After stupidly clipping a curb today, damaging the side wall of my tyre, I really came to appreciate the lack of a spare.

Had I not been within next to a tyre center, I'd have been waiting on the AA and car less until I could source a tyre.

Please anyone buying an octavia, order the spare.

Definitely. The repair kit inflation cylinder thingie can't deal with big damage to a tyre.

After stupidly clipping a curb today, damaging the side wall of my tyre, I really came to appreciate the lack of a spare.

Had I not been within next to a tyre center, I'd have been waiting on the AA and car less until I could source a tyre.

Please anyone buying an octavia, order the spare.

its common sense

Easy thing to miss though,

very nearly forgot to tick the box when I ordered mine

Even though Skoda has just put the price up from the £75 I paid, it's still cheaper than a good new tyre. No brainer!

I would have loved to have ordered the space saver spare kit with my vRS. However, the "computer said no" because I ordered the 19" wheels, and these are spare wheel incompatible on the Skoda ordering system. Now I am spare-less and massively confused over where I can pick up a space saver kit (wheel, jack, brace, foam insert etc) and for how much 

They probably think the 19" s are a slightly different diameter and reckon that would be a problem.  In reality, it probably won't if the driver is sensible and goes carefully to the nearest tyre place for a repair.

If you can't get the dealer to provide the spare, which is now possible to order separately from the car, your other option is to source a rim, jack and brace yourself.  You may struggle finding a 19" rim that fits at a sensible price, but if you do then you have a proper spare.

I rather struggled to get the jack out of the polystyrene holder, infact I failed and used a bottle jack instead. Is it just my car, or is the rear jacking point not that obvious? The rail seems really, 'rough'.

It's the thicker sections of the rail which are the jacking points. This is more obvious when you use the car jack supplied (or not!). The load absolutely must be taken on the bottom of this part of the rail and not on the bodywork or it could get distorted. Many threads on this forum about all this. Some sort of hard rubber pad/puck is a good way of using a normal jack pad on this car I find.

Any idea how to get it out? Seems fairly jammed in there.

I'll get a rubber pad for future use. I usually sacrifice some plywood.

There are dents above the rail indicating the jacking points. They're just not all that clear.

I found that if you manually unwind the jack a bit before pulling it out it loosened its hold on the polystyrene.

I tried that . . . will lever it out if I've not made it home.

PS the tyre pressure monitor worked rather well, warning of a screw in the brand new £100 tyre!

Grr.

Edited 31 January, 201511 yr by lpt100

Agreed, tpms picked up that I had a nail in one of my rears last week (5300 on the clock), glad to have the system, nothing visible or feelable at the time

Cant beat a spare wheel !

Does Skoda specify a full size 18" steel spare wheel for the vRS? Anyone got a part number?

 

Or any ideas where I can source a suitable 18" steel rim for use as a spare?

 

Not really too keen on relying on a can of expanding foam or a space saver if needed

 

TIA

Does Skoda specify a full size 18" steel spare wheel for the vRS? Anyone got a part number?

 

Or any ideas where I can source a suitable 18" steel rim for use as a spare?

 

Not really too keen on relying on a can of expanding foam or a space saver if needed

 

TIA

 

It's an 18" Spacesaver with a 125 wide tyre.

Does Skoda specify a full size 18" steel spare wheel for the vRS? Anyone got a part number?

 

Or any ideas where I can source a suitable 18" steel rim for use as a spare?

 

Not really too keen on relying on a can of expanding foam or a space saver if needed

 

TIA

 

 

You can get the full size alloy wheel as a spare if you ask for the alloy as spare part (£135) just make sure they order it as such, and not the same alloy as a factory option at £235

Same wheel huge price hike. Product code for Pictoris alloy 5E0071498H 8Z8

 

Or look here for other alloy wheel part numbers

http://eshop.skoda-auto.com/cz/en/b2c/alloy-wheel---pictoris-7-5j-x-18%E2%80%9C-5e0071498h-8z8x

Id never buy a car without a spare tyre. Its the only thing I optioned on my car.

For some reason the vRS spare is ridiculously expensive; absolute no brainer to spec it. Regular models not such an issue as they dont have big brakes and so make use of a more regular wheel thats fairly generic across models.

It would seem there is no steel rim in the vag parts bin that is the correct size for the vrs (5 bolt 112mm pcd 7.5j x 18", et51 offset). So the vrs spare option is a space saver.  If you don't want that the options are to buy another alloy from Skoda ( expensive, but you have the spare if you curb a rim badly) or get a used rim of the right size from eBay or the like.  If you go that route you should pick up an 18" rim to fit for around £60.  Or get 4 rims for winter tyres, and use one of those as the spare.  I did the eBay used rim option, but for next winter I might get a set of after market rims and do the winter tyre option.

 

Do Skoda dealers really have 2 different prices for the same part?!  I know prices on that Czech site are much less than uk dealer price, even after shipping.

Personally, I think all SUK sales staff should be trained to highlight to any potenial customer that "A spare is an optional extra" I'm bloody sure they'd sell more of them for starters.

The car was bought second-hand so didn't have the option to spec' a spare wheel. Hence looking to put that right now. And have a back-up option should anything accidentally get kerbed...

 

The other question is will a 'full size' spare i.e. a Gemini + tyre fit in the boot well - or is this why the option for a spare wheel is a narrow space saver.

 

Does anyone have a link for buying a new 18" Anthracite Gemini? - couldn't see them on the Skoda eshop site

Yes a full sized 18" rim fits the boot well, or at least the one I have does (seat Leon draco rim).  Gemini should too.  You presumably have the big poly styrene insert that goes holds a few tools. I binned that and place the jack, tools and wheel brace inside the spare, wrapped in an old towel.  I believe there is a different poly styrene insert for use with the factory supplied spare, which can probably be got from a dealer but not sure.

 

I can't see the Gemini either. It used to be there I thought, I'll try later from the home PC. Iirc, it was slightly more costly than the pictoris.

When I got my Vrs the dealer included a spare wheel in with the deal. It was a brand new 17inch steel wheel. I sugested to the parts guy that it would not fit over the front brakes. He told me it was the largest size he could order on the system. So if a puncture is on a front tyre, it has to be replaced with a tyre off the rear and the spare put on to replace the rear tyre. I am happy to do this and get the car on its way, although it is a total faff.

Neiln suggesting using a winter tyre as a spare. Be very careful doing that. It is nearly as bad as mixing crossply and radial tyres on the same axle.

Billhook, gotta wonder how your gonna get both ends of the car jacked up using the SUK provided scissor jack when using the jacking points ?, use anything in between those jacking points and you'll F the sills.

Billhook, gotta wonder how your gonna get both ends of the car jacked up using the SUK provided scissor jack when using the jacking points ?, use anything in between those jacking points and you'll F the sills.

The idea is to change one wheel at a time....