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gaters
Original Poster
576 posts
66 months
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Thought I would share my frustrating experience today with the Merc fraternity of my flat tyre. What a nightmare!!
I was taking the kids to school and suddenly there was an awful burning smell and a pretty ropey ride. Flat tyre was my first thought. It was 7.45am - this won't take me long kids - sit tight!?
7.45
I hate seeing people calling out the 4th emergency services to change tyres. I got the kids out, secured the front wheel, (the flat was passenger rear), loosened the nuts, placed the jack and lifted it sufficiently to "take the slack". Better check how I operate the space saver first me thinks before I jack the car up and take the offending wheel off. Got the space saver out with the little electric pump, connected it and started blowing ---- Nothing!. Ummh what could I possibly be doing wrong here I thought!. No success after 15 minutes. I thought I would try and blow up the deflated main tyre and then limp to a garage. After 10 minutes no success. I look behind the main tyre to see the whole tyre has shredded from the wheel!
8.15
Not to panic I tell the 16 year old to walk the last 1.5 miles to school and call Merc garage. They are very good. I am doing nothing wrong they assure me, the space savers can be a little difficult (understatement !!!!!!!!!!!). They issue an instruction to Mondial - there service people.
8.30
Begin to lose confidence in my own ability I call my secretary and ask her to come and collect my 11 year old and take him to school - round trip for her of 35 miles. Thats that issue taken care of and the 16 year old confirms proudly that she has successfully walked the 1.5 miles to her school.
9.00
Mondial call - we will be there 9.45
9.47
Mondial arrives. "Aaaah the famous space saver" he says - "had a few of these". "Have many problems with these before". After about 30 minutes of using his more powerful blower without success and confirming that the main wheel is indeed totally shredded, we go to a tyre shop to try and fix the space saver with there better equipment. This takes another 45 minutes but at least it is a success. Drive back to the Merc
11.00
Arrive back at the car and take the shredded wheel off. "Aaaah" says Mondial man, "this spacer thing could be our next problem, they tend to weld to the alloy wheel!". Christ me thinks whatever next! After WD 40 (or something), various terminally looking battering blows to the stuck fast item with a hammer, chisels and screwdrivers the spacer comes off and we attach the space saver spare wheel. Another 45 minutes have lapsed.
11.45
In the meantime, while Mondial man is been most helpful and hard working (brilliant actually and I will write and commend him very highly)I have been asking all sorts of tyre shops if they have two (the front tyre has an annoying slow puncture so should get that seen to too) Yokohama 270/30/22 in stock. NO they all say - next week at the earliest. Prices from £650 the pair to £500 the pair.
I decide to take and leave the car at the National Tyre shop - cheapest and have used them many times before - but 16 miles of 50mph max on the space saver.
12.15
Car delivered to National Tyre - total time to change the wheel = 4.5 hours.
Morale of the moan - changing a wheel is no longer always an easy task. I unreservedly apologise to all those people that I have seen standing by when the RAC/AA/GreenFlag/Mondial man have been sweating on their behalf - sorry!!!
To Neil from Mondial - you were excellent! A big thank you!
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Another Fluffer
3,597 posts
34 months
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Serves you right for not taking the Scud' 
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gaters
Original Poster
576 posts
66 months
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Another Fluffer said: Serves you right for not taking the Scud' Thank god I did not. Have you ever tried to get a jack under a scud!!!!!!!!!! That is worse than a nightmare. 
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Another Fluffer
3,597 posts
34 months
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 Not a scud no, have on a Murci! Not a pleasant experience! Amazing collection of cars btw, where about in the UK are you? 
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gaters
Original Poster
576 posts
66 months
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Another Fluffer said: Not a scud no, have on a Murci! Not a pleasant experience! Amazing collection of cars btw, where about in the UK are you? Based in Northamptonshire for my sins. Thanks for the compliments on the cars - one for most occasions!!
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Alex@POD
3,509 posts
84 months
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Maybe there are things I don't know about newer cars, but why wasn't your spare wheel inflated?
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gaters
Original Poster
576 posts
66 months
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Alex@POD said: Maybe there are things I don't know about newer cars, but why wasn't your spare wheel inflated? The space saver is a very small rimmed wheel with a flat tyre that you have to inflate at road side when you need to use it. Once inflated it grows to almost the size of the normal tyre. The idea is that uninflated it saves loads of boot space compared to having a normal spare wheel so you have more storage etc. Great idea if it works - which it often does not. When it does work it is an amazing thing to see a tiny compressed wheel grow to the size of a normal wheel - as I said if it works!!!!!!!!!!!
