Spare wheel pics

[MC-Leather]

I'm going to be doing a lot of driving for work and I don't want to have to worry about not havin a spare. So I using this as an excuse to buy a spare set of wheels. Has anyone tried to put a Audi fat 5 or standard 17" wheel/tire (not a donut) in the stock spare tire well? How bad does it fit? Any pictures?

Thanks.
Jay

[deepcover]

Audi TT compack spare. I bought it after my first flat. so ive never used it

Only problem is it doesn't fit over the front brakes. So you ether need to keep a spacer or do like i plan to to. take the wheel off the back and put on the spare, then move the back to the front.

[MC-Leather]

Thanks, but I want a normal, non-donut, non-temp spare 17" wheel with a 225/45/17 tire on it. For the price of a donut I can pay for half a set of real wheels.

[deepcover]

yea sorry i was just re-reading you post.

[MC-Leather]

No problem

[Kenji]

Has anyone tried to put a Audi fat 5 or standard 17" wheel/tire (not a donut) in the stock spare tire well? How bad does it fit? Any pictures?

People have done it. A standard wheel will sit in the spare tire well about 2" - 3" higher than the floor of the luggage compartment.

[vr6fanatic]

Audi TT compack spare. I bought it after my first flat. so ive never used it

Only problem is it doesn't fit over the front brakes. So you ether need to keep a spacer or do like i plan to to. take the wheel off the back and put on the spare, then move the back to the front.

I had to do it in the middle of winter last year, My hands were numb by the time I was done.

[MC-Leather]

People have done it. A standard wheel will sit in the spare tire well about 2" - 3" higher than the floor of the luggage compartment.

That's what I wanted to hear. I don't mind a lump in the floor, i just don't want a spare tire in my small trunk all the time.

[graeme86]

Just check - you may have to remove that metal plate at the top of the picture - I recall someone having to cut that off to get a wheel in.

Strangely, euro cars don't have that piece...or the hump.

[drtbmxer]

Just check - you may have to remove that metal plate at the top of the picture - I recall someone having to cut that off to get a wheel in.

Strangely, euro cars don't have that piece...or the hump.

Euro cars have a different evap system if I remember correctly....The charcoal canister is under the hood, while on the US car the hump in the spare well has the evap canister under it....

[BrewDude]

OEM Golf/Jetta MKIV spare will fit back there, but I found I had to deflate it to wedge it in there without having to cut anything. Just keep your air pump handy.

[Jonnymooshoo]

How much is the spare?

I also heard that if your puncture is in one of the front tires, you'll have to move a rear tire to the front and put the spare over the rear because of the calipers...

I would put the money toward 24/7 roadside assistance

[james dean r32]

My WRX STI spare fits over front and back calipers👍Not sure if it will fit in the spare location though. I only put it in the car for long trips. 24/7 roadside service is smart to have but if I'm hours away from the next big city I want a spare in the car.😁

[Kenji]

I also heard that if your puncture is in one of the front tires, you'll have to move a rear tire to the front and put the spare over the rear because of the calipers...

ECS Tuning sells a kit for that.

[scktwrnch]

How much is the spare?

Not what the OP wants, but to go on the record having just gone through this whole process. Short story: I settled on getting the compact spare to supplement my 24hr roadside instead of the full size.

Couldn't find any good junkyards nearby so I purchased the 18x3.5 compact spare off of ECS for about $200.

I mounted it on the rear of the car sans rubber to prove to myself that it would fit. (I have pictures somewhere!)

Discovered no tire seller actually carries rubber for compact spares, said I had to go to the junkyard or order the whole piece (rim + rubber) from a dealer.

Determined that two local VW shop's couldn't help me.

Went to a local Audi dealer and after numerous unhelpful/unfriendly parts people, I got to talk to someone in parts who knew what my car was and understood what I was saying about the parts sharing (between mk1 tt and my mk4 r32). After some research I discovered that there were two tire size possibilities in their parts system for the tt compact spares. I went home and checked the numbers (Math!). I run the stock tire size on the stock 18's.

I went back to Audi and purchased/special ordered the 125/70R18 tire ($170) and had it mounted at the dealer for about $40. The difference in diameter is less than a percentage point so I think it will have minimal impact on the haldex.

