I knew this day was coming

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
11/15/2016 at 12:29 • Filed to: None

“Get cool 19 inch summer wheels and put snow tires on your stock wheels,” I said. “There’ll be snow tires for your stock rear size even though they’re too wide,” I said. “They must be performance snow tires,” I said. Well, here we are. My local Discount Tire has the fronts in stock and rears ordered. My wallet is crying.

DISCUSSION (17)

For Sweden > Textured Soy Protein
11/15/2016 at 12:35

Grippy tires for steering and slippery tires for drifting. I don’t see the problem.

Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. > For Sweden
11/15/2016 at 12:37

Kinja'd!!!

Textured Soy Protein > For Sweden
11/15/2016 at 12:38

I also have awd and shitty ground clearance. Yay?

bob and john > Textured Soy Protein
11/15/2016 at 12:41

yep, there is a difference between performance winter tires and snow tires.

what a world we live in now eh?

Textured Soy Protein > Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
11/15/2016 at 12:43

That is probably an appropriate gif for my blue, turbo I6 awd coupe...

Kinja'd!!!

Textured Soy Protein > bob and john
11/15/2016 at 12:48

Bridgestone makes Blizzak WS80 regular snow tires in my size and for a lot cheaper, but their dry/wet handling is way too soft for what I want.

bob and john > Textured Soy Protein
11/15/2016 at 12:49

were we are, we need actual snow tires. (yay canada) winter performance just doesnt have the tread depth for how much snow we get.

TahoeSTi > Textured Soy Protein
11/15/2016 at 12:51

Why not just run a symmetrical setup in the snow, those wide rear tires won’t help you any. As for performance snow tires I really like the perille winter carvers. they are about as close as you can get to a Nokain snowtire with out paying nokain prices.

TahoeSTi > Textured Soy Protein
11/15/2016 at 12:52

Check out the Winter Carvers from pirelli .

Textured Soy Protein > bob and john
11/15/2016 at 12:53

I’m in Wisconsin so my winter isn’t too far off. Back when I had my Mazdaspeed 6, I ran Blizzak LM-25 performance winters and generally it did fine. Its on-demand awd didn’t do the greatest with deep snow but the only times I got stuck were when I did something stupid. These Michelin PA4s are supposed to be one of the better performance winter tires in winter situations, and my 335xi has a starting 40/60 F/R torque split so that should help in deep snow. I’m still not going to tempt fate with it.

Textured Soy Protein > TahoeSTi
11/15/2016 at 12:59

My rear wheels are wider, if I went with a square setup the rears would be stretched.

The only Pirelli winter tire in my size is the Winter Sottozero 3 which is a similar performance winter tire to the Pilot Alpin PA4. In this test , the Pirelli was rated a bit more favorably in dry/wet conditions but it didn’t do quite as well in snow/ice.

TahoeSTi > Textured Soy Protein
11/15/2016 at 13:04

how wide are they? I run 225's all day on 8" - 8.5" rims....you’d still be better with 235s on a 9in then 255s...or just go buy 2 more front wheels.

Textured Soy Protein > TahoeSTi
11/15/2016 at 13:22

Actually now that I looked, my wheels are 18x8 front and 18x8.5 rear. Not sure why BMW would spec that narrow of a wheel with a stock tire size of 255/35-18.

The main thing is my awd system is sensitive to different diameters of tires front/rear, if it’s too big of a difference it’ll throw a awd error code. I had to choose between either running the stock front size of 225/40-18 on all 4 tires, or doing the stock staggered sizes. I know the 225/40-18s would make for better deep snow performance but really I’ve got a lowered, high-hp car, and perhaps selfishly I still want it to be fun on all the days in winter when it’s not snowing.

I’m not planning on driving if the snow is particularly deep. My job lets me work from home as needed so if it’s going to snow badly I can stay home, or if I’m already at work and it looks like it’ll get deep, I can leave before things get nasty.

Twinpowermeansoneturbo > Textured Soy Protein
11/15/2016 at 13:34

You should have run square with the 225's all around. That’s what everyone does with these. I have them on my e92 and they aren’t visibly stretched at all and within the tolerances of unaffected performance. Skinnier tires are better in the snow and I can rotate the tires (yes, the tires themselves not the wheels because of the stagger.) But hey, not my monies.

TahoeSTi > Textured Soy Protein
11/15/2016 at 13:35

I’m used to dealing with 300"+ of snow a year in the mountains with no flat or straight roads....a square setup is worth it to me in the winter.....If you run 225x40x18 all the way around you shouldn’t get any awd issues they tires will be the same height. 8.5" isn’t really that wide.....you’d also save $200.

Justino6969 > Textured Soy Protein
11/15/2016 at 22:51

I may be completely wrong here, but is running a different aspect ratio on the front vs rear on the same diameter wheels bad, especially on an awd vehicle?

Textured Soy Protein > Justino6969
11/16/2016 at 08:47

Different aspect ratios make different-width tires the same diameter.