Looking for some advice from the knowledge base here.
I have recently bought a battery electric car for our urban use but we'll do the occasional highway road trip in it.
It came without a spare tyre, just a toy compressor and a bottle of goop. Not being a fan of the goop and what it does to an internal TPMS sensor if used in anger (and the subsequent cost of remediation), I sourced a space saver spare.
Because the vehicle comes without a spare, there is no factory option. With a bit of research I found one from a different car manufacturer. PCD and stud pattern is fine, centre hole is fine, offset appears ok - according to texta marks on the garage floor, centreline of the tyre when mounted closely matches the centreline of a factory original.
Only thing not quite right is overall diameter. Diameter is about half an inch larger than OEM road tyre, so radius about 1/4 inch larger.
The vehicle is front wheel drive.
I suspect there will be no issue if the spare is put on the back.
But is that 0.5 inch difference in diameter significant if on a driving wheel at the front? I'm aware of handling considerations but I'm mainly thinking about the differential. I suppose there will also be other considerations such as ABS, traction control, stability control, all that stuff.
In common with other space-savers, the wheel is placarded at 80kph max with which I will, of course, comply. And only use it for the minimum distance to get
home or to a tyre
shop, etc, etc.
And yes, in the event of a flat on the front I could put the spare on a back wheel and move the rear wheel to the front, but I would really appreciate some comment about the mechanical considerations of a slightly larger diameter (0.5 inch) on one of the driving wheels.
It's an open diff.
Is that half inch difference between sides, about 2%, significant?
Thanks all in advance.