Spare Wheel

[Ahyouwill]

Hi folks,

I'm trying to decide wether or not to buy a 'spare' wheel for a C-HR Excel I've ordered.  I've heard it takes up extra space and raises the base of the boot. Has anyone any experience of this, if so could you give some indication of cost and if you think I'm 'worrying' too much as I've never used one of the nowadays standard 'temporary repair kits' which seem to be included with every car!

Is the addition made at the factory or via the 'supplier \ garage' and does it need to be specified at time of order or can it be added after delivery?

Many thanks

[FROSTYBALLS]

Spare wheel kits (temporary spare wheel and tyre, mounting hardware, tools and jack) are available to order for the majority of Toyota models from dealers either before or after one places one's order for the vehicle.

Bear in mind most spare wheels are themselves temporary spare wheels, and as such have speed and mileage restrictions They are only intended to either get one home or get one to a garage.

The tyre repair kits have their limitations. They won't repair large holes or tears in tyres. The sealant also has a shelf life - usually around three years or so. Obviously once used the cans of sealant need replacing, and can be quite expensive - although one or two  third party manufacturers offer alternatives eg:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Slime-1800330-Repair-Automobile-Dispensor/dp/B003QHY000/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1534627765&sr=8-1&keywords=Slime+car+tyre+repair+kit

[Ahyouwill]

Thank you for you response Frostyballs, I appreciate that the spare tyre option is only temporary as I’ve used them before.

Still not sure wether to ‘go for it’, I’m a bit concerned about the extra space it would take up in the boot.

I’m not a fan of the tyre repair kit, I’ve never had to use one, as previous cars all had a spare / temporary one. 

It will be interesting to see how much it will cost for an 18” wheel etc.

Best regards, Gareth.

[aCactus]

Just looked at the Toyota car configure page and I couldn't see it as a current option. I did order the spare wheel with my C-HR and it was fitted by the dealer (I know this as it got delivered after the car). It does raise the floor of the boot a little so that the floor is level with the bumper

[FROSTYBALLS]

On 8/20/2018 at 1:31 AM, Ahyouwill said:

It will be interesting to see how much it will cost for an 18” wheel etc.

May not be an 18 inch wheel could be a lower diameter wheel with a higher profile tyre.

[aCactus]

My Toyota supplied spare is a space saver, not sure if the wheel is same diameter as alloys but overall diameter (wheel plus tyre) should be the same.

[DavidinDerbyshire]

Just researched space saver spares for CHR because I'm about to buy a 2019 model which only has a goo kit. On line reputable dealer quotes £150 for wheel, tyre, scissor jack and you can get a screw to hold it down for £12 and a cover to keep the wheel clean for £20 (which I would buy because my wife has allergies to rubber odour).  Seems a no brainer to me, even if it means raising the boot floor a tad. Goo kits are useless.  I won't be going for the £299 3-year insurance for wheels and tyres that the dealer is trying to get me to take. In 2 million miles of motoring I have never had to replace a wheel. 

[Bigdave47]

Being a new Toyota owner, having just purchased a new C-HR, I was concerned about not having a apare wheel, and more worrying not even having a jack, wheel brace etc fitted/supplied from new, so I started doing my own research as to the options avaible to put this right.

The first purchase was the jack, wheel brace etc. puchased direct from Toyota at a cost of £20.00 including postage.

I then spoke to my supplying dealer as I wanted to purchase the proper spare wheel along with the full fitting deck trims and deck board and having been qoted a purchase price in excess of £520 and recovered from the shock thought that a bit excessive and started to scour the internet once more. Even an eBay seller was demanding £400 for the whole kit.

To cut a long story a bit shorter I managed to find a Toyota delaler who supplied the whole kit - space saver wheel. deck trims, new deck less the jack & brace etc. - for a delivered price including insurance for less then £280 and all genuine new Toyota parts. The whole kit for £300

30 mins later and the whole lot was fitted and my piece of mind satisfied.

