1 hour ago, Chug41 said:

...am I right in thinking that it is now a 'generic' scissor jack, with a centre groove and two pivots (instead of previous marks with only one?). If so, it will be much easier to source and save somewhat on the OEM model! 

 

I THINK the VAG Part Number for the jack that's provided if one chooses the spare-wheel option + tools is 2Q0011031E and is as shown in the photos above. The 'genuine' jack is certainly not cheap (and one need to check that the folding winding-handle is included as I'm pretty sure that has its own Part Number).

 

Much cheaper scissor jacks (with equivalent or higher lifting capacity) are widely advertised, but the top of many of these has a slotted or flat 'plate' (examples on link below) rather than the central  'groove'.

 

https://www.thewheelshop.co.uk/product-category/accesories/

 

This might suit you as it's 'groovy', plus a wheel-brace is included.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wheels-Bits-Universal-Include-Hatchback/dp/B07FB4TC19

 

If using an extendable wheel brace always tighten the wheel nuts or (bloody stupid) bolts with the handle contracted so as to reduce the leverage and not overtighten the wheel nuts or (bloody stupid) - sounds obvious I know but think of all the garages and tyre places that overtighten (or miss thread) with a rattle gun and then put a torque wrench on.  I had a mate that was an ex-mechanic and he couldn't shift a wheel nut on one of his cars even using a three foot pole.

  

39 minutes ago, DerekU said:

 

I THINK the VAG Part Number for the jack that's provided if one chooses the spare-wheel option + tools is 2Q0011031E and is as shown in the photos above. The 'genuine' jack is certainly not cheap (and one need to check that the folding winding-handle is included as I'm pretty sure that has its own Part Number).

 

Much cheaper scissor jacks (with equivalent or higher lifting capacity) are widely advertised, but the top of many of these has a slotted or flat 'plate' (examples on link below) rather than the central  'groove'.

 

https://www.thewheelshop.co.uk/product-category/accesories/

 

This might suit you as it's 'groovy', plus a wheel-brace is included.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wheels-Bits-Universal-Include-Hatchback/dp/B07FB4TC19

 

Sorry, getting my slots and grooves a bit confused here. Looking at my car's jacking point it is quite inboard and is a pronounced seam. Is the jack supposed to bear on that seam (via a 'groove'), or does the jack simply locate on the seam (via a 'slot') and bear either side of it? I thought it to be the latter case. Have I got it wrong?

It's the former...

 

At the jacking-points, the bottom of the pronounced reinforced metal seam just sits in the Skoda jack's quite shallow 'groove' and, consequently, all the load is born through the seam/groove connection. 

Edited 12 August, 20241 yr by DerekU

Ah, always ask a man who knows! Thanks for your patient advice, Derek. So, presumably a 1 ton rated jack, suitably 'grooved' should suffice. Say something like this?

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/386172681935

 

mercifully short link this time!

@Chug41 getting there.  But the link although not displaying does include the path stream of your whole route rather than just the destination.

 

On the ebay page, in the address bar at the top, delete everything after the last number in the item (itm) number then copy & paste. - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/386172681935

 

Looks the same but isn't, place your cursor on the link you put up and see the full address on it then do the same with the link I have put up.

 

As for the jack I'd prefer more like 2 ton, "heavy duty" nowadays often means previous light duty, yet a proper heavy duty made product often costs the same, or a bit more or even bit less and I'd keep the jack lubricated (GT85) as if you ever need to use it usually it's not at the best of times and circumstances.

 

OK, I'll have another go. 

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/386172681935

 

Better? I thought I did that on my previous post (delete everything including and after the ? ) but obviously not. BTW how do you get that '@Chug41' in a green lozenge? Neat trick, and avoid forever quoting a previous post. Take your point about the jack rating, I'll have a looksee. My main concern is that I get the right jack pad. Now that DerekU has explained about the groove into which the jacking point seam sits I think I know what I'm looking for, but as ever I welcome any input that may be offered.

 

Thanks as ever, Nigel

 

Chug

OK, I'll have another go. 

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/386172681935

 

Better? I thought I did that on my previous post (delete everything including and after the ? ) but obviously not. BTW how do you get that '@Chug41' in a green lozenge? Neat trick, and avoid forever quoting a previous post. Take your point about the jack rating, I'll have a looksee. My main concern is that I get the right jack pad. Now that DerekU has explained about the groove into which the jacking point seam sits I think I know what I'm looking for, but as ever I welcome any input that may be offered.

