Tyred out

Tom

Member
Would appreciate any advice anyone can offer regarding tyre sealant as I see mine is missing from my new car. I would ideally like to have an official Audi part so that it fits in under boot tool tray but expect they are silly money from a main dealer. I see there is some for sale on eBay but it appears to be well past the date mark - does this matter? I always have RAC membership to fall back on worst case.
Any advice gratefully received.
 
Two of the three times that I have ever had a puncture while out on the road it was something that no tyre-goo was ever going to fix.

Frankly, I'd find a 15" or 16" spare rim in one of the A2-specific styles with a standard OEM size non-directional tyre on it (175/60x15, 185/50x16) and put that in the boot. If you have a false floor those sizes will fit underneath it. Straight swap even if you're running the 17" style with 205/40x17 on (however these are too deep to sit under the false floor), they're all the same rolling circumference as near as makes no difference.

You could of course go down the spacesaver route with the A2-specific folding tyre and mounting bracket, but that will be harder to find and likely more expensive.
 
Many thanks for your advice Proghound that is really helpful.


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This may go against the grain but I've never had a flat tyre whilst out and about - Therefore I have made the conscious decision to carry a tyre repair kit just in case and save myself from having to carry around the extra weight of a space-sapping spare wheel - The A2's boot is so nice and large (deep) without it.

The repair kit is better than the can of "goo" although I accept it may not suffice in all situations - but I have breakdown coverage for that those as a fall-back. As I say, I've never had cause to need the spare wheel while on a journey.
 
Hi Proghound,

Regarding the above:

A tyre size calculator says the circumference of a 175/60x15 is 23.27 inches which is .84% smaller than the Sport (standard size, I believe) 205/40x17 at 23.46 inches. I have actually got 195/60x15 tyres on the car which are 24.21 inches and that means the 175 would be -3.9% different which would make the ESP play up I think.

If I go to 175/65x15 it says the percentage goes to -.98% and 175/70x15 goes to +1.79%. Which of these would you recommend? If any! :)

I have a space saver (VW) at the moment which I would rather not use.
 
The OEM space-saver spare at 155/70x15 is actually ever so slightly larger in circumference than the OEM Sport wheel. This is clearly OK with 15" and 16" so a small difference (around 1%) is allowable. ABS/ESP does have to have some tolerance for rotational differences for bends for example.

I have moved a car with 185/65x15 (6% oversize on pepperpots) on one side and 185/55x16 (3% oversize on SE 5-spokes) on the other, so the difference between the sides was about 3%. I had to 3-point turn it to get the other side onto my hard standing, to change those wheels too. ABS wasn't fazed in this case even with use of full lock, although it was only at manoeuvring speeds.

I wouldn't anticipate any ABS/ESP issues if you had a 175/65x15 spare. It might be a tight fit behind the rear seat though.
 
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Two of the three times that I have ever had a puncture while out on the road it was something that no tyre-goo was ever going to fix.

Frankly, I'd find a 15" or 16" spare rim in one of the A2-specific styles with a standard OEM size non-directional tyre on it (175/60x15, 185/50x16) and put that in the boot. If you have a false floor those sizes will fit underneath it. Straight swap even if you're running the 17" style with 205/40x17 on (however these are too deep to sit under the false floor), they're all the same rolling circumference as near as makes no difference.

You could of course go down the spacesaver route with the A2-specific folding tyre and mounting bracket, but that will be harder to find and likely more expensive.
Just for clarity an SE 16" wheel with a standard 185/50 16 sized tyre will not fit under the false floor and the floor sit correctly.

It will go under but the false floor wobbles around as there isn't quite enough depth for it.

I know for sure and to my expense as i went this route on the back of reading about it fitting but sadly it definitely doesn't ?
 
Just for clarity an SE 16" wheel with a standard 185/50 16 sized tyre will not fit under the false floor and the floor sit correctly.

It will go under but the false floor wobbles around as there isn't quite enough depth for it.

I know for sure and to my expense as i went this route on the back of reading about it fitting but sadly it definitely doesn't ?
Thats strange, as I have SE 16" with 185/50 16 under my false floor with no issues.
 
Thats strange, as I have SE 16" with 185/50 16 under my false floor with no issues.
The false floor cannot sit as it's meant to on it's rails though, it will be lying loosely on the wheel?
 
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False floor cannot sit as it's meant to on it's rails though, it will be lying loosely on the wheel?
I put mine directly in the center of the boot, with various tools on each side,never noticed a problem, will double check the railing in the morning,
 
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I've had two flats recently - one 18 months or so ago with the older grey Octavia and one last summer with the newer white one. Both were direct hits with screws to the main tread. The grey car's tyre was repaired off the rim round the corner, the white one I had Skoda Assist come out as we were in the middle of nowhere and I wasn't going to ruin a good, 8000km old tyre with gunk. I also couldn't find it when I looked... they came out and fixed the flat. Slow puncture, 45 min from the next "town" and an hour from the next one worthy of the name, on a Saturday afternoon with everything closed and needing to be back in Helsinki on Monday. And no guarantee anyone was going to have the tyres in stock.
I might actually put a spare in, but I'd need two - winter and summer tyres - or a studless winter one.. pain in the neck that would be. Maybe. Depends if we get to go anywhere this summer.

A2's false floor has 170mm of space to play with IIRC, which explains why a nominal 185 might not sit correctly.
 
a lot depends on the make of tyre o the rim, some are slimmer than others
Yes that is very true and if someone does have a particular tyre fitted that does allow the false floor shelf to fit and operate correctly then I would really appreciate them telling me what make and model it is as this is something I will definitely do if indeed it does fit properly.

I must admit though I'm sceptical it will, as the Continentals I have on mine aren't particularly wide and don't have excessively large rim protectors like Goodyear Eagle F1's have for example and aren't close to fitting correctly
 
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