bob m

Wow, while no one likes getting a flat and either waiting for roadside assistance or changing out the tire, it seems Audi has gone out of their way to make what used to be a fairly quick job into a torturous task.
I mean that small jack has to be seated exactly so, the spare takes time to fill and its a problem leaving or not leaving the valve stem in, when deflated that spare doesn't seem to fit properly back into its spot, hub fusing to the wheel, etc. What gives here?

Bob

Q5 Bob

It sure does seem like a goofy set up. Rube Goldberg-like IMO.

Redd

Bob, the engineers at IBM used to tell a tale about when the IBM Selectric (golf ball) typewriters were first invented. They brought one to an executive meeting to show what they had done. And it was far better and faster than anything else on the market, including the Teletype machines.

Then one of the brass said they could never sell it, it was too complicated, too frail, too easy to jam or break down. And the engineers said "Oh, but that's why we can sell them a maintenance contract!"

Honest, that's how IBM made money on the Selectrics. No business dared to own one, or any of the other machines that were built around them, without a maintenance contract.

So, sometimes marketing is more complex than it appears to be.

With the Quattro spare? Well, the accountants want a lighter car (yes, a 4000-pound-svelte car) because that gives better EPA-CAFE-mpg numbers. Which also costs less to produce and ship, so there's triple profit incentives in a lighter car. But if you have posi, lsd, or AWD, you MUST have a full size spare, not a donut. The differentials will go nuts with a donut.

So, how do you make a full size spare that isn't full size and weight? Right, crazy inflatable design. Actually quit clever, if you don't look beyond "We solved that problem" to the larger picture. Average buyer only wants to know "is there a spare?" and you can show them, see, there's a spare.

On that crazy Z-jack instead of a regular scissor jack...Damfino, maybe that's designed to make you call Roadside Assistance. You know, like the Selectric, you really have to buy the service package.

One of these days I'm going to try it, and if it is as unstable as it looks, my spare scissor jack is moving into the car. After the first time a car falls off an unsteady jack, the survivors tend to get more conservative about that kind of stuff.


Now what's this crazy stuff I keep hearing, that I can't keep using the subwoofer while my spare is being used on the car? What idiot invented a spare tire that can't be used as a subwoofer while it is on the car ?!?! (VBG)

Q5 Bob

I'm partially giving away my age, but I remember both teletype ("this just in") and IBM's Selectric.

Bob Petruska

Only the outside dieameter needs to be the same as the the other 3 tires on the car for the AWD to work properly. Thus again a half width, correct diameter, donut space saver spare with aluminum wheel would weight just as much or less than the collapsable spare.

There are just a lot of super dumb designs on the Q5, don't even get me going about the electronic parking brake that costs %1800-2000 in parts to replace compared to the old fashion lever one. And the EPB won't work in an emergency as the old lever one would!!! Who dreams up this suff!!!

MP4.2+6.0

I'm not defending or liking the use of the collapsible donut approach, but the likely reason they did it has to do with overall width and length of the spare well being more important than depth/height in the packaging design. My guess if you look underneath carefully is either 1: the measurement of the spare well from the back of the sheet metal behind the bumper up to the area they need for either the fuel tank up around the axle area and/or real axle clearance is insufficient, and/or 2) there is a bunch of smog vapor capture stuff they needed to squeeze in there, and/or maybe also allowing for the AdBlue reservoir area for TDI's. #1 is a likely consequence of the shorter rear overhang of the Q5 compared to many a sedan style Audi, and #2 both due to tightening of vapor regulations in last 10 years or so and of course desire + need to offer things like TDI's that need the AdBlue to deal w/ current pollution regs. By contrast, the height only affects ground clearance or interior floor height, presumably neither of which were critical dimensions in the case of the Q5 packaging.

Of course if you owned the Hybrid, we don't have to even debate any of this. Since the battery pack takes the entire spare well, and the mini storage well, and...we just have our can of goo and the compressor.

On the D3 A8, I have a full size spare right in the really large trunk well, and the wife (via the tow truck driver) has used it once on the 200 mile ride back from Tahoe with the rock hit that destroyed the tire instantly right near the start of the return trip way up in the mountains. To the post, seriously exactly the reason all these half-*** spare ideas can be really bad news on the open road. To offset some weight in the D3 after I added a factory hidden Euro hitch, I actually found a Bentley Continental spare on a thin rim in the same diameter and bolt pattern that takes out 25+ pounds for future use too--also confirming that in the right design, that style spare can pull out a bunch of weight design wise, yet still support the vehicle (and the Continental being steel body instead of aluminum is probably another 1000 pounds of pork over the A8 for that matter ). On the Q5, after the D3 experience, I actually bought a Q5 spare off eBay and located it in Tahoe just in case. My winter or summer wheel set is at home if a wheel is badly needed for a few days pending replacement on this end, and I made sure our AAA has a hundred mile towing radius to get back to either "pit stop refuge" if a badly damaged tire forces it. Shouldn't have to do this...

Redd

"Only the outside dieameter needs to be the same as the the other 3 tires on the car for the AWD to work properly."
The differential might be happy enough, but if the tire was 1/2 width, the contact patch on the road would be different, the traction would be different, it could be dangerous to drive that way even if the differential didn't complain. Same reason that we're advised to change axle pairs if one worn tire needs replacing, so both tires get equal traction.

"There are just a lot of super dumb designs on the Q5,... Who dreams up this suff!!! "

Dare I say, there's a rumour some engineer named Fritz is still pissed about losing the war? A handbrake is for drivers, as opposed to folks who simply drive their car. I agree with you on that one. I suspect the electric nonsense is justified (in someone's mind) by being able to automatically release once the car is in motion, instead of burning the brakes. Again, someone who is a driver wouldn't have any problem dropping their parking brake, but most folks in the US just don't use it, because they can't remember (or be bothered) to use it or release it. What amazes me is that Audi doesn't automatically SET the parking brake when you shut the engine, exit, and lock the car. Wouldn't that be logical?

The good news is, BMW suffers from the same madness. And it definitely IS madness.

m1964

X3 sets the parking brake when you place tranny in park automatically.

dsackman

How many times in a car's life time do you actually need to use the spare? In most cases probably never.

So what does it matter?

At least you have something for that once in a blue moon emergency.





Oh, do not start me on the stupidity of trying to store the flat tire once you changed it to the inflatable. It does not fit in the area where you removed the inflatable from. What do you do with the flat? Just leave it at the road side, or do you leave your wife at the road side and put the flat tire in the passenger seat?

... and with the BMW with its run-flat's we never drive outside of city limits.


I wonder what Fritz would suggest...


.

Redd

"How many times in a car's life time do you actually need to use the spare? In most cases probably never."

You must live in a better neighorhood, where folks are not allowed to use screws or nails without a license, and there are serial numbers engraved on every one of them so they can be traced after being dropped in parking lots.

I've gone ten years without using my spare--although it seems like 2-5 years typically between having flats of one kind or another. And once, four flats in two years.

Of course I've also had engine fires (plural) and one wheel falloff (at the ball joint) and had various other pleasures that yuppy urbanistas might not commonly have had.

I've been lucky enough never to have a sidewall bubble or blowout, yet, but several friends have had those problems.

Nice that an X3 can set its own parking brake, a friend of mine ordered one of the originals and I am/was unimpressed at many of the quirks that car had too. By now, many they've caught up on a few. Or maybe, that's where Audi got Fritz from.