 

Thanks as ever, Nigel

 

Chug

 

PS. How about this one? 2 ton, a shallow groove (too shallow?), with a higher rise,450mm. Looks good?

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285900872918

1 hour ago, Chug41 said:

OK, I'll have another go. 

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/386172681935

Yeap, great.

 

1 hour ago, Chug41 said:

BTW how do you get that '@Chug41' in a green lozenge?

I'm not sure how you didn't get it with what you've typed in the above quote.

Type the @ and, no space, follow with C - h - and so on (no spaces) until the name appears on the drop down list, the more characters you type the nearer to the top of the list the name you want.  It acts like a shout out if you're not quoting the person you want to see your post.

 

1 hour ago, Chug41 said:

PS. How about this one? 2 ton, a shallow groove (too shallow?), with a higher rise,450mm. Looks good?

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285900872918

You can also edit and add to your post (for a certain period, unless you're a Freedom or Freedom Lite member then IIRC no restriction, by clicking on the three dots at the top right corner of your post and if you want give a reason for your edit in the 'reason for edit' box below the post.

 

With that jack I like the 2 ton and it being read (unless you want to colour match a black car 🙂) but not the flat top with just two dimples, a groove with give more reassurance, Even on flat solid ground scissor jack can become unstable when wound up to a high position particularly if a wheel is stubborn to remove and a bit of force is needed to release it I put smears of grease or spray protect the contact surfaces, obviously you don't want any loose and going on to brake discs.

 

Personally I prefer not to use a scissor jack unless it's to support or position other components whilst the car is held on stands or ramps or perhaps a trolley jack if stuff at the front wheels.  My wife's Fabia doesn't have a jack or brace and spare wheel, just a manual foot pump next to the annoying noisy electric pump and I've not carried a spare wheel or associated tools in most of my cars for more than two decades.

 

14 hours ago, Chug41 said:

Ah, always ask a man who knows! Thanks for your patient advice, Derek. So, presumably a 1 ton rated jack, suitably 'grooved' should suffice. Say something like this?

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/386172681935

 

mercifully short link this time!

 

The VAG Part Number for my Fabia's jack is 2Q0 011 031

 

It is labelled as having a 900kg maximum lifting capacity and being appropriate for the following vehicles

 

VW Polo (>2018)

SEAT Ibiza (>2018)

Audi A1  (>2019

Skoda Scala  (>2020)

Skoda Fabia (>2021)

 

It's tip-to-tip overall length is 39cm and - as that length will relate directly to the jack's maximum lift-height - if you buy a different jack you'll need to check that its overall length is at least as long.

 

As I've said before, buying the VAG jack is not cheap - but this 'once used' secondhand jack is not unreasonable at £28 and at least it's the genuine article with the correct crank handle.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/276496209179

Edited 13 August, 20241 yr by DerekU

@nta16 (see what I just did there?) Thanks for coming back Nigel. I'm still trying to learn briskoda's particular ways of doing things, so apologies for the double post. I was forgetting the editing limitations and instead I somehow repeated it instead. Yesterday I received a brand new spare wheel, complete with speed sticker, which is now sitting snugly in its stowage. Unlike you, I've always carried a spare wheel and feel a lot more secure with it. Even as I gather the required tools I know that calling out the breakdown services (AA in our case) can now ensure a wheel change, especially if my wife is alone with the car.  I've yet to see how the wheel gets on unrestrained (turns out the Mk4 peg bolts are on back order) but I'm sure I can come up with a temporary tie down arrangement in the meantime. Thanks for your help, and indeed to everyone who have offered so much help and advice. All greatly appreciated and a great assistance to a newbie!

@DerekU Once again my posting skills are found wanting. I replied  immediately after posting the above, as we had obviously crossed. It appears that the Briskoda dog has eaten my homework.  I'll repeat again my thanks for your detailed information which, together with that of other members, has gotten me the right spare wheel and on the way to the required tools for it as well. I'm very grateful to one and all. Thank you!

I got a set of two of these "wheel alignment tools" today they are the best I've had, full diameter for full length, longer too, knurling isn't sharp to the touch and a cut (screwdriver type) slot on end.  £15.98 (set of two) including P&P off eBay UK  so not the cheapest but better than the previous two individuals ones I got before.

 

I now have a set of four should I need to rotate or swap over two wheels/tyres at once.

