How long to drive on a spare wheel?

Dec 28, 2011
1,250
2
Cairo, Egypt
Hello there

This is probably not the forum to ask but I have been here for a long time now and you guys have been more than nice, helpful and knowledgeable and I just felt like this is the exactly where I need to ask this question. My Dad recently had an accident with this car (2007 BMW 525i) where he was driving at night and there were like huge rocks on the road which he didn't see and he hit them with his front right wheel. The wheel broke and the tyre inflated and the car has been parked under the house ever since then.

I am not sure if you know this, but the situation in Egypt has been pretty bad recently (politically speaking) and therefore importing and such is getting very difficult and stores that import are not able to receive their shipments yet.

To make it short, we're not able get any wheels to replace the broken one yet. My Dad wants to get a set of four since the ones on the car are old already so it'd be better to replace all four rather than just one.

This is a picture of the wheel:

4tyg.jpg


I visited a couple of wheel repair shops and all of them told me it can be fixed for a high price and it will be back as new, however I have been advised against that and to be honest I am unsure about the safety of that.

Now the car has a lightweight spare wheel like the one that came with my Leon and I had someone install it a couple of days ago.

The problem is that the SEAT dealership sold the rights to Volkswagen Group in Egypt but VW Group still hasn't received the license or something and aren't selling accessories and spare parts yet, so I am in a situation where my brake pads are starting to make sounds and I don't want to drive the car until I have them replaced.

I don't know if I can drive my Dad's car on the spare wheel? I know that the max speed is 80 km/h which is fine by me, but really how long can you drive on it?

Thank you guys for your time, you can just skip the whole story on the top and answer my question at the bottom if you may and have time. Appreciate it.
 
Last edited:

t121anf

Newbie
May 14, 2004
570
9
Internet suggests its speed not distance that matters and under normal circumstances not to travel far, I.e. to the tyre shop.

In your case, it's needs must, keep the speed low and change when possible. (Edit) oh and drive careful, remember its a different size so handling etc is compromised.
 
Last edited:
Dec 28, 2011
1,250
2
Cairo, Egypt
Thank you for your input. I have done a lot of research about it and yes, research did reveal that it is more important to drive under or on the speed limit rather than care too much about the distance. I know that handling is definitely compromised and so is the differential or w.e it's called since it will have to work harder than it normally should. A couple of people noted that it blew out on them only thirty minutes after installing them while others said it lasted them for a long time until they got their paycheck and were able to buy a new wheel.

I honestly do not know what to do at this point. I had a 2011 Mazda 3 which I kept driving on for about two or three days after the brake pads starting making sounds and then I ended up with very weird, loud sounds like metal grinding in metal and it turned out to be that the brake pads basically ruined the brake discs as well which cost me a dime and a leg to replace, which is why I do not want to drive my Leon until I have the pads replaced.

I guess I may just have to risk it with the BMW and hopefully nothing goes wrong. My Dad is going to Barcelona on the 22nd so unless VW starts selling SEAT spare parts beforehand, I may have to wait until he gets me brake pads from over there.

Does anyone know how I can identify exactly which brake pads I need? As in model number and such? It's a 2012 SEAT Leon 1.6 MPi.
 
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