Spare Wheel

[Andy Kay]

There are some great historical threads here guys, it's been good to read about the HUD and sad to read about the discontinuation of the iQ in Europe, but this thread in particular was helpful:

http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/107403-toyota-iq-spare-wheel/

I checked online for a steel wheel to fit my iQ and found one from Tyreleader.co.uk for £34 delivered to my door (from Frankfurt in Germany!) -- I took it up to a place that fits part-used tyres and they fitted a valve and tyre and balanced it all for £22. Now it sits snugly between the passenger seat and the folded-down back seat with still enough leg room for a passenger. The only 'snag' was that the steel wheel is 15" and the alloys are 16", but the tyre guy just shifted the tyre up from 175/60/16 to 175/65/15 and it looks like it's gonna do the job. Peace of mind carrying a spare. I think I'll investigate some appropriate wheel nuts in due course too, probably means a trip to the breakers.

[neelix]

Hello Kay,

is it possible to make a picture of the sparewheel mounted in your car?

My spare wheel is to big to fit on one seat. It is a 15" steel spare wheel.

I have it fitted behind me in the back secured on the back seats with rachets.

Peter

[Andy Kay]

Might be difficult to make out what's what, but my seats have seat covers on them, the back seats are down, and the tyre is in a big plastic bag. With the passenger seat pushed as far back as it will go, and the backrest tilted as far back as it will go, the wheel is definitely not shifting.

[craggle]

That's exactly where I keep mine Andy, Fits in there a treat and I have the same bag for it too. :)

Only difference is I managed to find a second hand Iq 15" alloy on eBay just a few miles from me so bought that for £10 and had a cheap tyre fitted to it. I do now need to carry 4 original wheel nuts around with me as the wheel nuts for the 17" OZ racing wheels I have on the car are different to the original Toyota fit nuts.

I have used the spare on one occasion too so it was worth carrying that day.

Craig.

[Andy Kay]

> Only difference is I managed to find a second hand Iq 15" alloy on eBay just a few miles from me so bought that for £10

The best I could find was an entire alloy wheel and tyre at a breakers yard in Halifax, some distance from me (north Nottinghamshire), for £80, collect only. The trip would not only have bumped the price up but also taken up half a day.

[Hairy Nugget]

My experiences with flat tires have been limited to instances where no compressor would be able to save me. Loud bangs and long rifts..

Anyone knows what the diameter of the rear drums are?

I'm thinking of carrying a spare as small as possible, I have a company locally that can get "whitespoke" wheels from 8 to 12 inches (4 inch width) with supercheap chinese tires:

Problem is they don't stock them, so trying would mean buying.

These would of course not fit in the front, so getting a flat there would require you to change wheels twice (swapping a rear wheel to the front)

They are not pretty but I'm sure they would get me home.

[bobkneale]

I have chosen to go down this route:

http://www.puncturesafe.com

[Andy Kay]

I have chosen to go down this route:

http://www.puncturesafe.com

Interesting... how much did it cost?

[craggle]

Don't forget that puncture safe gunges will only help for small punctures, If you get a big hole or a blow out like Thomas has seen in the past, a spare will still be needed.

Craig.

[Andy Kay]

> Don't forget that puncture safe gunges will only help for small
> punctures, If you get a big hole or a blow out like Thomas has seen in
> the past, a spare will still be needed.

Sure. I would also be wary about side-wall damage. But I like the idea of no rapid deflation on a tread-surface puncture.

[bobkneale]

Puncture safe has its limitations like anything else ! It will not stop massive tyre damage however in most cases you should get a controlled deflation which may be safer than a blow out ! Cost me £40 to have a installer come to my house and fit it to my IQ all 4 tyres. Of course Puncture safe and carry a spare is the ultimate protection however I only do 5000 miles per year now and this is my first experience of Puncture safe, ask me again in year or two and we will see !

[Andy Kay]

Thanks Bob. £40 for four wheels -- I guess that would make £50 if I include the spare -- still a lot cheaper than a set of run-flat tyres. I like this idea.

[bobkneale]

There was quite a long IQ forum thread on this subject some months ago, if you search for it you can find it, some people complained that puncture safe put there wheels out of balance, however I never had any problem, if you also google "puncturesafe" & "ultraseal" you will find lots of info about the product itself.

[Andy Kay]

Off topic, but I didn't want to start a new thread just for this.

My iQ is a recent purchase and came without any instructions, so it's been a voyage of discovery for me.

There's a display panel in the middle of the dash, just above the CD player.

There's an icon on it that looks like a schematic of the car, with a windscreen and two red lights.

What do these red lights indicate?

[craggle]

Air bags.

It shows the rear curtain airbags and whether or not they are active. They don't usually become active though until there is weight on the seat and the seat belt is fastened I think.

If I can find the page in the manual I'll post a picture showing the official description.

Craig.

[Andy Kay]

Thanks Craig. It must keep the airbags disarmed until there's weight in the seat and the doors have been shut for thirty seconds then. Doesn't seem to be linked to the seat belt. The other icon is a bit confusing -- looks like a body being thrown forward in the seat onto an airbag, but with a bar through it as if to say "airbag disarmed", but with the word "ON" next to it. I'm presuming it's telling me that the passenger-side airbag is armed.

[dash]

You can switch off the passenger airbag if a baby seat is in use. The indicator in the panel will presumably show 'off' next to it if you have disarmed the airbag. I think the switch is in the panel beneath the steering column.

[Andy Kay]

You can switch off the passenger airbag if a baby seat is in use. The indicator in the panel will presumably show 'off' next to it if you have disarmed the airbag. I think the switch is in the panel beneath the steering column.

Thanks dash. I've already found that switch while poking around, though I haven't played around with it to see how it affects the display. Interesting point though... I might do that.

[Andy Kay]

Back on topic, I nipped in to my local breakers yard to look for a set of wheel nuts for my new steel spare wheel. I took a nut off the iQ and carried it with me to make the comparison. The first Japanese car I came to was an old Honda, and the nut I was carrying fitted so I collected four nuts (steel wheel type) from inside the car and took them back with me. They fit nicely on the iQ, and the guy charged me three quid for the set. Happy with that.

[MarkyPancake]

Helpful thread. Will look into some of these solutions myself.

[Ben Davy]

I'm shocked by just how many people treat space savers as spare wheels. They aren't! They are purely for you to put on and drive to a tyre shop and get the damaged one repaired/replaced.

You can clearly tell people haven't just fitted them due to the brake dust etc on them, they also fail to pay attention to the max speed rating of the tyre and shoot along the motorway at 80mph thinking everything is fine.

My ex works for VOSA and they stop lots of people with them on and prohibit the vehicle till they get the proper tyre sorted.

Sent from my iPhone using Toyota OC

[Guest]

Pleased I went the route of getting a proper spare then, as I was going to get a space saver if one fitted the car. Instead I did a little bit of research and even less thinking before going the route of a full size steel wheel - plus circumstances when I recently got a puncture and the faff of getting it fixed (the gunge would have been no use due to size of the hole in the tyre).