Grand total was a little over $400. The piece of mind is amazing though and I'm someone who has had more flat tires in a decade of driving that more people have had in their lifetimes.

Could I have done it cheaper, probably, but when I'm in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone service I'm pretty sure I wont care. I also keep rubber palmed work gloves, the torque wrench, socket extension and socket in the boot too.

[Kammer]

I carried a bigger than full size (18x8.5 with 235 40 tire) in the well for One Lap of America. Last year I ran 17s, and also carried a full size.

In my experience, you will need to remove the bracket in the photo above. Some wheels may fit without cutting if you deflate (per BrewDude's suggestion) but i chose to have the bracket removed.

[MC-Leather]

All good ideas, thanks. But were I live and drive it might be 200 miles to the next tire that fits my car, so what good is roadside assistance if they take me someplace that won't get me a tire for 36 hours when I'm headed to a job site.

It sounds like I can get normal wheel in the well without too much hassle so that is the plan. Thanks everybody.

[YikeGrymon]

Just check - you may have to remove that metal plate at the top of the picture - I recall someone having to cut that off to get a wheel in.

That might be me you're thinking of. I posted about it somewhere or other.

Since I have 235/40-18 rubba on all four corners of my car, rather than 225, I was intent on going one size up from the normal temp tire that goes on the Audi TT spare wheel, when I got hold of one. The idea was to have the same rolling diameter, of course. Very anal, this.

Yep, going up one click there (I think the tire is 135/70-18) resulted in the assembly not fitting in with that metal flange thingie intact. Annoying. First I tried going under it with a cold chisel and a hammer, to sorta split the spot welds apart (there are like EIGHT of them there... I don't know where they thought the thing would go). This worked, but also left bits in place that were STILL in the way. Had to enlist a Dremel and go through about ten cutting wheels to complete the job. This also left a few nice (small) holes in the sheetmetal, but I was able to seal those up with Herculiner. The hardest thing about the Dremel step was physically getting in there at the right angle without twisting myself into a pretzel.

ALL THIS for something I hope to never use, right.

Moral of this story: Taking that metal piece out is do-able, but it sure is a PITA. Be prepared, if it comes to this for you.

[YikeGrymon]

Not what the OP wants, but to go on the record having just gone through this whole process....

^^ Missed this earlier. I should add some here, for it might help anyone else going through this exercise. I too had a nightmare of an experience with the whole Compact Spare for Your R scene.

Got my TT spare wheel from ECS, easy. Not a big deal, though I forget now how much it was. NO they could not supply the tire as well, which I thought was odd, but then again I was looking for that 135/70 so It wasn't a huge surprise. What came next was though.

VW dealer:

Audi dealer:

Checking out other makes (from all parts of the world):

Independent tire places (brick n' mortar and on line):

The mystery grew. After many phone calls to tire manufacturers' support numbers and much on-line hunting around, I found that Firestone is (or was, as this was two+ years ago) the only brand I could find offering a 135/70-18 compact spare. I was advised that I could get it at any Firestone service center but that it would most likely be a special-order item. Figured that was the least of the PITA aspects of this. So I went to one near me.

They wanted $260 for this tire. Just the tire. One. They wanted me to cover the shipping charge to them (another $35... for a tire... one). Then there was their mount/balance fee: another 30 beans. Adding in the cost of the wheel, which I don't recall, pushed the price tag of the whole thing over $400 (which I do recall). Uhhhhhhh no.

Eventually I simply did a Google search on "135/70-R18 compact spare tire" and found a thread about them in a Cadillac forum of some sort. Seems that is the size that one Cadillac (CTS?) uses for its compact spare. Made by Maxxis. Oddly enough, the focus of the discussion in that thread was from the same starting point as mine: Someone had rubber one size bigger on his road wheels and was trying to track down a compact spare tire one size bigger so it would match the overall diameter of the other tires (in his case, 145/70-18).

