The van has done it again

I presume this was while the engine was running, and that you routinely check that the ignition and oil lights come on (and then go out) every time you turn the key to start the engine.

No, but can they fit one that you/they *do* have?

I wouldn't consider buying a car that didn't have a spare wheel. Ideally I'd like it to be a proper full-size wheel that can be driven as far and as fast as any of the normal running wheels, because I've never had a flat tyre that's happened during daylight hours when a tyre-repair garage is open, but I think cars with those are as rare as hen's teeth.

But at least a space-saver wheel means you can drive the car to the garage, and that the punctured tyre may still be repairable. Once you fill a punctured tyre with the self-inflate goo, I believe it almost always has to be replaced.

I really would like legislation to make it mandatory that all cars are designed so they can accommodate a full-size, fully-serviceable spare, so you can drive on it for a few days until it's convenient to take the original to be repaired/replaced.

With the greatest of respect this could go on forever ...

The problem is such legislation might make the UK the odd man out in the international market and either reduce the choice of vehicles available, or increase the price of those that are considerably. Or both.

Of course if the UK had a indigenous mass car manufacturing base, it would be an easy law to pass. But we don't.

It's the sort of legislation that I would have expected larger trading alliances like the EU, the USA, etc to have passed years ago when space-saver tyres first became a possibility, to say "any tyre that cannot be used as long or as fast as the normal running tyres is not roadworthy and should be banned", and that all cars should be fitted with a means of circumventing the problems with flat tyres which is viable even when tyre-repair garages are closed, so you don't, as a matter of dire emergency, need to get the tyre repaired. This always used to be the case, until run-flat and spacesaver tyres became legal.

I don't think I've ever had a puncture during the time that garages are open. I usually discover it when I come to drive (often on a long journey) after a weekend away. The only time it's happened *during* a journey was when an oncoming car forced me onto a verge and the edge of the tarmac beside the rut in the verge ripped the inside wall of the tyre. And that was late at night. Parked cars on the offside, none on my side, so I had priority. Oncoming car with headlights stopped behind a parked car, so I could see it was safe to proceed. Then when I was a few yards away he suddenly pulled out so I did an emergency stop and steered out of his way. He drove off, giving me the finger (*) for my "temerity" in sounding my horn to say "watch out - haven't you seen me?".

It was in response to that puncture that I discovered that the bolt had seized which held the spare-wheel cage under the boot.

(*) Sign of the times: British people don't even use the British V sign any more and have adopted the US middle-finger gesture ;-)

In ths case- and it was in the 1960s - the ignition light did not go out after the engine started . I spyyed this as I was aboutb to leave my drive. So I went into reverse to put the car somewhere sensible to have a look why and then the light went out. I erronious thought the 'fault' had cured itself.

Well we get the legislation our elected officials decide on. Also (as noted) across a production run of 200,000+ vehicles the cost of a fully functional spare is going to be something. Plus the ongoing energy cost of having to heft that around the country for tens of thousands of miles.

There's also the social policy dimension - spare wheel theft used to be a "thing". Not so much these days.

No, it's been replaced by theft of catalytic converters and turbos :-(

The last time I changed wheel on my own car was when s couple of goths put a knife through the sidewall of the 4x4 in the supermarket car park

I did help a woman change wheels on her Polo a couple of years ago though. Not easy with massive angina every time I exerted myself - before I got the last set of stents.

I cant remember having had a fast puncture in the last 20 years TBH.

There were numerous instances of water pump failure causing the cambelt to lose teeth on the vauxhall/GM 1.6 and 1.8 litre dohc petrol engines during the noughties.

GM then reduced the interval for changing it to 40K miles and advised that the water pump and idler was alway changed with the cam belt. Honest John had many articles about this problem. The water pump was hidden inside the cambelt cover (unsurprisingly) so it ran much hotter (no external airflow).

Latest version of the 1.6 petrol, as fitted to my Astra H has the pump infront of the block where it gets airflow and is driven from the multi-ribbed belt. Cambelt interval is now back to 100K miles.

But they don't do it properly.

We had this discussion in another thread when I noted that you no longer see broken 'fan' belts on the side of the road like we used to with the old V-belts.

having watched my neighbour wrestling with these belts on a variety of cars on his drive, I wouldn't want to have to try and replace on on the side of the road.

Some Fords don't even have means of adjustment. They are 'stretch fit' and need a special tool to guide it over all the ribs on the pulleys into the correct position.

It can be easier than replacing the old fashioned ones. No having to lever the alternator to tension it.

IIRC, some cars had a resistor in parallel with the bulb so it would still charge if it blew. Perhaps in these days of LEDs, they all have. Although some alternators are now controlled by the engine ECU.

My car model in an early guise did have a full size spare. Not none - but you get the benefit of a much larger boot space.

Surely it's something you can check on before buying the car, and decide for yourself? Having a spare tyre has no safety implications.

I wasn't bemoaning the lack of a spare ...

One of the problems of modern, multi-v belts. Old, single-v belts could be replaced with adjustable length ones, made of links that just hooked together.

SteveW

Correct about the belt shape and it's not a fan belt. Most fans went electric years ago and are operated by a thermostat.

It does also powers the aircon.

The power steering is electric as that works fine without the belt and a charged battery.

My guess is it snapped on Thursday morning as I did about 35 miles on Thursday (no headlights) to get to work and I was 8 miles on my way home with headlights when the battery died.

This one said he would have preferred to have had the belt as he would have been able to fit it.

He had the belt for the models without air con but could not fit that and leave me with no air con as the aircon pulley was in the way.