I got a blow out on the road, pulled over and changed to the spare tire. Got on the road heading toward Discount Tire and the "Slip" light was constantly flashing; the "ABS" and "Brake" lights were on. The most unusual thing was that the car wouldn't exceed speeds of ~20mph or allow me to put it in 3rd. Oh by the way I own a 2003 350Z Performance w/ MT.

Does anyone know why this happened?

If yes, why carry around a spare tire?

 

I've never even looked, but do we have full sized spares? If the spare is significantly smaller than the regular tire, I would think that would freak out your traction control system. Your symptoms sound exactly like that happening. I could be wrong...

 

*ding ding ding*


I'm betting that's what it is.


Other things could cause issues, but since you changed the wheel and then started having a problem, so that's most likely the culprit.

 

the spare tire is super small. It's a 145/30/17. and the cause of your problems. Just get the tire fixed and put back on and everything should be good to go.

 

so my question is, if im far from home or a service station, what good is the spare tire if i cant drive the vehicle with it on. Why carry it around? The car will not operate. Based on the symptoms I described, is this how the car should operate when the spare is on or does it sound like I did something wrong?

 

Dude, just turn the TCS off until you get a regular tire; problem solved.

 

fix the tire, since the spare is only supposed to be used for "temporary use" anyway. it served its purpose to get you to a tire place. so what if the slip light comes on, it did its job.

 

Your Performance model is equipped with Vehicle Dynamic Control (VDC). VDC has sensors that detect differences in wheel rotation speed left to right and front to back. When the sensors report unusual differences in wheel rotation speeds, VDC goes to work attempting to realign the car to the direction your front wheels are pointing. When you mount your spare tire, and since this tire has a small overall diameter compared to your regular tire; VDC senses the difference in wheel rotation left to right and thinks you are in trouble (maybe in a spin). In this case VDC begins “tapping” the brakes (at different corners of the car) and activating TCS (killing power to the rear wheels) in an attempt to straighten the car’s path. That’s why you saw the ABS light and the SLIP indicator, and is the reason you could not generate speed.

I’m a little surprised that it never occurred to you to simply press the VDC button. If you had done this, your car would drive fairly normally (albeit with a tiny tire in one corner).

--Spike

 

Thank you Spike. First of all I've only had the car for 3 weeks so I did'ent have any idea that I should have turned off the VDC. After the blowout I had to drive the car about 5 miles to the tire shop. The spare is now put away and im driving on new tires. Lastly, Discount tire did not have a Left rear Nitto, he did have 2 dunlops available. Long story short I was talked into getting 2 dunlaps for $320.00 rather then 1 Nitto for $240.00 (185.00 for the tire and 40.00 to have it shipped here.) Again, thanks spike for telling me that usefull info I now know how to deal with a flat.