Most of us give our tyres at least an occasional glance — but there's one tyre that almost never gets a look: the spare. It sits under the boot floor or slung beneath the ute tray for years, quietly losing pressure, until the day you're stuck on the side of the road and need it to work. That's the worst possible moment to discover it's flat, perished or missing altogether.
First, find out what you actually have
Not every car sold in Australia comes with a full-size spare anymore. Depending on your vehicle, you might have one of three things:
- A full-size spare — a proper tyre on a matching wheel, common on utes, 4WDs and many family SUVs. Once fitted, you can drive normally.
- A space-saver (temporary) spare — a narrower, lighter tyre, usually on a bright-coloured wheel. These are for getting you to a tyre shop, not for everyday driving.
- A tyre repair kit — a bottle of sealant and a small compressor instead of a spare. Increasingly common on small cars and EVs, where boot space and weight matter.
If you've never looked, go and check. Knowing what's back there — and how the jack and wheel brace work — is much easier to sort out in your driveway than at night on a highway shoulder.
Check the pressure — yes, the spare too
All tyres slowly lose air, and the spare is no exception. A spare that's been ignored for two or three years can easily be well under its recommended pressure, which makes it unsafe to drive on. When you check your road tyres (ideally monthly), add the spare to the routine — even every second or third check is a big improvement on never.
Note that space-saver spares usually run a much higher pressure than normal tyres — often around 60 psi, compared with 32–38 psi for most road tyres. The correct figure is printed on the spare's sidewall or on the tyre placard inside the driver's door.
The rules of the space-saver
Temporary spares come with real limits, and they're worth taking seriously:
- Speed: most are limited to 80 km/h. The limit is printed on the wheel or sidewall — stick to it, even on the freeway.
- Distance: they're designed for short trips to get you to a repairer, not a week of commuting.
- Handling: with a narrower tread, braking distances grow and grip drops, especially in the wet. Drive gently and leave extra room.
Spares age even when they don't wear
Because a spare rarely touches the road, its tread can look brand new while the rubber itself has hardened and cracked with age. Check the sidewalls for fine cracks, and look at the four-digit date code on the tyre (the first two digits are the week, the last two the year it was made). A spare that's a decade old deserves a professional once-over before you trust it, even if it's never been used.
Repair kits: know before you need them
If your car has a sealant kit instead of a spare, read the instructions now, not by torchlight. Sealant kits handle small tread punctures but can't fix sidewall damage or larger holes, and the sealant has a use-by date — check it hasn't expired. Once sealant has been used in a tyre, tell your tyre shop, as it affects whether a proper repair is possible.
Five minutes now, a lot of stress saved later
A quick monthly habit — glance at the spare, check its pressure, make sure the jack and tools are where they should be — costs you almost nothing and can turn a roadside drama into a minor delay. If it's been a while, next time you're passing through North Geelong, the team at Global Tyres Geelong can check your spare's pressure, age and condition while you wait, and make sure it's ready for the day you actually need it.