I've influenced a friend to purchase a nice preowned 2004 325XiT and it's really cool. This car has a full-size spare tire and it's not clear to us how this is secured in the storage compartment. Neither the owners manual nor realoem have solved the problem. Even have a sales brochure indicating this option, but the photo simply shows the tire with pretty side up and nothing securing it (the roundel center cap is in place). Currently there is a plastic "basket" that fits the interior (back side) of the wheel but there's nothing with the car to connect to the threaded stud from the floor. Whatever does connect looks as if it will have to have some length in order to reach through the wheel to that stud. There's actually not an illustration in realoem that looks exactly like the basket in fact, although I know that isn't always to be expected. Can anyone advise how it should work? Got photos? TIA
Here's what mine looks like... This is the well of my '02 325 iT: This set up is for a space saver spare and consists of a large wing nut, a threaded rod through the pylon in the middle of the wheel well and the stamped matal disc plate. This arrangement should work for either a full size or a space saver. Hope this helps.
Thanks for photo. The "basket" I've referred to, is the same depth as the full-size wheel back side depth, and the center of the basket features a "cone" that extends to nearly the top of the wheel. Whatever will go through that cone will need to be 3-4 inches long to reach the stud.
Spare Tire Hold down parts Attached are 3 photos of the Parts you need to hold your spare. ! tire held in place 2 Shows the hold down tub with large plastic nut 3 shows the threaded nut upside down Bluewagon Photos 1 and two are out of order
Just a guess, but... I have the thing I thing you call a "basket" (part 16), also. It is grey felt covered with a drawn bowl made out of rigiid plastic. There is a round cover (part 17) of the same material which results in a flate surface just under the floor of the rear of the car when it is in place. This thing appears to be intended to provide a hiding place for storing things inside the space inside the spare tire. Parts 16 and 17 in this diagram: View attachment 2584 Parts 5, and 6 in this view are also in my car: View attachment 2588 If that is what we are talking about, and you have the hardware shown in my photo, does the arrangement work if your full sized spare is placed "face down" in the well? If not, it would seem that there is different hardware for the full sized spare set up vs. the space saver.
Thanks to both for the photos and scans. It initially appears he has a "basket" that came from some other car and of course no holddown "nut" but now we know what to look for. Very helpful.
Just to follow up and possibly add some information ... The threaded nut used with full-size spare tire and "parts basket" (officially "spare tire oddments box") is NOT shown in illustration on the realoem fiche nor the dealer fiche. There is an illustration that appears similar (#11, "pad") but it's not applicable. The part is there in the numeric listings, though, and is part number 71 15 1 096 732 , official name "spare wheel retainer."
