Hello,

I've recently joined a Skoda club, after having few 4x4 cars, that were not quite reliable (xc90), and not economical to run (x-trail). I hope my experience with Skoda will be better - should be, car is still under 1 year warranty. My wife drives Fabia, and so far, we didn't have any trouble with the car, so fingers crossed, Superb is going to continue this trend.

Anyway, my Silver "Silvia" (as we call her) has been made in 2008, and done only 49k miles. It's a SE spec.

Very nice and relaxing car to drive! And finally, kids can't kick the back of my seat, even if they try hard! (and I'm 2m tall )

I've got two things I'd like to sort out with my Skoda, and here they are:

1) Spare tyre. I've got a 16'' spare, and 4 17'' wheels ... That doesn't really stack up I was wondering what type of rim I'd need to get so it would fit in the car? (bolt spacing, size etc). I don't really mind alloy, or steel, VW, seat or anything else, as long as it fits. I will be going for a 2.5k miles trip during the summer, and useable spare is a must.

I know some folks here were saying that 17'' spare will fit in the car, but the 225 tyres will be sticking above the boot level, anyone tried to put some styrofoam or something else to raise the boot floor level?

2) my car has a towbar fitted - I won't be really using it, I was wondering if it's easy to de-install it? It seems to be going into the rear bumper, would that be a job for Skoda garage, or someone like me, with very limited mechanic skills could do it?

Thanks for any help guys!

What size tyre is on the 16" spare - it could be that the overall diameter of the spare wheel & tyre is the same as the 17" ones.

This site will help calculate the sizes:

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

Can't help with the towbar question I'm afraid.

A-ha! Fair enough, I'll try to check the sizes later on today and see whether it works or not From memory, my 17s are 225/45 , so what tyre size should be on 16s to fit ? I played a bit with the calculator, but can't really get a match (unless some slight mismatch is acceptable?)

The standard 16" tyres on my Greenline are 205/55 16". That size fits nicely into the spare wheel well and has only a slight mismatch (overall diameter of 24.87" instead of 24.97)".

I guess that if you ran that size as a spare it'd be prudent to limit your top speed etc when you had to use it but even tyres of the same nominal size on the same car can be of different diameters (if you have a brand new tyre on one side and a mostly worn one on the other for instance) so I wouldn't lose a lot of sleep over it.

Edit: if you're going to keep the 16" spare that you have, make sure that its the correct load rating etc just in case whoever bought it didn't get the spec right

Edited 7 May, 201214 yr by Legacy

Makes perfect sense! I hope my spare tyre is same as yours I'm assuming I wouldn't be driving more than 50 miles tops to get the original tyre fixed, and then swapped back.

Great! Now I can spend all that "saved money" for something else

Skoda advise that 17" rims won't fit in the well - perhaps because they're wider?

Stuart

Yes, if you've got the bigger wheels, the spare is a space saver if you buy the wheel with the car. At least it is if you have 18" wheels.

Hi rbss,

I've got 18" wheels which are 225 * 40's (92Y load index) - Standard Thermistos on Elegance.

Similar to you we tend to do around 2000 miles in the summer (a few less because we don't have to head up to Scotland - phew).

Our spare is also the 16" 205/55 - Skoda's standard spare that (I believe) due to the difference in size has to be called a space saver for SE & higher models; (for the S model I believe it would be a full size spare). Therefore there is a speed warning although its "virtually" full size.

I understand its because the tyre width is 225mm that it stands to high in the spare wheel tray, "only" a 205mm will fit in properly. Being 16" 17" or 18" I believe has limited if any impact. I'm hoping that with a deflated tyre it will not be as intrusive into the boot as a fully inflated one.

Personally if I did get a puncture just across the water & was heading to the south of France/Austria/Italy or wherever I would be comfortable with driving all the way there & changing/fixing it upon arrival at my destination (even at motorway speeds - it is a proper tyre afterall). In addition if travelling on a Sunday in some countries you will REALLY struggle to find anywhere. I would however, put the "smaller" wheel on the rear axle to prevent any potential possibility of it affecting the control / streering. (I hope that others agree there should be minimal if any impact on the car if this tyre was on the rear axle...?).

The biggest issue for me would be.... can I get all the stuff back in the boot with the load floor being slightly raised. The car is normally full to the rafters but last year I did pack the car so that it comfortably left what I felt should be enough room just in case I had to change the tyre.

For what its worth, I hope that helps put your mind at rest & enjoy the drive... You can buy me a beer when you get there now you've saved a few quid

Stef

My spare wheel is a 17" Trifid same as fitted to the car and that fits in the spare wheel well of my Superb Comb. I paid for the spare wheel option just to get the jack kit (£85 spare wheel option with jack kit or £130 from the dealer for only the jack kit), the spare supplied by Skoda was 16" steel wheel.