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oldcynic
1,545 posts
30 months
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gaters said: Alex@POD said: Maybe there are things I don't know about newer cars, but why wasn't your spare wheel inflated? The space saver is a very small rimmed wheel with a flat tyre that you have to inflate at road side when you need to use it. Once inflated it grows to almost the size of the normal tyre. The idea is that uninflated it saves loads of boot space compared to having a normal spare wheel so you have more storage etc. Great idea if it works - which it often does not. When it does work it is an amazing thing to see a tiny compressed wheel grow to the size of a normal wheel - as I said if it works!!!!!!!!!!! The thing I've never understood about this whole space-saver malarkey (even the pre-inflated ones that come with my Volvo) is where the f  k you're supposed to put the flat tyre if you've actually used the extra boot space that the space-saver created?! Somehow I don't feel so stupid carrying a full-size spare in the boot on top of the space-saver when I really don't need the boot space for anything else.
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gaters
Original Poster
576 posts
66 months
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oldcynic said: he thing I've never understood about this whole space-saver malarkey (even the pre-inflated ones that come with my Volvo) is where the f k you're supposed to put the flat tyre if you've actually used the extra boot space that the space-saver created?! Somehow I don't feel so stupid carrying a full-size spare in the boot on top of the space-saver when I really don't need the boot space for anything else. Good point... it took some rearranging in my boot moving the golf clubs on the back seat etc etc.. your right
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66comanche
2,369 posts
28 months
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Started to feel a little pity, checked garage, didn't.
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chrisr29
1,121 posts
66 months
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gaters said: Yokohama 270/30/22 in stock. NO they all say - next week at the earliest. Yeah, 'cause that's a common size 
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surveyor
4,547 posts
53 months
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I've had to use the 4th Emergency Serrice a couple of times. 1. When offside went on the M5/ Could not pull off due to barriers. Quite fancied the protection of a Van with lots of flashing lights.
2. Same car - Laguna II. I caught a side wall on a sharp kerb stone and ripped a hole into it. Bolts were tight, so employed emergency stand on the wench. It snapped.
Also took a rather large amount of pleasure when my brother called them out because he could not free the wheel from the hub. (I may have made a special journey to laugh). Like wise when he had a 3 series convertible with run flats that failed spectacularly. Car had to be be flat bedded away, for him to find no tyres in the country. BMW paid for a hire car for two weeks while they sought some out.
Also know of someone who tried to stop the jack from coming away from a Panda, thinking it was only light. As a result he was trapped, saved only by a passing jogger. Lucky to keep his fingers. Don't feel embarrassed at calling breakdown service out as a result.
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soad
15,890 posts
45 months
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That sounds painful, would have given me a headache for sure.
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Glosphil
2,069 posts
103 months
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I won't buy a car unless the wheel well is of a diameter to hold a full sized spare - by full-size I mean the same size as the other 3 wheels. Being legally limited to 80kph when a space saver is fitted is a PITA. I had to travel nearly 200 miles during the night due to the spare being a space-saver. Some new cars are specified as having a full sized spare when it really means 'not a space saver'. An example is 195/50-16 on the car and the spare is 175/65-15; different size so car legally limited to 80kph when spare fitted. And as for cars with no spare but just a can of 'foam' - my last two punctures make the tyre unrepairable so without a spare I would have been stranded.
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PumpkinSteve
1,802 posts
25 months
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The most important part of the story for me is that you have a secretary on standby to take your kids to school. I could do with a secretary to do some odd jobs for me, walking the dog, defrosting the Sunday chicken etc.
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SlipStream77
1,631 posts
60 months
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PumpkinSteve said: The most important part of the story for me is that you have a secretary on standby to take your kids to school. I could do with a secretary to do some odd jobs for me, walking the dog, defrosting the Sunday chicken etc. You don't have a secretary? You're not one of these people who washes their own cars are you?
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rog007
3,045 posts
93 months
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SlipStream77 said: You don't have a secretary? You're not one of these people who washes their own cars are you? Is that a euphemism?
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heebeegeetee
19,534 posts
117 months
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Sounds like a car not fit for the purpose for which it was sold.
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dm46
158 posts
13 months
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Does you secetary also provide "stress relief" and "massage services"? If so I'd get one myself!
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TheInternet
444 posts
32 months
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gaters said: there was an awful burning smell...
... I look behind the main tyre to see the whole tyre has shredded from the wheel How far had you gone on a flat tyre to achieve this?
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