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space saver wheels

Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2009 12:42 pm
by mutleysfriend
I have a space saver wheel which I assume is suited to the standard size wheels for my RX-7 (16"). I am currently running on 17" wheels and also have a spare set of 18" wheels. My question is will I damage anything (diff?) if I use the spacesaver wheel with anything other than 16" wheels? Can you run on different size wheels for emergency purposes?

I have never really thought about it before but there is little point in carrying the spare if I shouldn't use it.
mf.

Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2009 1:22 pm
by Gerry H
The rolling radius should be the same i.e. bigger dia. wheel, lower profile tyre. Hold the space saver against your current wheel and compare heights, they should be the same. Unless you've fitted bigger calipers, it should still fit. 50mph max on SSs though.

Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2009 1:56 pm
by AdrianP
Easiest way to work this out is to use one of the online tyre size calculators,

Pop in the size of the space saver (or the original sized tyres if it's easier) and then the size of the tyres you want to run and see how much the difference is.

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalcold.html is the one I use although you might have to update Java to get it to work.

My guess is that if your new ones were pretty close for the speedo acuracy you need then hopefully the space saver would be ok to use.

Ady.