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Has anyone bought a spare/spare kit from ModernSpare.com?
I have 2019 E450 wagon with the Goodyear run-flats. When I bought the car used in 2020, the Audi dealer where it had been traded, had replaced the tires, but had no info about warranty.
I had an inside side wall go a few months ago, but I was only 2 miles from a MB dealer when it went, so limped there and they replaced the tire the next day for an exorbitant amount, but they had a tire in stock.
Now I have a slow leak. I carry a pump and a lug wrench. But, I'm thinking I need an actual spare. And, when these tires are needing to be replaced, to replace them with non-runflats.
While talking to the guy at the service desk at DiscountTire, he asked if I knew about the web site.
I have the wagon, and they've blocked where the spare should go with a brace for the rear facing seats. But, I' may see if I can take out the padded surround and bar, to see if this will fit.
If not I can lay it in the back, and if I need the full back, I can put it in the footwell of the back seat.
I have one because I switched out the awful RFTs for "real" tires. It's huge and weighs a ton, so I keep it in the garage for use on road trips. I figure that between AAA and the assorted flat-fixing things in my trunk, I don't really need it around town.
BTW, the Modern Spare products are available through Amazon — so if you have the Amazon/Chase credit card, you'll save 5%.
I bought the same kit direct via the company a few months ago for piece of mind as I don't have run-flats and tend to go on some long road trips far from anywhere where I might reliable get a tire replaced quickly, especially at night, and I also have a young kid. I also don't want to deal with the aftermath of the fix-a-flat goop the car comes with.
When the kit arrived I did a test-run of the kit and spare, it is all very nicely put together, thoughtfully includes everything you might need, and all very easy to operate. I really like the extendable breaker bar on the lug wrench and the lift-point for the jack has the right adapter installed to fit into the mercedes 'slot' at the lift-point under the vehicle. The kit does take up a bit of space in the wagon trunk, nothing really to be done about it, but not 1/2 the space as others say. There is no way to fit it under the floor, many have tried, it is what it is. With the bag it all comes in, it is easy to remove quickly if you need the space for a short trip, I just run it into my garage, only takes a minute and it weighs maybe 50lbs, not terrible for me.
One piece of advice, I've never owned a vehicle with wheel lug bolts (not lug nuts) before, it is kind of annoying to try and line up the wheel with the bolt holes and thread in the studs, a bit of a heavy juggling act with the full-size wheels especially, and I am afraid I might cross-thread them at some point, so I bought a couple of these to keep in the center console to make the job easier roadside or in my driveway.
I received mine last week, but was on vacation. Today, I removed the tire and replaced with the spare, to test everything.
The wing-nuts on the jack were a nice touch, so that I could get the jack top into the correct slot on the underside of the car. The jack handle being a ratchet was also a nice touch.
The lug wrench is well made, as well as the wheel.
Thanks to @ColoradoXJ13 and @BillMFD3 for their recommendations for the Wheel Alignment pin and the Thin-Walled sockets. Those both really helped with removing and attaching the wheels, and making sure nothing got scratched.
I've got a trip planned for Memorial Day weekend in a rural area, and this will add quite a bit of piece of mind.
Have you considered getting an impact wrench to go with it? There's several out there, Ryobi has a cheap $100 one with battery and charger but it's only good for 375 foot pounds in reverse but I guess if you check all your lug nuts with a torque wrench before a trip, 375 should be more than enough to take them all off. You could get a torque stick to put the lug nuts back on as I don't think there's a setting on the cheap $100 impact wrench, but they have a few more that are more expensive and the low setting is basically 100 foot pounds. The 600 foot pound one should be good enough and the 1170 is probably overkill. I use their tire inflator also.
Thanks for the suggestion @cetialpha5 , but I was able to pretty easily remove the bolts on the wheel, that had been torqued on by the dealer.
The lug bolt wrench that comes with the ModernSpare has a pretty long lever. Not like the old 4-way lug wrenches I used to carry, and used many times. Their lug bolt wrench has a 1/2" end like a socket wrench.
The jack that they ship is also designed well. It has "wing nuts" so that you can use your fingers to easily get the jack into the slot on the bottom of the car, and then you attach a ratchet to lift and lower the car.
I've used an electric impact wrench to take off lug nuts before. Way nicer than the old method of a 4 way lug wrench. Also when I bought my used car, I went to rotate the tires once and the tire shop couldn't get a couple lug nuts off. They just gave up. Went to another shop and the same thing, they couldn't get the lug nuts off, but then the guy went to another cabinet and brought out a way bigger impact wrench and that worked. Must have been some other shop that went nuts with their impact and after a few years, rust made them require even more torque to remove. That why I mention 600 and 1170 foot pounds of torque, 1170 should take off any lug nut no matter how hard they were on. I also have a Milwaukee 2767 which is 1400 but that's kinda super overkill and I don't want to leave that in my car but I don't mind a leaving a cheap $100 Ryobi in there.
