-
Welcome to our new sponsor Lecatona, a brand dedicated to enhancing performance for VAG group sports cars, including SEAT, Audi, Volkswagen and Škoda. Specializing in High Pressure Fuel Pump (HPFP) upgrades.
-
The forums will be offline for maintenance on Friday 15th November at 10pm for up to an hour. Thank you for your patience.
If the spare tyre is the one that came with the car then you will be fine. Did you upgrade to 17" and now run 40 profile tyres? When you go up a size of wheel (16" to 17") you should also reduce the profile (45 to 40) to keep the rolling radius of the wheel the same!
if its a cupra you have the spare should be the same alloy as whats on the car to fit over the brakes. as a steel would be no good.
Alot of cars have space saver/get me home wheels so can't see what the problem would be, unfortunately I am currently running with one 16 on and the rest 17 but have no choice as my wheel was bent after hitting a pot hole but it's only for 2 days and the furthest I have driven is the the wheel refurbishment place. I take it that is what you are asking as seems odd you would ask if your spare was the same size as your other wheels?
Last edited:
Not if the 17" alloys have 40 profile tyres and the spare has 45 profile. You will be fine running that! 
Not if the 17" alloys have 40 profile tyres and the spare has 45 profile. You will be fine running that!
Im not quite sure what the profile is on the 16" spare. Will have a look though.
My 17" are 205/40
So if my spare is 205/45, it'll be ok to keep the spare and no need to worry when i have puncture...
As long as its not a Cupra with big brakes, then you will need an alloy wheel as a spare...
If you have a cupra with no alloy spare and you get a puncture on the front, just put a back wheel on the front and the sapre on the back.
I havn't got a cupra, jus thee tdi sport 100bhp model (2007)
You won't be saying cool when you have to change 2 wheels when you are stressed out in a hurry and changing a wheel in the rain or dark with the crappy standard jack and the wheel nuts torqued at a million nm! Flats never occur in easy situations it seems! But he has a sport and the spare is obviously standard so it's okay
Driving with one 16 on at the mo feels a bit weird and uneven how come people are saying this is fine?
Driving with one 16 on at the mo feels a bit weird and uneven how come people are saying this is fine?
Ive been told not to even put the spare (16") on, as its not safe for long distances etc! Some people say its ok and others say not 2 even bother lol
Using a tyre size calculator, it would seem that your new wheels with tyres (assuming you're running 205/40 R17) will stand 0.2" taller than stock, meaning the hub will sit 0.1" higher from the ground than it did as standard.
This means that with the old spare on one corner of the car is 0.1" lower - to be honest I'd be amazed if you can actually feel this - I'd imagine it's more likely psychological - because you know the spares on and it's a different size you think it must feel odd
Ive been told not to even put the spare (16") on, as its not safe for long distances etc! Some people say its ok and others say not 2 even bother lol
As long as the tyres are correctly sized to give as close as possible the same rolling radius, then you'll be fine.
My old Fiesta came with 15" alloys and a 14" spare as standard - no problem there.
My A3 has 16" alloys and an 18" space saver spare - again no problems as the rolling radius is matched.
It's probably advisable not to run over 50 mph or for longer than say 50 miles (as is normally advised in the manuals of cars with mismatched spares) as if there is a slight difference in rolling radius the resulting difference in rotational speed will confuse the ABS system causing a fault to be logged.
Last edited:
Ive been told not to even put the spare (16") on, as its not safe for long distances etc! Some people say its ok and others say not 2 even bother lol
Why would they put a spare in the car then? Its not as if its one of those space saver ones. If your worried, get a can of that puncture repair foam stuff! Good for emergencies.
BOOOO I'm stuck running my spare until Wednesday now as my bent wheel had more damage under the tyre so been sent away. Maybe it is in my head it feels different, yes I am running 205/40/17 and the spare steel alloy. But I don't wan to drive far with it so won't be going anywhere this weekend. I could put my 4 Seat alloys on but really can't be arsed getting the wheel nuts off and maybe knocking the paint on them again!
Similar threads
