Spare wheel bay

[Anchorman]

Can anyone tell me exactly what tools were included with the puncture repair kit. I've got a 2016 Sportnav.

[Anchorman]

Can anyone with a spacesaver wheel give me the tyre size please?  I bought one today but it looks a bit on the small side and certainly not as big as the one quoted in the tyre pressure section of the hand book.

Xtrailman.  I looked at the full size spare but didn’t like how much it lifts the floor - I thought I wouldn’t be able to see underneath it.

[xtrailman]

You can but its only a small gap and not something that i really notice, i always drop a bumper protector down over the bumper so don't see it when loading or unloading the boot.

The lost of boot space  is the real negative for me.

At the time i looked into it the space saver kit all in was around £300, stupid silly IMO.

[Cornish CX-5]

Just checked  -  145/90 R16
Luckily the previous owner of my CX-5 kindly had the spare wheel fitted from new

[Anchorman]

Thanks chaps.

BTW, I paid about £275 for the kit.

[xtrailman]

My son arrived last night from a 2 hour drive in this Mazda 3 petrol from Newcastle.

A two hour run that ended up taking around 6.5 hours. A puncture that failed to seal with the kit resulted in both him and his two daughters and car being transported on a flat bed lorry!

He's had two punctures now in under a year, while previously his last was around 15 years ago.

Guess what he has decided a space saver is now a good idea.

[ColinX-5]

Yes I didn't like not having a spare so bought the space saver with my first CX5 then transferd it to my new CX5 when it had done 2000 miles I ran over rubbish on the M5 it flicked up and slashed the side of tyre there was no way the seal kit would have worked , and I was glad we didn't have to wait for RAC The most painful part was paying for the new one.     

   

[xtrailman]

For those who have read that a tyre cannot be repaired after the sealing kit has been used, well it can, the tyre just requires flushing clean with water, although the fitter did say it officially shouldn't be repaired.

The hole the sealant failed to seal was also around 3mm diameter, so perhaps a smaller hole would be ok, but the fluid is only thin, unlike I'm told cycle fluid that can be used to prevent punctures in cycles.

The fluid Mazda supplied was like water, very thin.

[Anchorman]

Yes I didn't like not having a spare so bought the space saver with my first CX5 then transferd it to my new CX5 when it had done 2000 miles I ran over rubbish on the M5 it flicked up and slashed the side of tyre there was no way the seal kit would have worked , and I was glad we didn't have to wait for RAC The most painful part was paying for the new one.     

 

Thats interesting.  If you got the early one Colin, what size is it please?

[rmvf]

My son arrived last night from a 2 hour drive in this Mazda 3 petrol from Newcastle.

A two hour run that ended up taking around 6.5 hours. A puncture that failed to seal with the kit resulted in both him and his two daughters and car being transported on a flat bed lorry!

He's had two punctures now in under a year, while previously his last was around 15 years ago.

Guess what he has decided a space saver is now a good idea.

Yeah Xtrail, got to agree my mazda 3 mark 2 had a saver but mark 3 didn't, I will be the same do something about it once bitten.lol

[ColinX-5]

Hi Anchorman size is 185/80 R17  I drove about 150 miles with it on the back, it didn't feel any different.   

[Deeps]

The lost of boot space  is the real negative for me.

As you also tow a caravan with the CX5 you'll understand this question more. When you mention the 'loss of boot space' are you referring to the area underneath the top floor which is useful for the odd bits and pieces or does carrying a full sized spare wheel actually raise the level of the entire floor meaning that you are actually losing physical loading space?

I've thought about carrying a full sized spare from time to time but I keep thinking about the extra weight this would place on the rear axle and car in general terms. When we travel with the van everything but the kitchen sink is carried so a heavy bite into this allowance due to carrying a heavy full sized spare wheel gives me cause to reflect upon this very carefully.

A small space saver might be ok when running without the van but it can't be used when towing - or at least it shouldn't - and therefore, I'd just be lugging around dead weight that once again is taking up loading space albeit a smaller volume.

[xtrailman]

The full size wheel robs you of boot space, the floor is around 50mm higher than previously, and as Anchor man has found you can see the underneath of the boot floor.

I noticed no difference in the handling ride or anything else as far as driving the car, in fact it may have improved the handling by the extra weight at the rear, same with the towbar, i noticed no difference to handling.

The two combined add a huge weight of around 27kg for the spare, and around 21kg for the towbar, so around 48kg added to the back of the car. Something to consider, but as i've said i drove the car new with both not fitted but added later.

On the mazda247 forum someone estimated that a spare cost 0.1mpg of fuel.

Space savers for my use are pretty useless and really only for emergency use to the nearest garage, even if my son had one the speed restriction of 50mph? would have added lots of time to his normally 2.5 hour trip, although he got the puncture half way down.

[Anchorman]

Hi Anchorman size is 185/80 R17  I drove about 150 miles with it on the back, it didn't feel any different.   

Hmm, there is also. 155/90 18 that sounds better than my ruddy 16" jobby.

[Caldean]

My son arrived last night from a 2 hour drive in this Mazda 3 petrol from Newcastle.

A two hour run that ended up taking around 6.5 hours. A puncture that failed to seal with the kit resulted in both him and his two daughters and car being transported on a flat bed lorry!

He's had two punctures now in under a year, while previously his last was around 15 years ago.

Guess what he has decided a space saver is now a good idea.

I specced a space saver tyre from new.... after 200 miles I had my first puncture for years. The TPS worked fine, and changing the tyre took 20 minutes. The tyre was shredded on the inside thanks to a 6mm slice of metal embedded in the tyre, which the foam would never have coped with.  Money well spent IMO, otherwise would have been a nightmare for us in the middle of nowhere in the Scottish Highlands. Only issue I have is the old floor and mouldings are now cluttering up my garage!