redrover22

Bips, I am with you. If you follow the load ratings and speed ratings you are not modifying the vehicle and should be covered under insurance.

Whatever you do or whatever happens to your car it would need to be proven that was the non runflat tyre that caused the problem/accident.

AFAIK using any manufacturers tyres shouldn't be an issue but I suspect with all these "MO", "MOE" etc original manufacture tyres across all the marks they are trying to stitch up the market.

As we all know from experience, these "original manufacture" tyres are not necessarily great and the idea that they are specially tuned to the car is dubious at best.

Teckno

Grootkoos

There is no need to fit a donut from another MB model unless you want to save by buying used. Mercedes supplies a dedicated spare wheel for the GLC in many markets and if your local dealer does not have a spare wheel available, he can order one from the manufacturer.

Teckno

Mr. J

I don't understand why some folks insist in a spare for the GLC. The larger sidewalls on the GLC tire options are much more durable than the low pro rubber bands that come mounted on sportier cars. If you are that worried about a tire failure there are two easy options that don't require wasting cargo space with a donut that may or may not cause problems with the 4matic drivetrain.

1. Get a good compressor and a can of slime, fix a flat, etc. Add a tire plug kit if you are handy enough to make use of one. This option will cover you in nearly all flat tire scenarios. Almost all flats are caused by a small puncture and will not lead to a blowout unless driven at high speed while deflated. The TPMS is going to warn you when the pressure decreases.

2. Get all the items from option 1 above and also add a jack and lug wrench. This gives the option of more easily applying a plug to the tire. It can be difficult to get access to the puncture while the wheel is mounted so having the right tools will allow a competent user to remove and plug the tire properly. Probably overkill, but it will all fit neatly below the cargo lid.

Sidewall damage is very rare unless you're driving something on very low profile tires. Even the 21s on a GLC43 are not really low pro since they still have quite a bit of sidewall.

All flats that I've encountered in my lifetime except 2 were able to hold air after adding tire sealant only. The ones that were not repairable were: an intentional act of vandalism, and torn sidewall from an 48"x30"x8'' crater of a pothole on an expressway that my wife hit at 50mph while running low-pro tires 19s on our C450.

Tank7

Bought a spare off of 2013 ML part no A1644000002 donut tire, jack and lug nuts. All fit neatly under my rear floor in my 2017 GLC Coupe. Peace of mind achieved. Now I can ditch these noisy run flats.

bips

Good question. There are several reasons.

(i) Some people here are highly risk averse. That's just who they are. YMMV.

(ii) It depends on your history of flat tyres. In my case, I've been driving for over 45 years and have had very few. Then in the first year or so of owning the GLC I had a couple. One was indeed just a shallow nail that could have been driven with some regular re-inflation. I had it reparied. The advantage of these big tyres is that a rapid leak from a nail is less likely. But one flat involved such serious sidewall damage that the RFT wasn't driveable. This reflected a combination of back luck and poor judgement on my part, but it happened. I'd have been stranded outside mobile (cell) reception had I not had a spare. Around the same time my sister-in-law trashed a RFT in her X4 just from hitting a pothole around town and had to be towed. This combination made me more risk averse than I had been.

(iii) It depends on where you drive. In this big and sparsely settled country it's not that hard to be a very long way from help and outside mobile reception. There's no guarantee that your short-term solutions will always work well enough for long enough. Not everyone will be able to use a plug kit. Even if a small town is nearby, these tyre sizes are fairly exotic and it's going to be a long wait for a replacement. My sister-in-law, who must have had a run of bad luck, had a flat on a major highway only an hour or two from Sydney and had to stay overnight waiting for a tyre. There was a chap here who had to spend an unplanned weekend in some US town for the same reason. I'd rather not be stranded somewhere. A plug kit (which I also carry) or a goo kit (which I don't), well applied to the right sort of puncture might solve these problems, but not always.

A spare as insurance gives me the peace of mind and confidence to travel far from home and away from civilisation.

ArcticWhiteZ51

Out of curiosity, what diameter wheels do you have on your GLC?

Tank7

ArcticWhiteZ51

Out of curiosity, what diameter wheels do you have on your GLC?

Tank7

19" Wheels

redrover22

Hi All,

Time has finally come to replace my Bridgestone MOE tyres and I have been contemplating all my options.

I think I will go with Non RFT, non MO tyres that have a slightly better load spec than the originals on my original AMG 20inch Rims.

I will get a can of slime as I already have a compressor and will also carry a repair kit.

