Winter Tires and Wheels

mayday813

I put 245/45 R 18 Icex2s on a 2011 touring sport coupe six speed. Handling is not as sharp but tolerable and the ride is a little softer. We've only had one snow to date which was gone in a day and they worked well. I've got about 500 miles on the snows. They are a little wider than the 225/50R18's but they still don't fill the rear wheel wells. I don't want to spend the money for spacers which run about $140 a piece if I recall correctly.
I've used Michelin snow tires on a 2009 G37 and a 2002 Mercedes C230 over the years with very satisfactory results. Incidentally, the snow tires on the 370Z are much quieter than the stock Potenza's.

HankL

The Blizzak grip definitely degrades with increasing temperature. A very noticeable difference between 55F and 35F. They actually locked up on a moderately hard stop. Next year I will wait a bit longer before making the swap.

Speaking of lockup, I didn't hear a peep out of the ABS. Does anyone know if ABS is off with TCS off? Is it confused by the tire size difference ? (neither of these make sense to me)

HankL

I am enjoying the quieter cabin with the winter tires.

Nate23

Thanks for posting your setup HankL. I recently bought a 370z and needed a set of winter wheels right away. Ended up going with the same setup you have, 18x8 F10 Sport Editions and same Blizzaks. Everything fit and looks pretty good for winter wheels!

Here's a couple pics if anyone else is curious or finds this thread later on researching like I did.



Sport brake clearance on front...pretty damn close, but it clears!

TreeSemdyZee

You'll love 'em. I'm on my third winter with the same setup. Of course, you'll probably get a lot more use out of them in Minnesota. We had around a ten inch snow last winter and I tried to get them to lose traction and they didn't really want to let go. Its real nice having that kind of sure-footing.

Word of warning to anyone with these wheels (and probably others). The little spring clips that hold in the hub rings like to come off when you're swapping tires. Mine actually came slightly loose when I put them on last winter. When I put my summer wheels back on, people kept telling me that my wheel was wobbling. I'd tighten the lugs down and still had people stopping me. I ended up pulling the wheel back off and found that the spring had actually gotten embedded (from torqueing the lugs) in the hub. Now I have a groove in my hub.

HankL

Hey Nate23 and Tree, thanks for the positive comments. I'm glad you found it useful. It is for sure a fairly big investment to screw up.

By the way, I did install 25mm Eibach Pro-spacers on the rear. I didn't like the look with the rear track more narrow than the front (I didn't measure, just by the look). As it turns out, and I could be nuts, I am sure I feel the increased stability of the wider track and looks a lot better as well. If I did the math correctly, the wheels are approx. 4.6 mm further apart (at the outside) than with the summer tires. I went strictly by the width and offset of the wheels.

Rays - 10" or 254mm with +30 offset (hub toward the front of the wheel)
F10 - 8" or 203.2 mm with 0 offset.

The Rays are 25.4mm wider each side of the centerline but sit 30mm further back with the offset.

I have been meaning to post some pics, I will do that.

Nate23

I forgot to mention that in my post as well, but I bought spacers as well for the rear. I have Ichiba 25mm Type 2 wheel spacers. The rear looks normal with them installed so I'm glad I got them since the rear would be in way too far to look good without.

gmr19

Nate23, I have 15mm Type 2 spacers on the rear Sport wheels currently. Do you think the F10 wheels would fit with these? I know the nuts protrude since the spacer is only 15mm thick, but was wondering if there are recesses in these wheels like the OEMs?

Nate23

I have no idea if that would be an issue or not. I don't recall if the wheels had the recesses or not...it never crossed my mind to check. Wish I had a pic of the inside of the wheel, but won't be able to get one until spring.

This is the first time I've used or ever even looked into getting spacer's on a car so I don't know if its standard that wheels have those recesses or not.

__________________
2011 370z Coupe: Pearl White, Gray Interior, 6MT, Touring, Sport & Nav.

HankL

Hi GMR19, Just a guess but I don't think you will have enough clearance. The F10 has a fairly large cutout but it gets smaller as it moves toward the hub. I estimate that you need something in the range of 14mm.

Maybe TireRack can give you the cutout profile. I tried and failed to find the specs for the F10 wheel. Also, check the specs on your spacers. The Eibach Pro-Spacers are application specific so they give you a required cutout number based on standard 370Z lugs.

Hope this helps !

HankL

Hey gmr19, I took a closer look at the F10 cutout. It is difficult to measure with the wheel on but I stuck my calipers in there as best I could and came up with 11.75mm of clearance over the lug. Again, worst case I think you would need around 14mm. The 25mm Eibach Pro-Spacers were $129-ish from Summit Racing.


Here's a pic.

Attached Images

F10_CutOut_CloseUp - resized.JPG (275.4 KB, 26 views)

HankL

Hey Nate23, Have you noticed that these F10 wheels get dirtier, quicker compared with the Rays? It must be those flat spokes.

Jsolo

Hank, I was able to get about 7 seasons on the last set of ws15 blizzaks I ran on my old z28. I usually wait until the very last minute to put snow tires on. Because once they're on, I drive the car like gramma. Gentle acceleration, braking, taking it *VERY* easy on the curves.

I already have new snow boots for the G37 (xice2 in same size as yours), but haven't mounted them yet. Forecast shows mid/upper 30's at least for the next week in the chicago area, and unless temps are closer to freezing, I'm ok with running the re050's (albeit gently until they're warmed up some).

When temps start to regularly reach up 30's or higher, the summer tires go back on - around here usually mid/late march.

Ymmv (literally)... Btw, the xice2's come with a 30K warranty

HankL

Joslo, thanks for the info. 7 seasons is impressive, I expect the Blizzaks to dry rot long before then but we will see. I estimate that I will put about 4 to 5,000 miles on them over the season.

Yes, the Blizzak grip really degrades with warmer temperatures. It has been difficult as the temperature in the Philadelphia area has been all over the place, 20 one day and 60 the next. As you say, you just have to take it easy. Happy Holidays !

gmr19

HankL, I really appreciate the effort in taking that close-up pic! I'll need to take off my wheel and measure to know for sure.