docjackson1

was coming home from work last night-i have winter tires on my 997tt (pirelli 240 wintersports). my left front tire hit a relatively small pot hole and my left front tire blew out like it was a balloon. without a spare, and with a large tear in the tire, you are screwed. i had to call 1-800-porsche for road service, and 4 hours later, they came to get my car (2 AM). i had just checked the tire pressure the day before, and it was perfect. i love this car, but the possibility of being stranded sucks. maybe in the northeast, where the roads suck in the winter, we all should be running 18 inch tires that are not as low profile, at least for the winter. my $45,000 vette would have gotten me home, as it has run flats-why no run flats on the porsche? great car, but when you have a blow out (not a small hole that you can patch yourself), you are screwed. it is a bad commentary that the vette will always get you home, but the porsche will strand you, and force you to use porsche road service, which is anything but fast. the one good thing-i had bought the wheel/ tire insurance when i purchased the car, which has just paid for itself, and will probably get called on again in the future. does anyone know-is the any kind of spare that we can buy?
can we put run flats on the car? any suggestions to better our lot and make the driving experience a bit more reliable?

StickShift964

run-flats would destroy the handling. There is a porsche factory spare you can buy, but i dont think it will fit in the trunk, you will have to keep it in the back seat.

Chris C.

Another alternative is to buy an extra rim/tire and leave it in your garage. Likely you can get someone to run it over to you in less than 4 hours! Sorry though, sounds like a bummer.

Terry Adams

Ten years ago I got a flat on my 993 on the freeway. Pulled over, changed it for the skinny spare, put the 18" wheel on the back seat, and was on my way. Run flat is not the answer, but I am not comfortable with the move to the goop bottle. Fortunately, all my flats for the past 45 years in all cars have been in metro areas, never on the long remote area trips I sometimes take.

TT Surgeon

That really sucks Eric, there was a thread on the 997 board by cooches a while back. My c4s had two flats in 4 yrs, both I simply changed myself on the roadside, dreading the day in the turbo.

TT Gasman

This really sucks, bad enough to get a flat, then have no freakin spare!! I know how painful it is to wait for roadside assistance, what a way to waste an entire day. I had a flat in mine, used the goop (what a joke) but it did work enough to get me to the dealership. I now carry a small tire plugging kit with me in the event I get stuck in the middle of nowhere. We need a spare in these cars.
Run flats are a joke, we have them on a BMW.

E55AMG

Sucks, and something we are all dreading having to go through. What a way to ruin a trip or causing you to miss a meeting etc.

What do you do if you're out of town - will roadside take you to a dealer or car rental place, or hotel... geez, I hope this never happens

docjackson1

that is a good question-while the young lady that i contacted at 1800-porsche was very nice, what she initially said she could do for me became a fraction of what finally happened. she was going to get me a ride home, she was going to get someone immediately there to tow my car or give me a "loaner wheel". in the end, it took 4 hours for a tow truck to get there, and there was no one to get me a ride home-i woke my wife up and she picked me up. as i said, they did eventually come get my car and got it to the porsche dealer. imagine, though, that you are 5 hours from home, say up in vermont on a skiing trip, have a blow-out--no spare, if the hole is big, a patch won't work, and you have to wait 5 hours for the tow truck. i personally think that there should at least be a limp home spare, like they used to offer in the older porsches. and why not run flats-i have them on my vette, and as we all know, those babies handle well enough. if we had run flats (as bmw m5s have also), getting home or to a safe place would be a bunch easier. the turbo is a great car, but this flat tire problem will always be in the back of my mind at night. probably, the best idea for those of us who run snows in the winter is to switch to 18" wheels and tires for the winter. didn't the cayenne initially come out without a spare, only to have a spare included after a year or so?

Terry Adams

I can picture the '09 option. ST Spare Tire $$$$. Don't know where they would put it.

StickShift964

Question, will a full size front 19" 911 wheel/tire fit on the back incase of a flat? The idea of buying a wheel+tire and keeping it at home to have someone bring me just incase seems like a decent idea, since i dont usally drive it more then 100miles from home. I've got PCCBs

docjackson1

even better, why not offer an option to kill the back seats, which almost no one uses anyways, and put a spare tire back there. and about run flats, maybe i am ignorant on this topic, but why not use them if you offer no spare. as i said, corvette and bmw m5 use them, along with other manufacturers-why not on a turbo, or on any car that doesn't offer some kind of a spare?

AAHTT

There are no Runflats available in that size.

1AS

One more option is to have somebody bring you your summer tire/wheel and the tools you need.
I don't know that there are any perfect answers.
Leaving a big ugly spare in the back is not optimal.
Changing your own tire on the shoulder of a busy interstate with the tiny hand tools in a kit is also dangerous. Since the roadisde is often soft, it can be very difficult to get the car raised in a stable fashion.
AS

WHB Porsche

Will a runflat even work with a total blowout?

APEXHNTR

The extra rim/tire I am selling was bought for my 996 C4S for a spare to take on longer trips in NC from the mountains to the beach(approx 300 miles). It is the same diameter as the 997 turbo. Nice and clean new rim with a Pilot Sport 2 tire(used tire).

Just email for photos:

Cc: nomail32@charter.net

Bob

PS Run Flat tires do have many drawbacks. The main ones are the (1)High cost(2)Poor performance(3)Lack of availability-3-4 days with out your car if the tire is damaged.