This past weekend I went in search of a spare tire (that wasn’t a donut) for my 2003 Impala. I found a 2003 impala at the junkyard with a pretty good tire and rim on it and bought it. I took it to a tire place and they inspected it and balanced it and said it should work fine. However when I got home I noticied that the spare tire isn’t the exactly same tire size as the four that are on my car. Now this is not a tire I plan using unless I get a flat and then not having it on the car that long if that should ever occur. The tires on my car are PR220/60/r16 the spare is PR215/65/r16. Will this cause any handling issues should I have to use the spare?
It’s close…Little narrower and about the same height. Ever have a donut spare?
Right now I have both, a donut nad a full time, for time being will be keeping both as trunk is large enough.
The 215/65 has a 1.4% circumference and “revolutions per mile” difference vs the 220/60.
On a non-awd vehicle, many wouldn’t even blink at difference like this. For your use as a short term spare, I wouldn’t worry about it.
Are you sure the tires on your car are 220s? I can’t say that I’ve ever seen or heard of a tire in that width.
Good catch OK.
Assuming that 220 really was 225, the tire calculators still show it as a 1.4% difference in circumference and revs/mile.
What size is your compact spare? It would be useful to see what the circumference difference is for that one.
Regardless, you could play it safe and put the odd tire on the non-driven axle if it’s ever needed.
The next time you get tires, you might want to save the best old one to use as your new spare. Double-check that the wheels themselves are identical in size, of course.
It’s far, far closer and far, far safer than the doughnut spares. For your application you’ll be fine.
My plan is on next tire replacement to sub out the best used onto the spare wheel. I am not sure the size of the donut, it looks like it was never even used by previous owner.
It will almost perfect for your usage and this kind of thing has been done nearly forever on ordinary cars like yours without any problems.
Are you saying the compact spare doesn’t have the size printed on it? That’s unusual.
No, I just haven’t looked that close, I opened the compartment to see it was there and closed it back up, it appears to have never been removed. When I saw it I just knew I had to get a real tire.
For that small difference in size and as a spare I’d use it and not worry one second about it.
I’m also not a fan of T-type spares or no spares at all. My Lincoln has the space saver spare and I’d love to be rid of it and replace it with a full size but the wheel well cover would not come anywhere close to closing again and a lot of trunk space would disappear.
Lincoln designed that fake spare tire hump on the trunk lid. Maybe they should carried that out a bit further and made it functional.
You mean like some of these?
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=classic+lincoln+continental+spare+tires&qpvt=classic+lincoln+continental+spare+tires&qpvt=classic+lincoln+continental+spare+tires&FORM=IGRE
Those are a little too functional… 
Except for those two times that I have had a flat on a car with knock off wire wheels, I can’t think of a single time when a temporary spare wouldn’t have worked just fine. A knock off temporary spare would have been fine too, if there were such a thing. The key word here is TEMPORARY. What’s the problem?
Apparently, MG, you must live in an area that doesn’t have bad winters. And very short days in the winter. Would you want to have to put a compact spare on on snowy roads? Would you feel safe? I wouldn’t.
If having the spare match in size concerns you why not write down the size you want before you go to search for a spare?
For myself a compact spare suits me just fine. I prefer the trunk space and less weight. The last time that I used a compact spare was fifteen years ago traveling between Nogales, Mexico and Ciudad Juarez Mexico. After taking care of business in Juarez I stopped at a llantera (used tire store) and purchased a used tire for $20 and drove home. No snow on that trip.
On my truck I carry two full size spare tires because I travel 50 to 75 miles from the pavement, off road travel is more hazardous.
I really didn’t think much about it, I figured the tires coming off the same car year wise would be the same size.