Pwyll

I got my IS350 on June 30th and have been loving it! (though I only have 1,100 miles on it - working alot!).

Living in New York, I immediately purchased a second set of the 18" stock rims to put winter rubber on.

Can any of you guys that live in areas that experience bad winters advise what tires you put on the car and/or recommend?

All-seasons vs. winter....etc.

Are there any known problems with putting all-seasons or winters on 18" rims?

Any help would be appreciated!

skorpio

I bought Michelin Pilot Alpine, full blown winter tires and traction is unbelivable. No Snow Mode necessary, it drives thru anything. altho Im using 17" rims but 18s wouldnt affect traction. Im very happy but pain in the a$$ to decide when to swap

ps dont get stranded with dunlops on, trust me, ZERO traction on snow. I couldnt even make it up my driveway, my friends had to help me push it in my garage.

regards, bart.

clubfoot

18" Pirelli Snow Sports here same experience as skorpio, very good winter tire, but noisey in the dry.

Pwyll

Thanks...

I was looking at Blizzak and Pirelli. There are 2 Pirelli on Tire Rack.

Clubfoot -did you get the "snowsport" or the "sottozero"? Which do you recommend? It seems as though the "snowsport" have the better reviews.

Also, is there any particular reason you kept the 18's like me, when many other people downsize an inch?

I'm trying to understand this. Is there any problem putting snows on a duplicate set of the 18" OEM rims? As mentioned, I already bought the extra set!

Any comments are extremely helpful and a stress reliever too!

One other thing....do you transfer the tire sensors?

clubfoot

I got the Snowsports and they were surprisingly good in the winter as a past AWD owner. I kept to 18" five spoke after market wheels, for cleaning out snow and road grime, looks and flexability. If you're going to run close to standard tire widths going to 17" would not help digging into the white stuff. At our tire widths I just drive over the white stuff,...no problem If you're going after market, make sure the wheels are TPMS compatible, the dash warning lights are very, very annoying!!

Pwyll

Thanks for your reply. I'm likely going with the snowsports too. Did you just swap out the tpms sensors from your summers to winters? was is pretty easy?

So your winter rims aren't the OEM's (did I get that right?), but are they still staggered?

Thanks again for your help.

bob

Kepeli

I am going with the Blizzaks for the winter.

Technique

Are you guys doing all 4 wheels or just the rears?

Kepeli

I am going all 4.

92GreenSC400

I purchased 18in pirelli snowsports from tirerack. I initially bought the spyder g's for the winter tires, but after a little consideration, im going to use the stock 18's i have on there now. Im in Alaska, where it SNOWS.

clubfoot

I can't compete with Alaska for snow But yes, I purchased my tire/wheel combo from Tirerack as well. 18" X 8.5 front and rears, but used stock setup for tires, 225 and 255. I purchased a second set of TPMS from my dealer at a much reduced cost, however they will not work properly with my aftermarket wheels. So, this winter I will move the winter tires over to the stock rims and next year I will purchase new rims for the summer tires.

Pwyll

OKAY - here's the question:

I have a duplicate set of the stock 18" rims. Can I move the sensors back and forth from my summer set to my winter set (back and forth - seasonally)?

Has anyone out there done this?

If not, how much are 4 new sensors from Lexus?

AndyL

Are Dunlop winter tires that bad?

I have Dunlop M3 w/ 17" OEM rims installed last winter and it worked great. I have to say our last winter was quite mild though.

kensteele

You will definitely want to get a second set of sensors.

Bichon

I believe skorpio was referring to the stock Dunlop summer tires when he complained of no traction. I've had Dunlop winter tires on other cars and they performed well.

I had the Pirelli SnowSports on my IS last winter. They didn't impress on the first storm we had, which was a snow over freezing rain scenario. However they did quite well in later storms, where there wasn't a layer of ice under the snow.