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Bolt spare tire options

246K views 295 replies 80 participants last post by  jamaha 
#1 ·
As the manual states: ".. if the vehicle does get a flat tire, there is no spare tire, tire changing equipment, or place to store a tire. Contact Roadside Assistance for help.", are there aftermarket options for a spare tire kit ? like a donut space saver ?
 
#107 ·
I'm not a mechanic either. I liked the idea that the lift points were used in the factory. For all I know, I'm probably being overly cautious and you probably had the right idea to use the "pinch weld".

I'm still going to find the adapter, though, since I'm not due to rotate tires. If it comes to it, you're hockey puck seems a good idea on the lift pads.
 
#109 ·
Snow is coming here so I'll be switching to winter wheels soon. I found how they lift it at the factory through a video on YouTube. There are quite a few of them. If interested, enter "Chevy Bolt production" and you'll have a selection of videos.

They seem to be using a combination of the holes in the front and the pinch weld at the rear, at least for the part where they insert the battery pack. See photos below, taken from the video.

Both ways (holes or pinch welds) are probably fine.
 

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#113 ·
Yes, same edge. Impossible with this jack to put a jack stand on the rear lift pads (holes) because its front wheels are in the way.

The other approach I tried was using a 4 inch thick wood block on the jack's saddle to reach the lift pad, which is much higher up. My only worry there is that the battery pack is really close. If it slips (unlikely but possible I suppose), it could damage it.
 
#114 ·
I didn't realize the traction battery compartment was next to those lift pads. Good point to avoid slipping and damaging that compartment. I'll follow your route then if I can't scrounge up an S10 scissor jack from a local Pick-N-Pull.
 
#115 ·
I finally installed my winter wheels using the jack pad at the front and the pinch weld at the rear, and everything worked just fine. I used a hockey puck on my jack's saddle. I put the jack stand under the pinch weld, close to the jack.

Regarding the torque wrench setting, I remember reading on a forum somewhere that it is 100 ft-lbs? Can anyone confirm this? Thanks!
 
#117 ·
^ That 100ft/lbs is with the stock lugnuts, aftermarket lugs may have different ratings.

My winter rims have their own center covers, the stock lugs were a bit too tall to have it seat properly into the rim, I ordered "open" lugs that have no cap (they look like the old style lugs that went on steel wheels in the old days). Those came with instructions to torque to 80ft/lbs.
 
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#119 ·
With the long out of town trips we're now taking in the Bolt, I wanted to carry a spare tire. See earlier post in the Tech Forum dated 4/19/17 9:51pm. Donut style spare with details for a 2015 Chevy Cruze wheel (Chevy PN 13259230) combined with a certain size (135/90R16) donut tire match the Bolts lug bolt pattern and overall diameter that fits the Bolt. My apologies for the up-side-down picture of the spare under the false cargo floor where it fits nicely. Total cost incl jack about $210.

Side note about the "sealant". Use as last resort as I've heard from tire repair shops that the sealant makes it close to impossible for a proper inside patch to adhere sufficiently to the tire surface.

Good luck!

Oldskybolt
 
#120 ·
With the long out of town trips we're now taking in the Bolt, I wanted to carry a spare tire. See earlier post in the Tech Forum dated 4/19/17 9:51pm. Donut style spare with details for a 2015 Chevy Cruze wheel (Chevy PN 13259230) combined with a certain size (135/90R16) donut tire match the Bolts lug bolt pattern and overall diameter that fits the Bolt.
Where did you find the compact spare - is it a standard Chevy part? I asked my local tire shop about it today and they said that they can't source compact spares...
 
#125 ·
By the way, I'll add my spare tire experience to this thread: I was able to fit a mounted, inflated stock tire on a stock wheel in the lower cargo compartment, and the false floor (just) fits on top of it. In fact the wheel and tire make a great support for the false floor so that you don't have to worry about it sagging if you put something heavy on top of it.

The tire & wheel is a tight fit - you have to lower the front edge of the tire (the edge closest to the front of the car) first and then drop the rear edge into place. When I first tried fitting the tire in there I lowered its rear edge first and couldn't get it into place.

