Snow Tires for my 2012 MS3
 

Hello, I'm a newby owner & I thought I'd ask the users for some advice for those of us who have to drive their car year round. I live in Madison, WI.

Anyone have any suggestions/recomendations? 2 or 4? I know Tire Rack says 4, but they also want $188.00 for 4 tire pressure sensors. Rock auto = $25per.

While I'm at it, Do I need to put sensors on my winter tires? What will it mess up?

If this war has already been fought, I apologize. Any help, scolding would be appreciated!

Thanks.

Always 4 on a fwd. Always. And if you don't put tpms sensors in your second set of wheels your dash light will be on and the system will not alert you in case of a low tire.

Also, in before the flames.

I just went through the same thing, and after much research I decided to go ahead and run winter only tires. I choose the 16 inch steel rims from tire rack, and General Altimax Arctic tires. I went with the popular 205/60-16 that is highly recommended in the threads that I read.

Knowing that the light would annoy me more than anything over the course of the winter, I found a set of TPMS sensors on Ebay for 125.00 shipped. They are the OEM parts.

I just got the tires today, so I don't have any driving impressions yet of the Generals.

I just wanted to drop in and say to get on over to the NATOR WI section and introduce yourself!

Regarding the tires, I too plan on going with the General Altimax's and steel wheels as that seems to be very widely liked around here. You do not need TPMS, but if the light will bother you and you don't mind spending the extra cash go for it. If you do go with tire rack, you can get around needing the TPMS sensors by using some trickery on the website. See post #18 here.

I went with the 205/60-16 Firestone Winterforce tires on steel wheels. Always do 4... the grip difference between winter tires and all seasons is nothing short of amazing. I don't have tpms in my winter wheels, no big deal... just an extra light on the dash. It automatically turns off when you put your summer wheels back on.

i got altimax arctics last year from tirerack, with 17" msw 5 spoke rims
payed just over 900 for the setup
i can get the exact size of the tires if your interested, i dont remember off the top of my head

Tpms is a waste imo, I rock my warning light all winter nce. I would get 205 or 215 tires, more narrow is better in snow. I have 225s but only because they're off my rx8. As stated get all 4 and enjoy tank status this winter.

AP ---> no TPMS light

problem solved

Bullshit, where is that setting??

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my bad, looks like i was wrong

SMD brownie

I've been brown for 2 days.

Get off your high horse and stop spreading bad info.

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i've been running steel rims with 205/55/16 dunlop sp winter sport 3d for the past 3 winters, no tpms
tire rack now requires tpms on newer vehicles
this thread may help to bypass this
@AimCOtaco
http://www.mazdaspeedforums.org/foru...-sizes-112975/
good luck

That's a good point about requiring tpms sensors installed... I picked up my tires mounted on steel, but had to tell them I would install the tpms when I took my summer tires off lol.

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@Old but living young, saw and commented on your other post. It looks like @jakk pointed you to where I was gonna send you. Use that procedure on tire rack to get your winter set up without TPM sensors. Without the sensors you'll just have to keep an eye on the tires and check them when you see fit. Judging by your screen name I'm guessing you remember the days where cars didn't have low tire pressure lights and you just had to check yourself ;)

Any questions with that work around on tire racks site just let me know.

16" steelies with Dunlop SP Wintersports I bought on craigslist.

Also, I'm a little confused. Why is no one flaming this guy for not searching?!

Well hes from WI, which is why I was nice. Plus you don't yell at elderly folk....

I just got off the phone with a sales rep at TireRack. I asked about ordering without TPMS, since the law only states that service providers have to maintain the TPMS in a working condition IF IT WAS WORKING IN THE FIRST PLACE.

I told him that maybe mine was broken. He laughed and said that it was no problem to do it without the sensors over the phone. So if you don't want to go through a whole bunch of website bullshit, just call them. Took 5 minutes.

I was gonna call and bitch, but then I found the website trick and quite frankly I hate talking to reps on the phone so... both work.

they're actually pretty helpful on the phone. great customer service!

i had an order of 12 tires and 8 were held up because 4 were getting installed on wheels. i called and the made everything good in 5 minutes.

