wayfarer13

My spare tire was stolen a few weeks ago, I noticed my faulty tire sensor light was on and so I inquired about it when I took it in for it's first oil change. Turns out it was because there was no spare present. I have no idea when it happened but before I spend the money on a new tire I was curious if anyone knew of a lock that could prevent this from happening. The guys in the service shop didn't know of anything. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Salvator

Just get a quality bicycle cable lock... loop it through a spoke in the spare, and around some easily accessible chunk of the frame... On my GX, I'd probably loop it around the trailer hitch and the rim, with the lock accessible underneath...

It won't stop a dedicated thief, but will probably prevent the casual removal of the spare...

Here's an example...

http://www.accessconnect.com/prod04.htm

caha14

That's surprising. I thought you needed to lower the spare tire in order to take it out, and that the back door needs to be open in order to access the lowering mechanism, so stealing the spare shouldn't be easy. Guess I should rethink that one...

This said, check this out: http://www.lexus.com/models/LX/acces...tire_lock.html

It's for the LX, but I clearly remember that it was offered for the GX as well when we got the truck. For some reason, it is no longer officially offered on the GX, but it seems worth looking into.

rick@cloth

I'm curious also. Do you think the thief opened your tailgate, got out the tire lowering shafts, assembled them, lowered the tire, stole it and then replaced everything so that you wouldn't realize it? Did they crawl under your vehicle and cut the tire loose from the very thick cable? Since this was your first oil change, do you think maybe you got the GX with no spare?

Rick in Atlanta

GS3Tek

iTrader: (8)

Like what everyone said, I'm wondering how you can steal it...don't need to publicize it either.

From my understanding also, the spare wheel is held tightly by the cable, pretty hard to access from underneath to cut it......I could be wrong.

Wayfarer, were there any evidence of a cut cable or the metal plate holding the spare tire removed/damaged?

If not, I would suspect "something else".

Sammzway

Did you attend any parties or anything like that where you had to valet park your GX? When I was in high school I used to be a valet parking attendant. I used to work along with 3 other dudes. Anyway, we used to ALWAYS steal spare rim/tire off of S class, 7 series and pretty much any high end cars/trucks that came equipped with a full size spare. We used to sell them off and make 1000 bux extra each week. Of course i'm not proud of it, but as a high school student any extra cash you make is helpful.

No one would ever complain because they wouldn't ever expect us, besides, the only time they'd go for that spare is when they have a flat.

So perhaps that's how your spare was stolen? Because otherwise, there's no other way to steal those things being that you have to lower it from the tailgate.

I never let anyone valet my cars. Simply because I know the type of abuse that these valet attendant are capable of doing.

Graham50

I see many of you have had your spare tire stolen. FYI-You can protect it with a SpareGuard. One can be ordered at www.***************

kphu

iTrader: (8)

Good to know.

V8_Fan

The bracket that holds the spare to the bottom of the chassis is raised/lowered by a steel cable (similar to what you find on a bicycle lock). The thief merely snips the cable and the spare will fall off. A number of people on the 4runner.org forum have had their spares stolen in that manner. The LX also has the same steel cable, but on my 21 yr old 4runner, which uses the same type of spare mechanism, toyota used a chain.