Last friday I was on Masspike and all of a sudden I heard a weird noise. So I stopped on the side of the highway and found out my right rear tire was gone. When I took it off I found the inner side wall of the tire has a hole in it. So I put on the donut, went to nearest sears and replaced the rear tires with new pair of tires. Now my question is can I take the wheel off the donut and put it on the other good tire and use that as a spare or do I need to buy another wheel? I ask that question because I figured if I ever get another flat again I can just use the good tire to drive around for a while before I have to get new tires.
Yes you can. I will do it if I have an extra full size tire. The factory spare tire is for short distance(less than 50 miles driving to get a new tire) rolling only. So if you have a full size spare tire, you can do the tire shopping anytime later.
I doubt any reputable tyre fitter would put a full size tyre on the doughnut rim, as this is much narrower than the standard rim. Something the tyre was not designed for. You can however use a full size rim (wheel) with the tyre you have as a spare. John (Britprius)
not sure the full size tyre would even fit on the donut. you can get a full size wheel at a breaker yard or ebay pretty cheap, but i'm not sure if that will fit in the spare area.
are you the o/p? do you have two screen names? you can probably get specs from the parts dept. at dealership.
You definitely need to buy another wheel for the good tire, if you wish to use that as a spare tire. However, note that the good tire mounted on the correct wheel most likely will not fit into the space allocated for the compact spare tire. The compact spare tire is mounted on a 16" wheel and is very narrow. The 2005 Prius uses 15" wheels for the regular tires, which are wider than the compact spare.
Correct, A full sized spare will not fit in the space designed for the donut spare. My full sized spare is in the back on top of the panel. I made a hold town bolt and wing nut through the panel for it. A tire cover is cheap. It is in the rear right corner, where the extra weight balances out the car, if it is most used by the driver alone.
