I am having hard time finding snow tires that fits on stock Type-S rims.

Any help ?

 

We don't need snow tires we have VSA........... No I'm having the same problem here. It snows bad come Oct. and Nov. so I need to hurry.......

 

I have not been able to find 215/50/17 snow tires either. A good alternative is to buy 16" wheels and snows. This way your stock 17" wheels will stay in good shape too.

 

I may consider alternate sizes:

1) 205/50/17
2) 225/45/17
3) 235/45/17

or

4) 195/55/17

No luck so far....

 

You may have to go to a performance snow tire to get snows to fit 17's.

eg. Michelin Pilot Alpin, Nokian NRW, Dunlop Wintersport, Pirelli 210A, Bridgestone LM-22.

I agree with the suggestion of getting some 16" rims.

You should be able to find stock TL rims that have been traded in for $250-$300 for the set.

The money you spend on these will be saved by downsizing to 16" tires.

 

Of course, in the snow, "thinner is better" ... this aint no Pontiac commercial

Do you have Michelin Pilots? They look halfway decent so I was going to try them first before spending $$ on snows. I also live in NH, so snow is a big consideration.

 

I have 235/40/18 Nitto 555 on Silver Konig Imagine. I had a bulge in stock rim, so I am looking for snow tires for my scratched stock rims.

I may be consider a "hot deal" 16" TL rims with Blizzaks.The 17"inch snow tires are damn expensive ($160-$170 each!)

 

Unless the road has snow or ice all through the winter, a lot of performance is lost by switching to thinner or 16" tires when driven on dry and bare roads. Even in 17" sizes, snow tires perform worst than the OEM all season tires in the dry because of the softer rubber blocks and construction.

 

Not entirely true.

In sub zero temperatures, a winter tire will perform better than an all season tire EVEN ON DRY PAVEMENT.

Rubber can only be designed to be soft over a limited temperature range.

 

I talked to guys at Tirerack about this. Apperently 205 50 17 should not be used because of the improper load rating. I guess the TL/CL Type S must use a minimum of 215 in a 17" size... You could go 235-45 17 though...

B

 

As usual, the Tire Rack seems to have a thousand and one opinions. They are correct about the load rating being too low for a 205/50-17. Then you run into the problem of no listings for any "snow only" tires in a 215/50-17.

The stock tires are XL rated, and I have not seen any available snow tires in XL rating for a CLS/TLS.

You could probably get by with a load rating of 91 (Most of the snow tires are only QR/HR rated for 99 MPH/130 MPH anyway).

With your 6.5" wide rims, you might want to stick to 225/45-17s or just pop for the 16" rims and snow tires...


Tire Rack link with a 205/60QR16 (92Q SL load rating). The tire radius would be within 1% of the stock 215/50-17s.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Spec.j...=Blizzak+MZ-02

And the much overused tire size calculator link:

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html


You can generally find cheaper tires in the smaller diameter sizes and the higher profile tires tend to support a higher load for a given size.

 

I agree...Beiruty is looking for SNOW TIRES. I don't think performance is his primary concern.

 

But there is no harm of knowing the pros and cons of running different sizes of snow tires under different road conditions. Other fellow members might be interested in knowing the balance between safety and performance when using snow tires.

 

Hi guys,
Don't post here as much as I used to but this is one subject where I do have some input. I bought a set of TL 16" wheels from a member of this forum. I then bought snows from tire rack and had them mounted locally. I bought the Blizzaks and put about 8-10,000 miles on them last winter. They work fine and traction was never a problem. But...........whoever said the handling is as good as the regular tires.......all I can say is "NUHUH". If you like to feel like you are dancing in floppy clown shoes, then you might be happy with the handling. I guess the best way to describe it is "tire squirm". Snow handling was fantastic with never a problem with whatever we had last year in NJ.