With the tire in place there is a fair bit of space available along its left and right sides for additional equipment such as a jack, wrecking bar, first aid kit, etc.
 
#128 ·
To add my own experience as well, I found wrapping the fullsize spare in something that slips on carpet and plastic makes slipping the fullsize spare into the lower cargo area much easier. When I stowed it bare, the tire rubber kept catching on the plastic surfaces and made it difficult to drop the spare into the cargo area. Adding a faux leather tire cover made it very easy to slide in/out of the cargo area since no rubber on plastic contact.

Also, with my fullsize spare (17x7.5" wheel), I had trouble lowering the rear seats since the fullsize spare was jamming the folding point from the back of the rear seats. You'll have to lift the fullsize spare temporarily out of the cargo area before you can lower the rear seats.
 
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#126 ·
Some vehicles (e.g. Ford Taurus Police) require the use of a full sized, inflated spare to achieve a rear collision impact rating of 75mph(121km/hr).
The interceptor also has square steel tubular bars welded behind the rear seats - in strategic locations to transfer/distribute rear impact forces.

For the Bolt, I wonder about the rear collision delta. i.e.: does inserting a ~30lb chunk of stamped steel in this location improve, diminish or leave unchanged - the rear impact rating?
And how might this effect vehicle damage for occupants / first responders re: battery. ?

I know, - for several decades we have not seemed to worry very much about having a 50+ litre tank of liquid gasoline strapped to our rear ends... so there is that.
 
#135 ·
I just picked up a compact spare from a salvage yard off a Trax/Encore. It is a 125/70/16 with a 5x105 bolt pattern the same as the Bolt, and it fits great. The radius is about an inch shorter than a full-size, but it will work great as a temp on the rear to get to a tire store, if ever needed. The Cruze compact spare will fit also, it is a 115/70/16. I also pick up a scissor jack from a blazer with the bubble on top that fits the lift point dimple on the Bolt's frame just behind the front wheel. Because of the weight of the bolt I have a second scissor jack with a 1/2"x 1 1/2" ring welded at the top that fits around the frame bolt lift point just in front of the rear wheel. Both jacks, and a 19mm tire iron fit in the lower foam section of the rear compartment very well. I may never need the spare, but I have no spare anxiety now.
 
#136 · (Edited)
Using the OEM Tire and Wheel as a Spare Tire

I'm just using a standard OEM tire mounted on a standard OEM wheel as my spare tire:




It fits right down into the lower cargo compartment with the false floor removed, without having to lower the rear seat (as I mistakenly thought you did). You have to place the tire into the compartment in the center so that the rear part of the tire fits into the portion of the rear wall that bulges furthest outward, then once it's on the floor you can move it to the right to make a little more space on the left side to store equipment like a jack, tire wrench, etc:



You can't move the tire to the left because of the middle seatbelt anchor, and you can't move it too far to the right because then it will interfere with lowering and raising the right portion of the rear seat.
 
#144 ·
I'm just using a standard OEM tire mounted on a standard OEM wheel as my spare tire:
<snip>
You can't move the tire to the left because of the middle seatbelt anchor, and you can't move it too far to the right because then it will interfere with lowering and raising the right portion of the rear seat.
I used a $20 faux leather tire cover off Amazon and the smooth faux leather slide allows the tire to slide around quite a bit and no longer catches on the rear seats. I can fold the right, rear seat back without any issue due to the smooth tire cover preventing friction interference.

BTW, where did you get the OEM wheel? My parts dept quoted $400 while cheapest online I could find was $250. I went with a complete wheel+tire for $180 though now that I think about it, the $250 wheel doesn't sound so bad.
 
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#142 ·
I'm still looking to see if a donut spare could be put under the floor where the spare is supposed to be.
I don't think that round well underneath the lower cargo compartment was really intended for a spare. It looks round but it isn't, because it butts up against the back end of the car so there's a huge flat spot at the back which means it's fore-aft dimension is much shorter (at about 20 inches) than its left-right one (about 30 inches). Any tire that could fit in that space would much smaller than the ~24 inch diameter of the stock tires.
 