I am still saddened by the failure of Toyota to supply as standard a basic wheel brace and jack and have made that point clear to both Toyota and the delaer.

Pity we don't insist that cars must be supplied with a spare wheel as they do in the USA, as the additional cost is minimal when related to the overall cost of a new vehicle - less tan 1% - given that these parts are readily available and the company fit a different type of boot trim and deck board in UK versions anyway.

Try Toyota parts direct - Fish Bros, Main Dealers, Swindon who supply parts at reasonable prices and all new genuine items.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Toyota Direct Parts are a Club sponsor - https://toyotadirectparts.co.uk

[Rosgoe]

If it’s any help I have had 3 punctures in 48 something years of driving, chances are that if you get a screw or nail in the tyre you could probably get to home or to a tyre fitters where the tyre could be repaired or replaced you might have to inflate the tyre once or twice unless obviously it has been punctured beyond repair and I guess that’s when you would want a spare.

with the repair kit you have to leave the screw or nail in the tyre for the repair kit to work properly and then drive at no more than 55 mph which is the same as haveing the space saver spare wheel. I read somewhere that the repair liquid can be washed out the tyre once removed and the puncture repaired properly.

when I had the auris I did order a space saver spare wheel as it would fit without any mods to the boot but on the corolla 1.8 hatch it won’t fit without mods to the boot which then restricts the amount of space in the boot.

I bought one of those emergency puncture repair kits where you plug the tyre yourself until you can get it repaired properly.

[Bigdave47]

I tend to agree in part with Rosgoe and in nearly 60 years of driving most of my punctures in the past have been in older cross ply tubed tyres or earlier tubless tyres but where we live now there are no motorways - Dorset does not have a single mile of motorway - and most urban roads/dual carriareway are poorly maintained and like you in more recent years I have had very few punctures and could cope with a slow puncture in the tyre provided that it was not in the wall.

However in the past 2 years I have had three incidents where the tyre walls have suffered irrepairable severe damage as the result of poorly maintained carriageways - large pot holes - where my spare wheel(s) have proved invaluable. It is no fun sat on the inside lane of the A31/A35 with no hard shoulder or broken down on one of the many very heavily used single carriageway A roads. At least having a spare wheel enabled me to limp to a point off the main carriageway to change to the spare - the tyres were ruined anyway given that the damage to wall.

I would rather change the wheel/tyre than wait hours for the AA or whoever to arrive especially given that my wife is disabled. Perhaps I am a bit too cautious but there is a boot desinged to take a spare wheel, either a space saver or full sized wheel, so for my own peace of mind I am making use of that. I always check before purchasing a "new" vehicle that I can purchase a spare wheel of whatever type.

[Jouef]

Picking up my nearly-new C-HR Icon hybrid, I was not surprised to find only a 12V compressor and can of sealant under the boot floor. Mind you, having hired a couple of cars recently, they even remove those from the boot. They really don’t want hirers messing around with anything. Seeing this, I took the precaution of carrying my own 2-cylinder footpump and a pressurised can. One slow puncture, and my footpump enabled me to get home and call the rescue van out from there.

Anyway, experience tells me I don’t want to travel without a spare and a pump. In thirty years, I have changed about four flats at the roadside, pumped up several slow leaks enough to get home and then to a tyre shop, and even foamed a couple of tyres with screws in. Another was beyond foaming, with no spare, and I had to call rescue out. Most problems are sharps in the tread or uneven kerb or pothole damage to the walls, no higher-speed blowouts. Always bought premium tyres (eg Primacies etc), though that gets expensive when the damage can’t be plugged. And every visit to a tyre shop is followed by undoing the nuts and torquing them up properly; I sheared one wrench and had to lever another nut off at the roadside after they’d gunned them up far too tight.

