996 Wheel Change Procedure

[KNN]

I had a set of Pirelli PZero Rosso's fitted on my 996 C2 on 20th December 08, sort of a Christmas present to the car for being good! Last night as I drove away from the car park under my office I realised there was something strange. Yes the sinking feeling confirmed it was a completely flat rear tyre. I only drove about 1/4 mile at about 15mph but the tyre was ruined.

Anyway got it replaced today, shame to see a tyre with almost full tread depth bite the dust but what can you do?

My question relates to the space saver spare. I jacked it up, changed the rear wheel for the space saver, found the bag for the wheel and put it in the back behind the passenger seat. Make sure you have this bag, a wet dirty tyre could really mess up your interior.

I checked the pressure on the space saver it was 40psi, I have subsequently found out it should have been 60psi, check this too!

Anyway I drove the 20 miles to the garage keeping below 50 mph to get the tyre changed and all was well apart from my wallet.

I happened to mention to a friend with a 996 that even though I had been very careful with slow lane changes, slow cornering etc that the car felt like a motor boat. He said that I should have jacked the front up, put the space saver on the front and put the front tyre on the back. Is this recommended? I have looked through the owners manual and there is no mention of this procedure and yet despite the extra work involved what he said intuitively makes sense. It felt wrong somehow lowering the heavy back end of the 911 onto that skinny tyre. My friend also suggested carrying a can of foam tyre inflator since that may be a safer and easier way to limp home. Does anyone have any experience on this?

 

[Richard_Hamilton]

It sounds like a sensible suggestion to me. The front wheel would fit on the rear, and the overall diameters are with 6mm of each other.

No idea on the foam though - I've never used it.

 

[marks62]

I heard that the foam stuff is OK but of it s small nail in the tyre for example that could be repaired, (not suggesting/recommending same) then if you have used foam, it's no longer possible to repair that tyre. This is what the RAC man told me when I had my RX8 which didn't come with a spare tyre, just a foam kit.

Mark

 

[ArBee]

Mrs ArBee's brand new Honda Civic Type R has no spare wheel just a tin of foam!!

Is it wise to have vulcanised repairs on high speed rated tyres?

By the way the Honda's Nav/comms system makes the Porsche PCM system look steam driven. (voice activated which is novel!!)

 

[minny]

Holts foam stuff is ok as its water based and can be washed off easily. I used it when I had a nail as it was so much easier than changing the wheel at the time. Just follow the instructions.

 

[Geoff_Fields]

I can remember on earlier cars e.g. 3.2 Carrera, the owners manual advised that the space saver spare should be fitted to the front only and swap the front to the back in the event of a rear punture. IMHO still sound advice.

 

[Aviator29]

Only last week I managed to get two screws in one rear tyre!! Took it to a local tyre fitters and they carried out a double repair. Apparently you can have a maximum of two repairs per tyre.

I used to have a Type S CIvic, imagine my displeasure on finding a flat tyre, thinking well at least I have a can of foam only to discover said can of foam is useless if there is a split/cut in the tyre wall. Make sure your spacesaver is usable.

Mark