Long story wrapped up shorter: I was able to buy one of these directly from Maxxis (they are mostly known for motorcycle, golf cart, and lawn-equipment tires, evidently) for $72 and another 9 for shipping it my way. End of chapter. A month or so later, on one trip down to NGP in Aberdeen for some regular service, they were good enough to mount and balance for me as part of the charge for alignment. (They put a metal valve stem on it, which I think is kinda funny.)

SO it seems that anyone looking for one of these spare tires might do well to check out Maxxis FIRST.

And as scktwrnch said, great peace of mind. Shortly after taking delivery of this car, the first thing I thought upon learning of the Foam Hunk back there with the can of fix-a-flat (after the initial "WTF!" of course) was "Okay, so what if something other than a simple puncture?"

[Kammer]

The metal bracket is tough to remove, but easier with a spot weld removing drill bit. The ones on the bottom are still tough because the clearance, though. IIRC, after the spot welds were removed, there was also a body adhesive holding the thing on. I had Josh at NLS do it for me. He didn't enjoy the job, but it didn't take all day, either.

In any case, once removed, you can run a full size spare, assuming you don't mind it sticking slightly above stock floor height.

[Kenji]

... Long story wrapped up shorter: I was able to buy one of these directly from Maxxis (they are mostly known for motorcycle, golf cart, and lawn-equipment tires, evidently) for $72 and another 9 for shipping it my way.

Good info. Thanks.

[speedbump2]

Go to a junkyard, and have them find you a spare from a TT 225.
Should cost you less than $200.

Or, for you bargain shoppers out there, there's always eBay: $95 Audi TT 18" Spare Tire

--Chuck--

[scktwrnch]

^^ Missed this earlier. I should add some here..

[MC-Leather]

I don't know what to do....

[YikeGrymon]

I don't know what to do....

Whattaya mean?

I'll tell you what. If I were to embark on this BS mission all over again, I think I'd approach it a little differently. This happens to me a lot (wrap up X and then realize quite a bit later how I should have gone about it). It's a bit like how you can have something sitting about in your basement for years and you have no idea what to do with it but you don't wanna get rid of it because in the back of your head you know there's a good use for it. But you just can't figure out what that is. THEN you pitch it or give it away or whatever, and inside of a few weeks a really good use for it presents itself.

Anyway. Yeah if I were going through all this now I think I'd find some appropriate but narrow wheel with the correct bolt circle that would also clear the front brakes (or would work with the ECS one-spacer adapter kit, which I also purchased with the TT spare wheel... but figuring out how do-able that would be means you'd have to trial-and-error it a lot with various wheels I guess) and mount a skinny non-temporary real tire on it.

Thus you've got a "full-size" spare, but not really. But it doesn't have that speed/distance limit on it either. Like, if they exist, some 18x5 wheel with a narrow tire on it, but one that's a real tire.

So you have a spare without the constraints of the temp one that doesn't come with the size or weight of a "real" spare and wouldn't stick up beyond the floor back there quite as much.

I have no idea how feasible it would be to figure something like this out, I'm just saying that I wish I'd thought of it a coupla years back. Maybe it's worth investigating....

[MC-Leather]

The only thing keeping me from buying a second set of wheels and keeping one of them in the well as my spare is that the car is bone stock. And I want to keep it that way, so I can't remove the front bracket. So I'm thinking I just have to hunt for a cheap TT spare and get the ECS kit. Or maybe I"ll get one of the those Tire Rack wheel bags and just keep the spare loose in the the trunk.

[YikeGrymon]

....So I'm thinking I just have to hunt for a cheap TT spare and get the ECS kit. Or maybe I"ll get one of the those Tire Rack wheel bags and just keep the spare loose in the the trunk.

Yeah, or that.

I'm not sure if putting something like a regular wheel/tire into that well, to keep as a full-size spare, necessitates losing that bracket thing or not. Certainly might.

[tjm0852]

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?1318501 see post #11

Also the STI spare will fit over the front calipers, but the center hub needs to be enlarged slightly. There is also only certain model years that will work as the bolt pattern changed.

Can't seem to find that thread though...

EDIT here is one, trying to find the other one that has better info
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...d-back../page1

I am using an STI spare, it only sticks up out of the spare wheel well 3/4" I made a small platform for the whole hatch area to raise it up to accomodate the spare. I will post some pics if I have a chance.