How Do I “Collapse” The Spare After Use?
[AV – 99/1/16] Unfortunately, the spare does not fold into itself enough to allow easy replacement into the spare tire compartment, especially if has been inflated for a while.
This is what I do. After letting most of the pressure out of the tire by pushing the tire valve, I unscrew the tire valve and take it out. Then I take a ratchet-type tie down strap, the variety you use to secure a car down to a trailer when towing, and I attach the hooks at both ends of the strap to each other, forming a loop. I place this looped tie down strap around the deflated spare tire, and activate the ratchet to tighten the strap around the tire, until it is compressed fully to the tire’s smallest diameter. I can now reinstall the tire valve, take off the strap, and replace the spare into the spare tire compartment without any problem.
You can also leave it compressed like this overnight so the spare tire will have “settled” into its compressed position, and will not expand back out, before reinstalling.
[A/H – 99/1/18] Take the black rubber tip off the valve cap. This exposes the valve core removal tool. Remove the valve core carefully, it will fly out usually straight towards your eye. Let all the air out, then reinstall the valve core. If you don’t you won’t use the spare again.
See page 190 or there about in the owners manual depending on the year of your car.
How fast is the air pump?
[VB – 99/1/31] The pump states that it will inflate a tire in about 15 minutes but I needed something more precise. On my stock 91-93 style wheels and tires, I measured a little more than 30 seconds for about 3lbs of air pressure. Running it for exactly a minute yielded about 6lbs of additional air pressure. The rear tires took about 10 seconds more (40 sec total) to achieve the same 3lb inflation.
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