Welcome, I'm from Milwaukee/Madison and get back and forth between the 2 frequently.

16" steelies currently with Generals will be back on my car once the snow flies. Just put them on for last season and hardly saw any snow. No TPMS for me either. Waste of money for people who actually pay attention to car maintenance.

Question to some of the other responders in this thread, , , do TPMSensors fit on your basic 16" steelies? I was under the impression that they couldn't be mounted on steel rims. Although this may have changed since I bought my winter set back in 08. Not that I plan on re-mounting / balancing / wasting money on them now.

To OP: If you're considering keeping the stock rims and swapping to 18" winter tires and then back to summer rubber come spring, check out big bear tire in Oconomowoc. They'll do re-mount and balance between summer and winter rubber for their customers for like $20-$40. Obviously 18" winter tires are going to cost more, but you don't have to roll around with ugly wheels, and you can keep the OEM TPMS if that's what you're after. They can usually get pretty close to tirerack's price too for everything.

Winter tires.
 

Thanks much for the info. I'm leaning toward Tire Rack's suggestion for 16" steelies, with snow tires. I'd rather have a dedicated set I can toss on & they will be all set/balanced & ready to go. The steelies are around $50.00/per plus their cheesy hubcaps are another $10.00?.

If I don't have to act right away, I'll probably look for some on sale/ discontinued alloys. There's not much diff in total $.

As long as it won't mess up anything, I'll pass on the TPS. I've had enough vehicles that have gone most of their lives with a Check Engine light on from some mods I did. You get used to it.

I used to work for Goodyear, so I know how to check my tires.

Thanks again. So many of the comments I saw on the Tire Rack web site weren't relavant to our situation.

Old.....

Tire rack says that the OEM sensors won't fit their steelies. The ones they sell are different, according to them. I have not independently verified this information.

1 day, 2 day...brown shit :rocketwhore:

Whocares about the TPMS junk. Not worth the price.. and yes do the 16" steelies from tire rack

TPMS is a waste. But let it be knock that if you order for a 08+, a complete set they will not install if no tpms as it is federally mandated. With that said...

Local tire shop guy did complain to me a bit about how he wasn't supposed to work on my car without making sure the TPMS was working properly due to federal mandate blah blah blah.

Me - option 1: do it anyway / take my money
Me - option 2: change my car in your system to a 1998 toyota camry / do it anyway / take my money

yea you can get it done, just dont give them a model that is 08 or newer

You can get cheap (ok...well at least way below dealership / tire shop prices) OEM TPMS sensors on eBay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MAZDA-FACTOR...25b23e&vxp=mtr

they won't work in most wheels though, unless you get another OEM wheel from mazda lol.

I can confirm that oem tpms sensors will not work with the steel rims from tire rack. Tried yesterday and they just won't seal no matter what it isn't flat around the valve opening on the rim.

Did I see what I think I saw, that the OP is actually questioning US, the bestest drivers in the world, if he should run 2 or 4 snow tires? WTF? Obviously you want all 4 tires to be matched (although some "supercars" may come with different SIZES front to back they will still all be of the same make and model).

I was perusing Tire Rack today and it seems it may be a bit harder to find snow tires in our size (Pu) 225/40R18. I think if I were going to get steelies I might go down to a 17" (or even a 16"), narrower to a 205/215, and obviously raise the aspect ratio a bit. Like a 215/50R17 or something like that or whatever it works out to be. You want skinny tires and you want tires that are designed to work in cold weather (winter tires or at least all-season). Those are your two main factors that you can both control and be controlled by. Oh and your tires need to have tread which unfortunately my current tires have none of.

Tire rack's recommended size is 205/60r16. I definitely want a narrower section in the winter. Some more sidewall is nice for potholes too. Drove an ML55 in the snow, and even with snow tires and AWD, the thing was like a goddamn sled with those wide-ass tires.

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Just did this today with my winters, Tire rack combo 205/55-16 Altimax (made by Conti BTW)

I picked up a set last week, not I just need to find some cheap 16" wheels

How often are you guys searching through kijiji and what not? I found Mazda alloys for cheap off it