#151 · (Edited)
If you live near Ruckersville, VA, you can find some used OEM wheels with low mileage tires on them at M & M Service and Salvage. This is the salvage yard that the IIHS sells used crash test cars to.
I was up there the other day. They had four Bolts, four i3s. and four Teslas. I saw the Tesla carcasses, but the others were not within eye-shot, and you can't walk around the yard. It is an amazing place, All their cars are stripped down to the bare chassis. Every removable piece is bar-coded, and stored in racks in huge metal buildings. I bought an LT rim, and the last six tires they had. Got six for the price of two at The Tire Rack. Tons of room in this car. The tires weren't even blocking my rear view. I had room for at least six more, without using the front passenger seat.

The rim looked like it just came out of the factory, and the tires have the mold flashing still on them and are spotless. Had one mounted at our neighborhood shop, for a spare for long trips. I figure about 35-40K on tires, so we are set until 2024!
 
#149 ·
In the past, I've had a couple of awful experiences with flat/blowout tire emergencies WAY out in the sticks, and was saved by having a spare tire. In both cases, an emergency slime/inflate kit would not have helped, and no cellphone or roving highway patrol assistance was available.

With the Bolt, I don't really expect to be out in the middle of nowhere very much, due to irs range limitation, but if I did that regularly, I'd really want a spare tire along (even emergency size). I'm wondering why a "continental kit" type of spare carrier couldn't be developed for such occasional use, to mount on a light-duty receiver hitch. It shouldn't be much of an engineering challenge, and the ugliness of having it back there would only need be temporary.
 
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#150 ·
I just finished acquiring stuff for a spare tire kit that will work on both our 2017 Volt and Bolt, for less than $200 with all new stuff. Here's a link to my post in GM-Volt.com.
 
#153 ·
Here's a paste from GM-Volt.com, with pix!

I bought a Cruz spare from eBay, plus some other stuff from Amazon, and now have a complete spare tire kit!

2011-2015 CHEVY CRUZE COMPACT SPARE TIRE WITH JACK KIT $153.00
Slime 60190 Quick Spair Tire Inflator with Eco-friendly Formula $8.87
Cartman Telescoping Lug Wrench, Wheel Wrench $10.99
DBPOWER Portable Mini 12V Tire Inflator $17.99

Only $190.85 for the whole works, and I believe that I'm good to go travelling with either the '17 Volt or '17 Bolt! Pix attached. The rubber mats for the boot floor and false floor are cut from a roll of floormat rubber that I got from Auto Zone for about $10.
 

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#156 ·
Agreed, I think the Chevy S-10 jack with the metal round half-dome fitting for the Bolt factory jack points is a better idea. A few forum members have picked up those style jacks in junk yards for cheap. It’s a perfect fit for the Bolt factory jack points.

On the Bolt the lower rocker panel plastic body cladding fits right up against the pinch welds, I don’t know how flexible it is, but I think that cladding might get damaged if you used a jack that had the jack saddle lifting up on the cladding.

I got around the jack point problem by making a couple of adapters for my compact floor jacks using a hardwood block and wooden half-round ball. Fit is perfect, and cost to build two adapters was about $10.
 

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#163 ·
I got a sidewall tear last month, I won't bore y'all with the details. Suffice to say the compressor and sealant kit was worthless for this kind of damage and it was 4+ hours before I was back on the road. A flatbed tow for any kind of tire damage is unacceptable for me. While sidewall damage is rare, I have heard of at least 5-6 occurrences of this within our small Bolt owners population. I now have a full-size stock rim/tire, jack and tool in back. Next time the down time will be a few mins.
But since I have a spare, of course it will never happen again...
 

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#164 ·
I now have a full-size stock rim/tire, jack and tool in back. Next time the down time will be a few mins.
But since I have a spare, of course it will never happen again...
Me too. But I don't have the spare tire cover yet. Curious what size you got. I'm looking at a 26" x 6.5" from Walmart. Wouldn't wrap very far, if at all around the top side of the tire, like yours does. But I don't see a need to cover any of the top side. What do you think?