 

As I had a wheel-alignment tool for my Fabia, I thought I should get the same thing for my Roomster and I ended up purchasing the pair of 'pins' shown below

 

 

These are longer than the pin I keep in my Fabia and their shaft is the same diameter end-to-end (rather than being waisted like my Fabia's pin and thus less likely for the wheel to fall off the pin). They fit OK in the Roomster's (and the Fabia's) hubs and are well made and adequately sturdy. They have a thin smooth clear-plastic sleeve from (on the photo) the left end up to the start of the knurling and carrying the M14x1.5 marking. The sleeve's plastic surface would undoubtedly soon become worn if used 'professionally, but that's immaterial where my own usage is concerned.

 

Ordered through AliExpress on 23 August with an anticipated delivery-date of 3 September and arrived today. E-mail notifications sent to me from when my order was accepted in China and at each stage of the package's journey to my home address. The pins were well packed and clearly labelled and the total cost (including taxes and postage) was £1.41 (that's £0.705 per pin!)

Edited 2 September, 20241 yr by DerekU

@DerekU Good find, Derek. Are they still available? If so, a link would be much appreciated.

2 hours ago, Chug41 said:

@DerekU Good find, Derek. Are they still available? If so, a link would be much appreciated.

 

They are easy to find if you search "M14x1.5" on aliexpress and filter the results to a price between $0 to $2 so that you don't have to wade through all the expensive items. £1.17 for two seems almost too good to be true if it includes shipping to the UK.

 

I've never purchased anything from aliexpress so do let everyone know if it's a scam or whether you really can get a bargain on aliexpress.

 

However, I won't be purchasing them because I just use my trolley jack or VAG supplied scissor jack to carefully adjust the height of the car so that the weight of the wheel/tyre is supported by the ground while I insert the wheel bolts.

 

2pcs Wheel Alignment Pin Wheel Hanger Pin Set Rim Stud Pin Guide Tool Aluminum Alloy for Car Tire Repair M14x1.5

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006528574424.html

 

Edited 2 September, 20241 yr by Carlston

If not only all cars came with a spare / emergency wheel / tyre but also a trolley jack and good jacking points what a simple world it would be. 

@Carlston Excellent, thank you! Ali is a weird site. I tried that but was only shown bolts that were more expensive. With your link, when I logged in £1.17  and free P&P suddenly became >£4 plus £1.99 postage in the basket! Logged out, cleared cookies, and logged in to my wife's AE account. £1.17 had tax (UK VAT?) added so became £1.41 and free postage, i.e. as per DerekU's post. Bargain!

 

They are aluminium alloy but are only for locating the bolt holes, so should be good for the job. Thanks to you both. Another addition to my spare wheel collection of parts! 

49 minutes ago, Chug41 said:

...Logged out, cleared cookies, and logged in to my wife's AE account. £1.17 had tax (UK VAT?) added so became £1.41 and free postage...

 

That's an excellent tip.

 

Amazon also has some underhand tactics. If you want one of their seemingly bargain prices, don't add it to your basket or the price will soon mysteriously increase. If you want time to think, just search for the item again when you're ready to purchase and it's more likely to still be at that bargain price. Perhaps like aliexpress, clearing the cookies and logging in using someone else's account would also bring back that bargain price.

 

Edited 2 September, 20241 yr by Carlston

The Chinese government are helping Chinese companies with warehouses (or part area in them) to be stacked with very cheap Chinese goods, some of it utter crap but no doubt other bits reasonable or good.  Perhaps these seem (and actually are) very good for some purchasers in the short and medium term but possibly not so in the longer term, as America has found out.  Possibly the two sets I bought were from China or Chinese made, so difficult to know for sure now.  For a few decades I and others had many issues with Chinese made parts for "classic" cars with the suppliers and many purchasers racing to the bottom with purchase price and very frequently quality.  So much so that alternative good quality parts, at higher purchase prices started to disappear and unavailable.

 

Each to their own, buy as you please, I can't see how you can go too far wrong with these items (unless they snap or scratch the wheel bolt holes) but at £1.17 including P&P even at UK postage I do wonder how the item was made and got from China to here and be able to be sold at that retail cost.

 

Edited 3 September, 20241 yr by nta16

15 hours ago, Chug41 said:

...They are aluminium alloy but are only for locating the bolt holes, so should be good for the job. Thanks to you both. Another addition to my spare wheel collection of parts! 

 

The 'pins' I bought via AliExpress are non-magnetic (so presumably not steel) but that's also the case for the tpi-branded pin I provided a photo of in my 1 July posting on Page 4 of this form thread and that cost (from a UK supplier) around £9 for a single pin.

