Hi...having just purchased a new Sorento XSE fitted with 18 inch alloy wheels I'm was surprized to find the spare wheel is a on a 16 inch rim. Is there anyone with techical knowledge who can advise me regarding this? The RAC legal people tell me to use it would be illegal but Kia arn't under a legal obligation to provide a spare. But if they do surely you should be able to use it! The manual describes the spare as a "tempory",marked as only to be used up to 80kph. However the tyre is a 245/70R16 107 with an H speed rating (which is up to 130mph). The really strange thing is that the spare's rim appears to be the regular Sorento's alloy wheel sprayed black, but otherwise identical to the normal alloys. Thanks for any help.
Kia Sorento XSE spare wheel
- Thread starter Gordon_5061295
- Start date
Damian
Moderator
Gordon, you have found the same problem that a lot of the more modern cars have, in that the makers use a spacesaver spare wheel, and in the case of Renault, one fitted with a tyre which is not available in the UK!
Spacesavers are perfectly legal to use in the event of a puncture "to get you to a tyre centre as SOON as possible", however, as regards towing with a spacesaver, this is at best, a grey area and at worst illegal, however, one wonders whether it is more sensible, given a puncture on a main road, with caravan, would the Police prefer the van to be left at the side of the road, causing an obstruction while the spacesaver is used to get the vehicle to a garage for a new tyre, or would they prefer the van to be not causing an obstruction? and maybe insist on it being towed, using the spacesaver?
I have solved the problem with my Espace and fitted a standard, but steel instead of Alloy spare wheel. Check the room you have available for your spare wheel, and see if a standard wheel will fit, if so, get a steel wheel and standard tyre and replace the original spare.
P.S. Renault have solved the spare problem with the new Grand Scenic,,,they dont supply one!!, just a tyre pump and a can of tyre seal!!
Spacesavers are perfectly legal to use in the event of a puncture "to get you to a tyre centre as SOON as possible", however, as regards towing with a spacesaver, this is at best, a grey area and at worst illegal, however, one wonders whether it is more sensible, given a puncture on a main road, with caravan, would the Police prefer the van to be left at the side of the road, causing an obstruction while the spacesaver is used to get the vehicle to a garage for a new tyre, or would they prefer the van to be not causing an obstruction? and maybe insist on it being towed, using the spacesaver?
I have solved the problem with my Espace and fitted a standard, but steel instead of Alloy spare wheel. Check the room you have available for your spare wheel, and see if a standard wheel will fit, if so, get a steel wheel and standard tyre and replace the original spare.
P.S. Renault have solved the spare problem with the new Grand Scenic,,,they dont supply one!!, just a tyre pump and a can of tyre seal!!
thanks for pointing this out i have had my xse for 2 weeks and hadnt realied i guess its something we will have to live with i tow a caravan but if they spply with a spare than it should be able to be used wheather towing or not or they would be legally bound to warn us if we couldnt tow with spare i would of thought.did you have any problems insureing your car ,ihad to upgrade my immobiser to acat2 thatcham appr to get ins (direct line) having said this i really love the car its in sport blue and relly looks the bussiness and a pleasure to drive.
thanks for pointing this out i have had my xse for 2 weeks and hadnt realied i guess its something we will have to live with i tow a caravan but if they spply with a spare than it should be able to be used wheather towing or not or they would be legally bound to warn us if we couldnt tow with spare i would of thought.did you have any problems insureing your car ,ihad to upgrade my immobiser to acat2 thatcham appr to get ins (direct line) having said this i really love the car its in sport blue and relly looks the bussiness and a pleasure to drive.
Hi James, thanks for your reply. Glad to hear you're pleased with your XSE. I'm concerned about this spare wheel issue as so far as I can tell we couldn't use the 16" spare with the other 18" wheels under any circunstances. Driving around with it under the chassis would appear to be a complete waste of time. I intend to speak further to Kia about this. I'll keep you posted. I took the option to upgrade the Kia alarm to a Thatcham Cat 1 as there are elements who can take quite a liking to 4x4's. I thought it was worthwhile. My insurers didn't seem to reflect this much in the premium. In fact I considered a tracker device but they only gave me a
keep me posted please gorden.maybe kia should reinburse us with a 18"wheel the only problem is would it fit into the existing hole.
i rang RAC TODAY and spoke to tech dept they said that the 18"alloys on the car had low profile tyres and the spare 16"had a bigger profile tyre on making them the same size .They said that this is legal .
Thanks for the replies..I've finally got a definitive answer to my question, thanks to the technical department at the Camping & Caravanning Club and the Tyre Industry Council. In short(ish) a spare wheel designated by the car manufactuer as a tempory wheel can be used in the event of a tyre failure to a normal running tyre. The proviso is that the overall aspect ratio (the height of the tyre & wheel) must be under a 2% differnce, my Sorento XSE is 1.5%. So this means under such circumstances a 16" wheel can be used on the same axle as a 18" wheel, but as my spare has a narrower footprint on the road to the normal road tyres then the max speed should be under 50mph and care should be taken when driving. Towing can be done with the "tempory" spare but only to get to somewhere where the regular tyre can be repaired/replaced.
Hi James, thanks for your replies to my question. Just for your information, as a fellow XSE owner, I tried to see if one of the normal 18" wheels would fit under the vehicle and it does. But, the mechanism to hold the wheel up can't be used as it doesn't fit through the centre hole of the wheel, it being much smller then the hole on the 16" wheel. So it seems it's not an option to carry an full size 18" wheel & tyre unless I can source an identical size of wheel with a larger central hole. I'd quite like to do this as towing a would be best without having to use a tempory spare. I contacted Kia for a price on our wheels and in any event a wheel & tyre would be around
I have read this with interest as my Mazda 6 also has a "spacesaver"spare and was about to buy a spare full sized alloy wheel ( ouch) . but have also checked and I was told it is ok as long as you are going to a place to get full sized tyre replaced. Had even thought about a steel spare but keep it in the van as dont think it would fit in the available space
Hi Peter, although I'm now satisfied that I could tow with my "tempory" spare I will make enquires into seeing if I can source a steel 18" wheel of the correct dimensions, one that would fit underneath my Sorento. I'll only be completely happy when I know I've got a proper spare. I don't fancy trying to find a replacement tyre of the right kind in Europe, should we ever get into that situation. Cheers, Gordon.
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