I picked up a screw in the sidewall of my drivers side rear tire today. I called tire discounters on my way out of work and they told me it would be about $200 to replace the tire (stock 17" pirelli). I have been putting money aside to get new wheels/tires for the mustang, but I would rather wait a couple of months to pull the trigger if I can. Right now it seems like my most desirable option would be to put the spare on and buy a used pirelli off eBay until I am ready to buy all new shoes for the pony.

My question is this: Will I risk doing any damage to the car by driving with the spare on the rear for a few days (~500 miles total)? Should I rotate one of the good wheels back to the rear and drive with the spare up front? Are both a and b a really bad idea? Should I just suck it up and buy a cheap 235/55/17 tire?

Thanks for your help.

As a side note... Locking wheel lugs are a real PITA when you misplace the key.

 

I think if it were me, I'd buy a a cheap tire for now. You could risk wrecking the whole car over a spare tire. And you could hold onto the cheap tire as a spare if you need one in the future.

 

You can get a whole set of wheels and stock tires on eBay for about $300.

 

The short answer to that is yes you can "get away with it" as I’ve seen SOOOO many people do it between Michigan and DC. But if you had to swerve out of the way for some other car, or poor road conditions you might ki$$ your butt good bye. But i wouldn't stretch that for more then a day or two.