The local Toyota main dealer supplied me a 50mph space-saver spare (16in which is suitable for anything up to 18in), tools and the replacement boot mouldings and floor to house it all for just under £300. Fitted it easily myself, having removed the plastic rivet holding the original floor moulding down. As others say, the kit raises the boot floor about four inches, though does provide three storage compartments below, accessed (a bit tightly) via flaps in the floor sides. Room for the foam and compressor, an additional footpump, the locking wheelnut socket and more. It also boxes off the lower part of the recess behind each wheel arch, which creates handy storage for de-icer and scrapers, etc. There is a shallow well in the bodywork, though it is too small for a wheel so the spare sits above it. I fitted a towrope and a couple of plastic chocks in the resulting space (without obstructing the screw holding the wheel down).

All satisfyingly neat and efficient, but having inspected the results, the powers that be decided they resent losing the extra space for suitcases, shopping and toys. Our compromise was therefore to reinstall the original floor, fit the tools (jack, handle and wrench), compressor, foam, footpump, locking socket etc in the recesses provided therein, and sit the spare in a bag on the boot floor. I sold on the mouldings I didn’t need as “new, other” and ended up paying little more than the cost of a decent aftermarket spare-and-tools kit.

 

[DavidinDerbyshire]

I did go ahead and buy my spare from a mail order firm in Manchester. It came quickly with a jack and wheel brace and is a 17" wheel with space saver tyre so, yes, it does sit high on one side. I used a piece of wood to balance up the floor level. I spoke to another firm in Poole who specialise in space savers and they advised that a 16" wheel could cause damage to the drive shafts on a driven wheel which would mean changing two tyres in the event of a puncture (swapping a rear to the front if it was a front puncture) . Being arthritic I didn't want that so the loss of a bit of space isn't a problem. My bill came to £200 including the wheel cover. Peace of mind. To those who've only had a few punctures...you're very lucky. In my 2 million miles, much of it in motorhomes, I've had I would think 15 slow punctures and about 8 blowouts, two of them with campers on French motorways.  (There are serious issues with tyre pressures on motorhomes with base vehicle manufacturers advising differently to motorhome builders) and believe me you would not want to be stuck on a French motorway without a spare wheel.  The last one, in 90 degrees heat near Mubikilles, cost me 350 euros to buy a tyre to use as a spare to get home. One last thought....whatever happened to roadsweepers?   Nails, screws, scrap metal. It's everywhere these days. 

Edited May 26, 2021 by DavidinDerbyshire
spelling correction TWICE it rejects Mubikilles !

[DavidinDerbyshire]

The algorithm obviously has a thing about that large seaport in the south of France where you can get fish soup I have never heard of Mubikilles !!!

[Jouef]

On 5/26/2021 at 3:04 PM, DavidinDerbyshire said:

they advised that a 16" wheel could cause damage to the drive shafts on a driven wheel

Thanks. The space-saver spare my dealer supplied for my specific vehicle, which takes four 215/60R17s at 33PSI, is a Goodyear T145/90D16 on a steel rim at 60PSI. The space-saver is 1/3 slimmer, but the outside diameter (tread-to-tread) is the same. 50 at 50 would hopefully be OK?

This forum seems to exhibit a corner case in its spell-checker - I will now try it out: Mubikille is a popular destination in the south of France, sometimes spelled Mubikilles. Did it do it?

[DavidinDerbyshire]

1. I guess it's within the tolerances this guy talked about but a 16" would be risky when used along with 18" wheels. But I'd be very careful and listening out for any "noises". 
2. Yes it mucked it up.   I am now going to try to get the word I wanted to use past the spellchecker. It is M*RSEILL*S. The missing letters are A and E.  I wonder why that word comes out so mucked up?

[FROSTYBALLS]

5 hours ago, DavidinDerbyshire said:

I wonder why that word comes out so mucked up?

Other word for bottom.

[DavidinDerbyshire]

Aah..like the town in North Lincolnshire where they make steel? I get it now. Thanks for that. I wonder what the spellchecker would make of the street in Sheffield called The Wicker. In local dialect it's mostly referred to as T'Wicker, where t'water runs o'er t'weir.  Apostrophes may make all the difference.