Winter Tires and Wheels
 

I just installed my winter tires and thought I would post my notes. The Z is an ’11 GM coupe, 6MT, Touring, Sport. I chose Blizzak LM-60 255/50R18s (correction 225/50R18) all around with the 18x8 F10 Sport edition wheel from TireRack. The guys at TireRack assured me that this wheel would fit over the sport brakes and they did. I can post pictures but the wheel is shown with this tire on TireRack. As I live in PA and the packages shipped out of Delaware I had them next day, well 3 of them, number 4 arrived the following day.

Installation :
There are two things to report regarding installation. (1) there are pins in the front rotors to prevent putting the rear wheels on the front. I don’t know if the new wheels would have cleared, I just pulled the pin which is actually a spacer on a machine screw. (2) The factory lug wrench does not fit in the lug wells of the new wheels. I'll need to carry an appropriate lug wrench for these wheels.

Appearance :
I was a bit concerned how the 50 profile tires would look as the “Wheels on Vehicle” view on TireRack is not impressive. The car, however, looks better than I expected. The rear wells are bit empty looking.

Driving :
The initial drive was in the dry. Amazing how much quieter these tires are compared to the summer Bridgestones which seemed to get even louder as the temperatures dropped.
The TCS seems very invasive. I haven’t come to a conclusion as to whether this is really the TCS reacting to the 18" vs. 19" or that there is really that much less grip. I’ll report more later as I gain more experience on these tires. Day 5 was in the wet, no TCS, no drama, just take it easy pulling away.

TPMS :
I did not pay the $470 for TPMS. The TPMS light didn't come on until the 3rd day (maybe 2 hours of driving). Now it flashes for about one minute then goes solid. I don't really notice it but may cover it with black tape anyway.

That's all for now. Hope some finds this useful.

Did you mean 225/50R18s?

In the dry when it's not too cold out the winters have considerably less grip than the OEM summers. Especially if you are running 225s like I suspect you are. You just have to do your best to keep off the loud pedal because you can really burn through those Blizzaks quickly if you are too aggressive in the dry.

Another footnote on the lugs. The ones from Tire Rack are SAE (English measurements) and the stock lugs are Metric. Make sure and use the appropriate wrench for each lug or you'll rip up the smaller ones. (Trust me. I did it. :( )

I've got the same wheels and love 'em. Also, keep an eye on the hub-centric rings and springs. Mine keep wanting to fall out. I screwed up when I pulled the wheels off this past spring and one of the springs was actually stuck on the hub. I put the factory rims back on and people kept telling me that my wheel was loose. I kept tightening the wheel down, then I finally figured out that the spring was stuck between the wheel and the hub.

the lugs i always get from TireRack for my cars are metric. 17mm or 19mm usually.

ive yet to get SAE lugs.

Mine definitely are. It's a slight PITB when changing wheels because I have to keep switching back and forth.

Yes, I meant 225/50R18. Thanks for the catch.

Yes, the TireRack lugs are SAE. Thanks, that is a great point I should have made clear.

Yep, you're putting 332hp to some skinny back tires that generally don't have much in the way of dry performance grip, so it will be super easy to light them up!

They will be great in PA snow, though. :tup:

I uploaded some pictures. Album name is the same as this post. Thanks for the comments and Happy Thanksgiving to all !

I'm running the x-ice 2s on the same wheels sizes all around. Have you thought about getting spacers for the back? I have been thinking about it due to how recessed the rears are compared to the fenders. Someone told me they are unsafe though?

werd, send them back. all of my lugs from tirerack are metric. :)

aftermarket for this car is usually 17 or 19mm depending on the lug bore size.

I did think about spacers but I've done no research so I can't comment on the downsides of using them. Appearance aside, there is also the narrower rear track. In any case, my bottom line is that it's winter, I'm driving easy (to preserve the expensive Blizzaks for starters).

Report in on those x-ice 2s.

i had the Blizzaks on my Benz they worked good but had really bad grip as it got warmer so on the Z i went with Icex2s sofar had them in 1 foot of snow and was no problem at all and as temps went up they performed at-least twice as good as the blizzaks. both do their intended task very well though.

Blizzaks are good when they are new but after a winter or so, they become as good as all seasons. You'll notice that the center will wear out fast. They are just like that.

Also, the bolt on the front rotors are for sport package wheels. It prevents garages from putting the rear wheels on the front.

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.

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)

I am enjoying the quieter cabin with the winter tires.

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.

http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/q...z/IMAG0654.jpg

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

http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/q...z/IMAG0657.jpg

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.

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.

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.

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?

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. :confused:

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.

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 !

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.

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

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

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 !

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.

I should of been a bit more precise. I only put about 2K-3K miles a winter typically. Granted, the last few years with them were not very pleasant. Probably after year 3 or 4, noticeable loss of grip was evident. Tire were ~1/2 worn, and being the cheap bastard I am, I couldn't justify getting new tires for a car I was likely to get rid of soon. This went on for a few more years. Eventually I had to get new tires as I was still keeping the car for another year (that too lasted another 3 years).

If I were in your environment with such drastic temp swings (20F-60F), I'd consider going with an all season tire instead of a dedicated snow tire. That is, all season for the winter, and a summer only tire for the summer. It sounds like in your neck of the woods whatever snow falls is likely to be cleaned up quickly so this might be a good idea to consider.

Jsolo, you may be right with the all-season idea, it's a tough call. My last car, an '03 Acura CL-S was terrible in the cold, even in the dry. That said, they were high performance all seasons. Maybe a more cold weather oriented all season would be sufficient (assuming there is such a thing). Anyway, thanks again for the info !

gmr19, you are welcome, I hope it helped your decision.

I only drove my Z a couple times before swapping from the Ray's to the F10's so I don't know about that one. I had to swap to the F10's right away since it's December here in MN.

I put 245/45/18" Hankook W409 studded on my roadster with sport package. Works great. I'm in Manitoba and though warm this year we get real winter here. Only concern is ground clearance but as I don't drive to work I can wait till the roads are plowed.