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Spare-Trailer-Tire-Wheel-Storage-Cover/38068471
 
#168 · (Edited)
OK I think I'm going to buy a 15" steel wheel for a Sonic and a regular (non-temporary spare) tire to use as my spare. Should actually be cheaper than getting a used Cruze spare from a junkyard and then a temporary spare tire that's closer in diameter to the OEM tire size while still being smaller (thinner) and quite a bit cheaper than a full sized OEM wheel & tire.

And as a bonus I could drive on his tire for as long as I needed if I had to (like if I wanted to order a replacement tire that would take a few days to arrive) and I could drive at highway speeds.

15" Steel Wheel for Sonic

205/65R15

According to the tire size calculator (see attached) these two tire sizes even have the exact same diameter so I could in theory run this as a spare on the front if I had to (probably wouldn't)

Thoughts?
 

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#249 ·
OK I think I'm going to buy a 15" steel wheel for a Sonic and a regular (non-temporary spare) tire to use as my spare. Should actually be cheaper than getting a used Cruze spare from a junkyard and then a temporary spare tire that's closer in diameter to the OEM tire size while still being smaller (thinner) and quite a bit cheaper than a full sized OEM wheel & tire.

And as a bonus I could drive on his tire for as long as I needed if I had to (like if I wanted to order a replacement tire that would take a few days to arrive) and I could drive at highway speeds.

15" Steel Wheel for Sonic

205/65R15

According to the tire size calculator (see attached) these two tire sizes even have the exact same diameter so I could in theory run this as a spare on the front if I had to (probably wouldn't)

Thoughts?
Did you go this route? If so, how well did it work for you?
 
#169 ·
I was going the same route as you, raitchison, only with a 16" wheel since 15" wasn't available at time on Tire Rack. Ultimately, the price difference was only $40 and I decided to go with my local Discount Tire since they treated me so well with flat repairs and timely service.
 
#171 · (Edited)
Look for a silver sticker with black lettering and a QR code around the edge of your driver's door (the edge on the Bolt's body, not the edge on the door itself). That sticker lists the GVWR which I forget but I think it means a fully loaded vehicle with passengers and some cargo using some averages for passengers and cargo.

Mine shows a GVWR of 4458 lbs, with the front being 2237 lbs and the rear being 2221 lbs (~51/49 split) so fairly symmetric distribution. I guess you could WAG it at about 1/4 of the GVWR, or 1100 lbs / corner *ASSUMING ALL TIRES TOUCH THE GROUND*.

It's been a while since mechanical physics, but depending on how rigid the Bolt is, wouldn't lifting one corner of the Bolt eventually lift the other nearby corners? So you could be lifting 1100+ lbs as you raise a corner higher and other adjacent corners start lifting up. When lifting at the lifting pads with my floor jack, I did notice the entire side of the Bolt started lifting once I got past a certain height.

On that note, has anyone actually used the pinchweld for lifting or placing your jack stands? I have seen this diagram, but I got nervous hearing horror stories about heavier vehicles (3500+ lbs) crunching/pending at the flange when lifting. I ask because @ldesaul bought a saddle-type lift for weld flanges.
 
#178 ·
I've skimmed this thread, possibly too quickly. I am not seeing that anyone has found a temporary spare that will fit in the lower storage area after removing the styrofoam. Is that correct. I know the size would be problematic to use for any distance on the front. If needed there I would only use if for very short distances, or swap it out with a tire from the rear. I'd really like to get it down in that lower area.
 
#181 ·
I don't think you will find one that will fit into the lower well, it's just too small. I left the Styrofoam template in there and managed to fit the jack and the 110V charger in there along with the towing bolt. I found a decent donut and jack combo on eBay (#323318035864) and it works on both front and back tires, just fine. I managed to ruin my original self-seal on a hunk of road debris and vowed I'd never have to be towed to a dealership (the next day, of course. . .and I was out of town at the time) again.
 
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