Originally Posted by Jon89

My wife arrived home safely from Florida last night. This morning, her left rear tire was dead flat with a nail lodged squarely in the center of the tread, so it was easily patched and balanced and is repaired and back on the car now. Good thing it occurred after the drive back home instead of after the drive down to Florida to see her parents. But here's what I discovered in the process....

Our car has what I presume is its original Continental mini-spare tire stored in the trunk. When I went to mount it this morning so I could move the car from blocking my truck in the driveway, I discovered that not only are my new 21mm hex Mitsubishi lug nuts not long enough in the threaded shaft to grab and hold the mini-spare onto the wheel, but neither are my lousy 19mm hex factory Jaguar two-piece lug nuts. Both sets of lug nuts come up nearly a half-inch short of being able to hold that mini-spare down tight against the wheel hub. Unbelieveable, especially with the factory nuts. And very dangerous for women who drive solo across multiple states in these cars not knowing any better.

These mini-spares need regular conical lug nuts, NOT the shanked and washered lug nuts that our Jaguar wheels take. And they require lug nuts that have a threaded shaft at least a half-inch longer than ours, maybe as much as an inch longer. So now I'm on the hunt for five long, inexpensive conical lug nuts that will be kept in a plastic bag and taped inside the mini-spare and labeled "Caution: Always use these lug nuts when mounting the mini-spare".

I'm posting this information mainly for those of you whose wives are the primary drivers of these cars. But ALL of you need to know this information. If you have a mini-spare, go outside and try to mount it on one of your hubs. You'll see exactly what I mean....