Just have to check now that Mercedes Insurance is happy about this and that I will still get rescued by roadside assistance if I get stuck with something I can't fix on the side of the road.

cheers

Citizen613

Hi Red, lets us know how you go with this.
While the wear rate of my Bridgstone Duellers MOE seem to be OK, and will probably go another year yet, I am tracking Tyre prices in Preparation.
When the time comes, I have decided to change to non Run flats ie no more MOE tyres.
My choices will be either Michelin of Continental. The Contis with automatic sealant sound interesting but not a must have, and my not be available in our size (255/45 R20). I carry a 12v compressor, slime and a repair kit. Also have noticed that the standard Bridgstone Duellers have come down in price significantly ...so they might be on my list as well.

Phil.

bips

Also interested. When I switched from 20" RFT to 19" non-RFT, I thought it simplest and safest to use essentially the same tyre in non-RFT form, which in my case was Pirelli Scorpion Verde. But it doesn't get a great wrap here, and I'd be interested whether something better can be found locally.

redrover22

Hi All,

I have made the plunge and fitted Hankook K120 tires and purchased a slime compressor kit.

The Hankooks aren't listed as an "SUV" tyre (whatever that means) and have a significantly higher load and speed rating and are considered a performance tyre.

As soon as I turned the steering on full lock out of the tyre centre I felt the crabbing, hoping this could be because new tyres are super slippery with the coatings that they have when new..

Guess what? After 50 kms the tyres don't crab at all, even in car parks on a cold and wet day here in Sydney.

They are much more comfortable, you don't feel the dread approaching speed humps, quieter, and turn into corners much much better.

I know I am comparing old with new but the Bridgestone Dueller runflats never felt like this. So much for MOE!!

It will be interesting to see how they fair in another 20,000km but at the moment I am super happy!

cheers

openwheelracing

Well, I am not surprised that normal tires perform better than RF or MOE. The only issue here is emergency situation. If I switch to normal tires I am more comfortable with a spare tire and the space under the boot is a huge issue.

redrover22

Of course I would be more comfortable with a full size spare and I agree the space issue is huge and for this reason I will not purchase another GLC as I don't believe it is ultimately suited to this country. In Aus we are rarely within 80kms of a service centre when driving in the country.

At least now if I have a flat I have a reasonable chance of plugging the tyre with the slime kit as well as easily and relatively cheaply getting the tyre replaced if need be as the Hankooks seem readily available here.

bips

I can relate to this. But what car in this market segment is? You're either going to get RFT and no spare (BMW), or non-RFT with only an emergency spare (Audi, Lexus), or perhaps only a tirefit kit. Are you aware of a vehicle in this market segment that is suitable? I struggled with the decision to buy a GLC for this reason, and I struggle to identify what I would buy today if I was back in the market.

Part of the problem is the large and wide wheels that these cars have. Very hard to fit in a full wheel, even if it is stored deflated and a compressor is included. But even smaller wheeled cars are often no better. Friends of ours in a moderately remote coastal location bought a Mazda 3 and it only has an emergency spare. So there are plenty of cars around that are not suitable to life outside a major metro area.

Slime kits are cheaper, but the tyre won't be repairable. The tirefit kit supposedly will leave a repairable puncture still repairable, but costs more. Given the cost of the latex can, slime and replacement may be more sensible, so long as you're in a location where you can quickly source a tyre.

redrover22

Let's clear up a couple of myths..

Why do you think a tyre repaired with a slime kit won't be repairable?

I also had a scan through an ml350 manual and can't find anywhere that it states a limit on how far you can drive on the compact spare. It just states the speed limit on it and advises to replace it with your repaired tyre as soon as possible.

bips

In relation to slime, when I was considering whether to get one of these kits or perhaps a tirefit kit, I did some research and talked to people who should know, including my local MB dealer and my local tyre shop. That is what I was uniformly told. Can I prove it? No. Have I been unsuccessful in trying to get a slimed tyre repaired? No. But I am comfortable making that statement based on my research. I was also told that while there are no guarantees, because tirefit is latex it just peels off and should not prevent a repair. If there are first-hand reports of a slimed tyre being repaired I'm always open to new information.

In relation to how far you can drive on an emergency, I admit I was quoting a general impression, since I don't have one of these tyres. I just checked the online manual and as you say it mentions a speed but not distance limit. MBA does say "You may only use the space saver tyre for a brief period", whatever that means. I thought the distance limit was on the tyre, e.g. in post 81, Larry P Myers said "Interesting to note the speed limit and drive distance on the pictured tire is identical to a zero pressure extended mobility tire" (my added emphasis). Whether or not there's a specified limit, I can't imagine driving long distances on one.