I bought the same kit direct via the company a few months ago for piece of mind as I don't have run-flats and tend to go on some long road trips far from anywhere where I might reliable get a tire replaced quickly, especially at night, and I also have a young kid. I also don't want to deal with the aftermath of the fix-a-flat goop the car comes with.
When the kit arrived I did a test-run of the kit and spare, it is all very nicely put together, thoughtfully includes everything you might need, and all very easy to operate. I really like the extendable breaker bar on the lug wrench and the lift-point for the jack has the right adapter installed to fit into the mercedes 'slot' at the lift-point under the vehicle. The kit does take up a bit of space in the wagon trunk, nothing really to be done about it, but not 1/2 the space as others say. There is no way to fit it under the floor, many have tried, it is what it is. With the bag it all comes in, it is easy to remove quickly if you need the space for a short trip, I just run it into my garage, only takes a minute and it weighs maybe 50lbs, not terrible for me.
One piece of advice, I've never owned a vehicle with wheel lug bolts (not lug nuts) before, it is kind of annoying to try and line up the wheel with the bolt holes and thread in the studs, a bit of a heavy juggling act with the full-size wheels especially, and I am afraid I might cross-thread them at some point, so I bought a couple of these to keep in the center console to make the job easier roadside or in my driveway. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LMF53L1...roduct_details
It should, I tested my Modern Spare on the -19 E-450 for a few minutes to make sure everything was good and ready for a road side emergency.
No weird noises but felt a slight imbalance when driving at rather slow speeds.
Chalked it up to the spare needing a balance job at the nearest tire place.
The tire place refused to balance the brand new Modern Spare, I called MS and asked if there was a problem or
a restriction on balancing these tires? They said no.
Then I contacted Discount Tires and complained that the local franchise refused to balance my spare.
After a few days they called or emailed back saying I should go back to my local DT, ask for the manager
and my spare will be balanced. I did and it was.
After that I never put the spare on again to test it once again..(Hoping the balancing clamp won’t rub on the brake assembly, if so, self induced)
Did you test this on your front wheel or the back wheel?
Thanks
I believe it was the left front, kind of trying the worst case scenario with the most weight on the donut and most feedback to the steering.
I made a thread on the Modern Spare and probably posted pics.
Let me check and come back to you,
I ordered from Amazon and mine came with wheel bolts. Didn't order the entire kit as I have a scissor jack, 1/2" drive ratchet, 17mm narrow socket, and a 2' steel pipe as a breaker bar.
For those wondering if you can store it under the floor (where the rearward facing seats are), I haven't figured out a way. Seems you're going to need that brace to support the floor unless you're not going to put anything heavy back there. The cavity is just not wide enough/deep enough even if the brace wasn't there.
I ordered from Amazon and mine came with wheel bolts. Didn't order the entire kit as I have a scissor jack, 1/2" drive ratchet, 17mm narrow socket, and a 2' steel pipe as a breaker bar.
For those wondering if you can store it under the floor (where the rearward facing seats are), I haven't figured out a way. Seems you're going to need that brace to support the floor unless you're not going to put anything heavy back there. The cavity is just not wide enough/deep enough even if the brace wasn't there.
Why not just pick up a 1/2 inch impact wrench, about $259 for one good for 1170 foot pounds with the battery and charger. They have cheaper ones good for 375 foot pounds but a standard impact is about 600 so if someone put it on and didn't change the torque setting 375 might not cut it. But it's only $119 for the battery charger and impact wrench. I suppose you could make sure you could remove the lug nuts with the breaker bar first and then just carry the weaker impact wrench.
Why not just pick up a 1/2 inch impact wrench, about $259 for one good for 1170 foot pounds with the battery and charger. They have cheaper ones good for 375 foot pounds but a standard impact is about 600 so if someone put it on and didn't change the torque setting 375 might not cut it. But it's only $119 for the battery charger and impact wrench. I suppose you could make sure you could remove the lug nuts with the breaker bar first and then just carry the weaker impact wrench.
Because I already had the tools needed in an emergency. Doesn't make sense to me to spend extra money for something that hasn't happened in 20 years (last time I had a flat tire was in 2004). I have a corded impact driver for garage work. I can justify the cost of the donut spare based on where I drive most of the time (rural Vermont and New Hampshire) because getting a tow truck could take hours. If I let a mechanic or tire place put wheels on, I make them show me that the lug bolts are torqued correctly (100 ft lbs) so a 2' breaker bar is more than enough. I do my own brakes and winter tire changeouts; I have winters on their own wheels.
Does anyone know the diameter of the Modern Spare versus the Mercedes compact spare (part 213-400-06-00)? Or at least know which one will take up more space in the trunk? I'm looking to purchase a spare and debating between the two. Thanks all.
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