stuck my full size spare on the car after a pothole incident on tuesday only to be greeted with a big yellow sticker saying limited to 50mph. car was in at queensborough yest getting checked over so i asked why the same conti 205/45/16 was limited.

she said it was due to tyre compound compared to the other 4 on the car. wtf? :eek: tyres look exactly the same to me

my thinking was that its a steelie and the others are alloy so skoda dont want claim if i crash with a steelie on whilst doing the national spped limit?

so my question is should i find a cheap vrs alloy with no tyre and swap the tyre over or was the service lady true in the different compound nonsense?

cheers, in advance..

Niall

oh and queensborough - top people. couldnt fault their customer service

If it is a full size steel spare then I see no reason why it is limited. I mean the majority of cars in the UK run on steel rims inclusing some Skodas.

Out of curiosity was the speed rating of the tyre the same as the others?

The woman has got it wrong. she thinks its a space saver tyre. Its EXACTLY the same as the tyres that are on. Dont worry

The woman has got it wrong. she thinks its a space saver tyre. Its EXACTLY the same as the tyres that are on. Dont worry

The tyre is the same, however the wheel is not - it's probably heavier as it's steel which may affect handling, braking, etc. I can't see Skoda going to the trouble and added expense of getting a sticker made and warnings in the handbook if there wasn't a good reason for it.

I'd recommend getting a vRS alloy if you want it to be a perfect match for the other wheels

Chris

isn't it to do with safety testing? the car will have completed type testing on four alloys. The steel is a get you home spare and not part of the original testing? It is probably ok for normal driving but if you crash at over 50 the insurance will no doubt find a loophole not to pay.

Well in that vain there is no warning sticker on the octavia steel spare wheel. I only got an alloy spare for asthetics if I ever got a puncture. A steel wheel would be slightly heavier, however, I would expect very little handling change. Seems stupid to me.

Got a vRS alloy for this reason - one day I will even get round to swapping the tyre over to it and putting it in the car

PS - no warning stickers of any sort on my '05 vRS though?

I have not got any warning stickers either!!

On mine the tyre on the spare is the same exactly as the originals, i.e Michelin Premacy's which are directional. Because the spare could be put on either side of the car which would mean running the tyre backwards. I assume the speed limit is because of this. Though the the steel rim didnt quite look right, it didnt seem to have the same offset to the alloys as it would try and fall off as your bolting it on.

I had a puncture at 500 miles and had the spare put on the alloy rim - at 20K it's still going strong.

The steelie is fine for normal driving and will go just as fast as the others without problem.

On mine the tyre on the spare is the same exactly as the originals, i.e Michelin Premacy's which are directional. Because the spare could be put on either side of the car which would mean running the tyre backwards. I assume the speed limit is because of this.

That was my understanding

na they aint directional but they do have an outside specific sidewall.

sticker looks like its off a space saver, ill get a pic up when my laptop starts working again.

simonsheil - thats the first thing i checked, its a W same as the others. and mine is an 05 plate. but no matter two new toyos tomorrw and ill get on the hunt for a single alloy

I think it's because like a lot of the car, it's a VW parts bin special. You may find that on a larger VW group car the same combination is used as a space saver (like an Audi or something).

just a thought.

na they aint directional but they do have an outside specific sidewall.

Depends on the tyre that is used. Michelin premacys are directional, not sure of the other tyres they have used since

Outside sidewall means you have to put the wheel on back to front to get it wrong - surely nobody's that daft. I agree with Roo - it's a bloke who's been told to sticker all steelies that go past him.

the contis are not directional, but the outside tread is on the outside of the wheel so as steVRs says you gotta put the wheel on back to front to make an **** of the tread direction, totally impossible!

cheers for the replies.

*goes off to find an alloy

I too had an incident with a pot hole last week, after some faffing around i got 1 new tyre for the front damaged one, stuck the spare tyre on the other front, and the semiworn working tyre on the spare. I can also say that after doing speeds well in excess of 50mph the wheel didn't blow up, catch on fire, fly off, shake, vibrate, melt, make a noise, cry or talk to me.

Waiting for a reply off the council for the bill i sent them,pothole pictures to follow tbh.

Michelin premacys are directional

premacy tyres are not directional , they don't have an arrow showing direction the tyre must rotate ,they just have an outside specific sidewall as was said earlier in this thread , if they were directional michelin would have to make lefthand and righthand tyres which would make already expensive tyres :( unbelievable expensive :eek: and my spare doesn't have a speed limiting sticker on it but then i've been lucky enough not to have to use it , yet , sods law moment , will get a flat tomorrow:(

I queried this wth my Stealer and he said officially the tyre should only go to 50 mph but under normal (and by that he meant not thrashing ) it will be fine. It is just that if you drive hard the whel is heavier and will affect the handling of the vehicle. AND SKODA DON'T WANT LIABILITY CLAIMS :P