![]() The Intrepid's spare tire well is wide enough to accommodate a full-size spare, full diameter, without difficulty.The Mazda Protege is a reliable and practical economy car, but that doesn’t mean it can’t offer some dose of “cool.” A set of custom wheels is what will easily give it a more attractive appearance. Lastly, two cars I did not find examples of their spare tire sizes but which otherwise match the Intrepid, are the Dodge Nitro and the Prowler (all makes). Such interchanges are done routinely by owners of performance, racing, and show cars. The imperfections introduce changes in lug nut and stud positions of less than 4% for 14 mm lug holes drilled to 18 mm (4.5% for 12 mm lug holes drilled to 16 mm-which is the measure from my Intrepid's donut spare). ![]() And you're not supposed to drive over 50 mph (~80 kph) on your spare, anyway = further minimizing risks of an imperfect interchange. The 5x1155x114.3 interchange is commonly done-and frankly, the larger 14 mm Charger lug hole diameter partly compensates for the imperfection of this interchange *and* the matching center bore keeps the wheel properly aligned = I would think very minimal total risks. ![]() Your lug nuts also could get a little scuffed when torqued down or possibly slightly distorted on their necks. I have heard no stories of anyone interchanging a 5x115 lug pattern wheel with a 5x114.3 having their lug studs sheer off and wheel fall off the car while driving, causing a wreck or permanent damage. In other words, your Intrepid lug nuts would not seat *precisely* into the lug holes of this spare-and in torquing them, you *may very slightly* bend your lug studs outward or otherwise off center (again, not more than 0.35 mm). However, this spare's lugs and lug holes are 14 mm diameter, rather than 12 mm for the Intrepid and the lugs are spaced 0.35 mm farther outward from the center (5x115 mm versus 5x4.5 in/5x114.3 mm lug pattern). This spare also has the same center bore of 71.5 mm, which means and makes the main load rest on the hub and not the lug studs. If you really want, you can even use the donut spare of a Charger/Magnum/Challenger, T135/90D17, which has a calculated outside diameter of 26.6 inches, the closest matching calculated diameter of these three (less than 1/4 of 1% different), even though the wheel/rim is 1 inch taller. I don't know why car manufacturer's allow and promote use of spare tires that have diameters different from that of the standard tire size. NOTE: The Avenger/Caliber's wheel bore is smaller than for the Intrepid (67.1 versus 75.1 mm-not readily noticeable to the eye)-so before buying and going with an Avenger/Caliber's donut spare, measure the donut's wheel bore, because **my recommendation to use it could be misguided based on wheel bores.** However, my hunch is they use the same donut wheel bore for both, to economize-but be sure first. The second place I would look is to obtain/buy the donut spare of a 2007-2011 Dodge Avenger or '07-'10 Caliber (T155/90D16), which has a very closely matching calculated diameter of 27.0 inches (685 mm). If you want a donut spare that more closely matches the *diameter* of the Intrepid's standard tire, then obtain/buy the donut spare of a Dodge Caravan or Grand Caravan with size T145/90D16 which has a calculated diameter of 26.3 inches (668 mm), very close to the Intrepid (only 1.3% smaller) and it has the same, matching wheel bore/hub size. (This particular tire of mine has been driven about 15,000 out of 90,000 rated miles = only worn 1/6th of the original tread.which may account for some, but I don't think all, of the discrepancy.) Surprisingly, this means that the OEM spare rides about 1.5 to 2 inches (38.1 to 50.8 mm) lower than the OEM standard tire! I'm not so keen on such a big difference! After the first flat tire I had with my Intrepid, I promptly bought a salvage wheel and tire to create my own full-size, conventional spare tire. The OEM standard driving tire is 225/60R16 with a *calculated* outside diameter of 26.6 inches (676 mm) however, I measured the actual outside diameter to be about 1/2 an inch (12.7 mm) shorter, just 26 inches (660 mm) when properly inflated to 32 psi (220 kPa). The OEM spare tire is T135/80D16-its *calculated* outside diameter is 24.5 inches (622 mm), and I measured the actual outside diameter to be almost that when properly inflated to 60 psi (414 kPa). Also, I wish to add answers and information not given by anyone above: Sorry to respond on a thread so old-however, it is information I still needed in 2012.
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