After an excruciatingly long day, one where I got sucked into a challenging problem right as I was about to leave for a very late lunch and didn’t finish until all the good places were closed… I left the office at 7:45PM, and I’m just two exits and a couple of quick turns from home, when I hear a noise and the car is pulling to the left.
Flatsville.
Ordinarily I would change it myself but I’m suffering from a massive low blood-sugar headache and I don’t have any of my good tools with me so I figure I’m better off just calling for roadside assistance. Dig around the glove box for the stupid little card the Progressive sends but I can’t find it. Check my odometer. Woot! 18 months and 3,132 miles left on Saab’s “4 year” / 50K mile roadside assistance policy.
Takes about 45 minutes for the guy to get to me, and having a proper floor jack and impact wrench it takes like 2 seconds to change the tire before I’m ready to be on my way again.
Only. Something is grinding. Badly. Oh fuck, my 2005 Saabaru donut doesn’t clear my upgraded 2006 Subaru 4-pot brakes. Fuckety fuck fuck fuck.
So I called a tow to haul me home.
And then, at nearly 11PM, I finally ate lunch. Dinner. Whatever. I was feeling much better until I got on the Google for “Subaru 4-pot spare” and read the #2 result:
Also, keep in mind if you get a flat tire in the front, the space saver spare will not fit over the front 4-Pots. You will have to put the spare on the rear and move the rear tire to the front.
OMFG, D’oh!
Moral of the story: Skipping lunch makes me stupid.
Update: Turns out there’s another moral to this story. Never let someone else put your lug nuts on. Roadside Assistance Guy cross-threaded one of the lugs, necessitating a hefty pull with a breaker bar to bust the wheel stud. And I’d already had to bust the wheel stud next to it after getting “help” with a wheel change at my last autocross. Two wheel studs and nuts are about $9 if you go to the auto parts store. At the local Tire Kingdom the P&L came to over $100.
Fortunately the damage to my brake caliper appears to be purely cosmetic.