 

The AliExpress pins weigh 67g  - much heavier than the tpi-branded pin - and are nicely made (and I'm notoriously fussy). Presumably the tpi-branded and AliExpress pins are castings and, if one wanted a last-forever use-many-time-a-day stainless-steel pin, it would need to be machined and attract a suitably elevated price.

 

The £1.41 overall price was an introductory 'special first AliExpess purchase" offer and (as highlighted above) exactly the same item can be advertised on AliExpress much more expensively. Deleting cookies and/or using a different device can side-step this special-offer limitation.

 

I am near certain that, if I screwed the alloy tpi-branded pin or the alloy AliExpress pin into my Skoda car's hub and than violently hit the end of the pin downwards with a heavy hammer, the pin would snap, whereas a steel pin would just bend - but I'm never going to be hammering my pins.

 

I'm averse to buying 'foreign country' online, but I was prepared to do that in this instance as an experiment and - once I had successfully placed the order - the delivery process was seamless and I was kept fully in the loop. That I shall buy through AliExpress again seems unlikely.

 

(I recently replaced my 2009 Roomster's H7 halogen bulbs with LED equivalents that I bought from a UK-based supplier at an overall cost of £42. The LED bulbs (unsurprisingly)  are made in China, but I'd be unprepared to order LED bulbs via AliExpress as their quality and longevity would be much more of an unknown factor.) 

Edited 3 September, 20241 yr by DerekU

Just out of curiosity I weighted the "alignment tool(s)" I mentioned on 20th August, 174g, (each) (148 mm long) and the magnet stuck.

 

And referencing my last post, by coincidence this afternoon whilst waiting in my neighbour's car flicking to BBC World Service on the 'radio' I heard the 'World Business Report' program which was about 'Why's Europe's car industry stuck in neutral?' and in particular VW related to what I put in my last post via VW's dieselgate (my description) it's leads to VW's electric cars distraction and the Chinese electric cars and government.  I will add this was in addition to other matters they discussed including one of VW's top guys being in trouble for possibly being accused of possibly trying to con the US market (my description) (all are innocent until proven guilty). -

 

BBC World Service, 'World Business Report', 'Why's Europe's car industry stuck in neutral?' -

"We start in Germany, where perhaps the biggest warnings yet about the pressure on Europe's car industry have come from one of the continent's biggest firms. Volkswagen - VW - has warned it could close factories for the first time in its history as it comes under increasing financial pressure.   Also today the boss of one of the world's biggest delivery firms warns of disruption to global trade,

And, fancy an AI dating - wingman?" - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct607g

 

The pair of 'pins' you bought for £15.98 are described in the ebay advert as "made from high tensile steel and bright zinc plated for durability" so they should be snap-immune and much more durable than the two aluminium-alloy pins I bought for£1.41 from AliExpress. Do you know where your pins were made, please?

 

 

Sorry Derek I've no idea where they were made, could be China for all I know, the eBay posting didn't say and there wasn't anything in the packaging that I noticed.  I did notice picking the parcel up from the hall floor that it felt reassuringly heavy.

 

As my back is playing up again this week I make no apologises for whinging about the need for these tools because of the stupid idea of not having wheel studs, but bolts, I never experience this until this car (that I can remember) with any other cars we've had or with friends and neighbours cars.

 

The first car I owned (a 1962 Turner Mk 2 that I bought in 1965) had wire wheels with 'knock on' spinners and wheel-changing was a doddle.

 

The first motorhome I owned (a 1996-built Ford Transit-based Herald Templar I bought in 1999) had wheel-hubs with studs and changing its rear wheels was an absolute nightmare, with owners confidently asserting that it needed two trolley jacks to do it. I found that I could perform the task at home using the standard Transit scissor-jack, but only just and I would not have attempted a roadside change. My many other cars and motorhomes have had wheels using stud or bolt fixings.  It's never much bothered me which type - stud or bolt -and I've always been able to carry out an 'emergency' wheel change without much difficulty using the jack supplied with the vehicle.

 

I remember phoning Ford about the Transit-based Herald, complaining that the Ford handbook advised owners to retighten the wheel-nuts securely but provided no torque value. The guy I spoke to said "It's not necessary" and when I said "Why not?", he replied "It's 200Nm and this is clearly stamped into the edge of the wheel-nut's washer". Up to 1991 Transits with twinned rear wheels had left-hand threaded wheel nuts and mechanics unaware of this could snap the studs. Turner cars had fly-off handbrakes and, unless a mechanic or MOT tester was warned about this, the handbrake mechanism could get broken or the MOT test failed. Those were the days...

 

Edited 4 September, 20241 yr by DerekU