car. Really late reply here, but this is no woosh. I have found this to be a really common solution, especially among those makes where the wheel tends to stick really badly (and they’ve always been cars with lug bolts, not studs/nuts, in my experience). I’ve seen it recommended time and time again, and I’ll continue to do it because I don’t want to be stuck on the side of the road unable to separate a wheel with a flat tire from the car. Bavarian Auto has always recommended it for BMW and Mini applications ([see link here](http://blog.bavauto.com/7360/bmw-and-mini-wheel-stuck-to-hub-corrosion/)). [This tire superstore](http://www.performanceplustire.com/tire.wheel.install) recommends it as well. A google search will show countless mentions of a thin film of antisieze as a solution to the problem. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-spare-tire-in-new-cars-because-of-the-guvmint/684507/143 "2014-04-07T21:25:26Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > If the car you like does not have a spare but you want that car anyway and you want/need one then just buy one and throw it in your trunk. **Salvage one from your previous car even. No big deal.** Saying that everyone should have the option that you want mandated upon them is however silly. 😃 Just be sure to pay attention when doing so however. (Guess how I know that.) I did exactly that once (kept the spare from my previous car). It worked out just fine _until_ the day that I actually, you know, needed it. That’s when I discovered that my old spare was a four-hole wheel, while my then-current car had five-hole wheels. For this situation, we here appreciate one of the remaining old-style smilies: :smack: ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-spare-tire-in-new-cars-because-of-the-guvmint/684507/144 "2014-04-07T21:48:43Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > Your call, your car, your life. Well, no, there are other lives in the equation. I’ve experienced catastrophic tread failure at full highway speeds. That was no fun, but it was manageable without killing myself and others. I just would not have expected a blowout at side-street speeds (30-35 mph) to be particularly tough to deal with. I suppose the difference is whether the blowout happens on a straightaway or while cornering. Then again, when I’m cornering on side streets, I’m at closer to 10-15 mph. At any rate, it seems I should probably get myself a new compact spare. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-spare-tire-in-new-cars-because-of-the-guvmint/684507.md?page=7)