OEM 19's and Snow/Winter
 

hey everyone, i've gone through posts reading that in the winter here in NY, or any other popular snow area, that our OEM 19's are useless with our stock performance tires. so my question is, what if I were to get winter tires(blizzaks) for the OEM 19's? would i still be able to get the same amount of traction if I had smaller wheels? i'm not really too sure on what to do, just know that a member on the forums is selling his tires that will fit the OEM 19's that I want to buy.

I'm from NYC too and I went through this past winter on the OEM 19's. I drove as little as possible in the snow but yeah, the stock 19's and snow dont mix well. It's a good idea to have a set of 18" wheels with some good snow tires.

You could probably make it through the winter pretty well with quality winter tires on the OEM 19's, but not quite as well as with a smaller diameter wheel.

This is due to the larger contact patch that a smaller diameter wheel affords, which lets more of the chunky snow-tire traction you pay for dig into the ground. The other benefits are obvious: no winter wear-and-tear on the 19's, and you don't wreck your rims nailing potholes and debris you can't see in the snow during the winter.

I gave thought to snows for my 19's when I found a set of used blizzaks going in the marketplace, but eventually realized that for my needs a set of 17's would work better (wound up getting a set of ASA 17" seven-spokes with nearly-new blizzaks in 225/50 and 225/55 for $450 complete with hubcentric rings and a 3 ton floor-jack). Realistically, for the amount of money you'll spend buying blizzaks or m3's in 19" sizes, you could nearly afford a set of smaller tires and an aftermarket set of 17's. Pretty common to see them going in the marketplace too, so that's always an option.

yeah definitely better with 17" wheel i bought my 04 used a few months back with 17" and snow tires and suprisingly the performance is not that bad either i drive in the rain and the car sits on the road and feels very stable so even though i haven't driven it in snow yet i can just imagine how much better it'll be than the 19" stocK.

I have stock 17 inch wheels with all season tires in the winter and my car couldn't even get up my driveway (like 20 degree incline) when it had more than an inch of snow, so i got on the bus lol...i will get some blizzaks too.i hope they will manage during the few times i need to get to places

yeah...gotta love "all season" tires. certainly not attuned to a RWD low-slung vehicle with any amount of torque.

so basically i could survive on my 19's through winter if i had good snow tires on them..what about the OEM 18's?

18's would be better than 19's, but not as forgiving as 17's. Seen a lot of guys running OEM 18's for the winter, though.

For me it was worth considering things based on cost; the 19" snow tires new cost way more than the exact same tires in 17" sizes, and I know that the 17's would provide a better ride and superior traction in winter conditions.

Could you survive? Certainly- but I'm happy with my choice, and I think enough other people agree.

And on a completely self-serving note, if you're interested in a set of OEM sedan 17" 7-spokes, I've got them in my garage looking for a new home.

Good luck with your decision, either way- if you want to go the 19" route, zeusallmighty was selling a set of 19" blizzaks for a pretty good discount.

you should get 16 and get a narrow rim so you have better traction the wider the rim, the worse the traction is. get blizaks on 16's. go to tire rack, they have it all.

would those work on my 06 coupe? or do we always have to run a staggered setup? (btw i dont even know if the sedan wheels are staggered so forgive me)

and in general..do all of our setups have to be staggered? yea..right?

Most 16's I know won't even clear the brakes- guess I haven't seen them all, though. If they'd work, it'd be a bold move- you'd be sacrificing a lot of dry-weather performance with that much additional sidewall.

Worse- I get sad when I have to drop 2 inches for a New England winter...3 would be murder.

Yes- you need to maintain the stagger or the VDC system will get all confused- the last thing you want to happen when concerned with slippery conditions.

joshknot wat about my question if those sedan wheels would fit my coupe?

"The Stagger" has two components; the wheels in the rear are wider than the wheels in the front, and the wheels in the rear are taller, with tire, than the wheels in the front. For winter wheels and "maintaining the stagger", you're only concerned with that second part.

If you were to switch to 17 inch rims, ideally you'd switch to 17x7 inch for both front and rear. Per tirerack.com and any other source you'll ask, the proper tire sizes for that application to match the coupe coming off OEM 19's would be 225/50-17 front and 225/55-17 rear. That setup will keep your wheels very close to the overall tire height of the original 19's, and VDC will be kept happy. Additionally, 235/50-17 could be used in the rear, but realistically the 225/55 is actually a closer fit, and for winter purposes you really do want a narrower tire rather than thicker.

I was going to be mounting the sedan wheels and had been searching for a good used set of tires in those sizes; I wound up finding the exact tires I wanted on a set of wheels that I don't really mind- they're actually very similar in style of the OEM 7-spoke, just not so nicely finished.

So, long-windedly, that's how it would work if you drop to 17 for the winter. If you're actually interested in the sedan wheels I've got, feel free to shoot me a PM; I'm very happy to help out anyone on this forum.

-Josh