But these were just asides. The question I was really asking was, which alternative to the GLC is a realistic alternative choice, if the lack of a spare is a deal-breaker?

redrover22

I believe Larry P Myers might have mistook the 50mph and 80kmh to be 80km at 50mph.

Given that, this then opens up a lot of choices for SUV's that come with storable space savers.

My preference is a Range Rover Sport that comes with a proper size spare (though not the same wheel as on the car). At least that was on the 2007 model I had.

I haven't done much research on this yet but will when it get's close to the end of my lease. I live in the city but do a lot of runs down the Hume to Yarrawonga to see my parents.

bips

Certainly the 50 at 50 / 80 at 80 rule seems to be the conventional wisdom. I vaguely seem to recall either the salesman or spare parts guy at the local MB dealer saying it. But when you start to search it's hard to find it written down anywhere. Perhaps there's something printed on the wheel or tyre in the fine print. Emergency spares come in a range of styles and perhaps it is written on some of them, and that has been generalised to all of them.

Out of interest, I did a search and found some of the local motoring associations offer advice. The NRMA says "Space saver tyres only have a range of a few hundred kilometres, then they’re worn out and have to be replaced" and the RACQ says much the same. I do wonder whether they're including the Subaru space-save spare, which is not speed or distance limited, but in practice must have some limit. Autoguide says 50 miles, or up to 70 in some cases, as does Carbibles, which also notes a lot of maker to maker variation. Not clear what any of that is based on, but they all seem to agree that rapid wear is an issue.

The question in my mind is how long are you prepared to drive on an emergency spare, all things considered? Having just returned from a 3,500km trip to the west of NSW, it's a long way to the next small town, and sitting on the Barrier or Silver City so-called highways on 80km/h with road trains coming up fast behind me and sitting on my tail is not appealing. I travel to the far south coast a fair bit as well, and ditto up and down the winding roads and with logging trucks on my tail. An emergency might work for longer than 80kms in some circumstances, but wouldn't cut it for much or my driving. I also would want some sort of official guidance before trusting it for significantly longer distances than the conventional wisdom suggests.

When we were shopping for the GLC and looked at a Q5, the local Audi dealer had an interesting arrangement. You could borrow a full wheel as a spare, and they would put a pre-authorisation on your credit card, and if you came back with the tyre unused they would cancel it. A full wheel would almost fit in the cavity for the emergency, perhaps deflated, so you don't loose so much space. The other interesting option is the Jaguar F-Pace, which has the option at order time of either either an emergency or full spare. From the photos I've seen the full spare looks decidedly odd, as the boot floor is higher and oddly shaped, but it's probably better than how I carry my full spare in the GLC, and at least it's an option. I'm not sure I want to take a Jag to the outback tho'.

redrover22

Hi Bips,

It would seem for what you want a full size spare is only the way to go.

I am just trying to approach this from a pragmatic point of view. There are many things that can stop our vehicles dead in their tracks and a flat tyre or severely damaged tyre is just one of them. This is why of course, if you go totally outback, you might carry multiple full size spares on a roof rack plus other supplies to survive.

Even though I am covering some long distances, they are on well populated roads so I would never be fully stranded. I just have to weigh up my best options when I get a flat and make a judgement call as to wether I try and repair the puncture with a puncture kit, use the slime kit or call road side assist.

I have been driving for 35 years, mostly Alfas, sometimes on many interstate trips, and have only been stuck twice. Once I ran out of petrol (my stupidity, in the city fortunately) and once a battery completely failed on my 2011 Alfa Giulietta QV, which was replaced by roadside assist. Can't blame Alfa for that.

This is not to say I haven't had failures but I have managed to fix everything on the side of the road like, pinched oil seals (alfa Berlina, my stupid fault), blown cam seal (alfasud), hit a kangaroo and fixed damaged radiator in the country, blew a radiator hose on my Fiat in the country and patched on the side of the road etc etc. I admit though that I carried many spares and repair materials in the boot!

If I was stuck in the middle of nowhere and only had a compact spare I would figure out a way to make it go as far as I needed. I imagine I would just be another L plater on the highway for that period of time.

So, in the end, we just equip ourselves as best we can and bring out the bush mechanic in us when needed or rely on external support as required.

cheers.

newbie2016

Will 19 inch spare from GL fit both the car and under the trunk compart?
A644000102 vs 18inch, A1644000002

Ian of Sydney

If you are Australian need to also ensure the spare meets MB specifications. This is not to say that it needs to be a MB product.

Failure to do so and in the event of a serious accident (whilst using a non compliant tyre size) would deem the car unroadworthy . This may lead to charges from the police and no insurance cover.