gs350fan

I mean, the tires can't be THAT bad. It is an AWD car!

It was barely able to get up my driveway with some snow on it. I have an Explorer and it had no problem. Even my Grand Marquis did better and it is RWD!
The stability control icon was always coming on when driving.

DaveGS4

iTrader: (2)

gs350fan

The tires are Hercules Ironman imove. They do feel like firm rubber, they have a full tread. https://www.tirebuyer.com/tires/iron...p/style/538087
On dry they are great. They are supposed to be an all season tire, I'm not expecting blizzacks, but it feels like a RWD car. The front wheels do spin.

MX73

All Season tires do not mean it will be great in snow. It could have ok performance in snow. Have you tried the snow mode button?

verly6565

you do have the snow button?

gs350fan

Yep, it helped, I'm starting to believe it is the tires.

fb182

The AWD system in the GS350 is rear-biased. It splits the torque 30/70 front/rear under normal driving conditions but that can change up to 50/50 depending on road conditions.

Get yourself a set of dedicated snow tires from a major brand (Michelin, Bridgestone, Continental, etc). The rubber in an all-season will harden so they'll feel like hockey pucks in cold weather.

gs350fan

Are there electronics involved or is it a wet clutch? Older RWD Explorers had two flavors. There was a full time non electronic mechanical one and another that detected wheel slip. I would say this is closer to the former, because the latter only activated on wheel slip.

I'm thinking a tire like this, all season with a snowflake symbol: Looks a bit like my LTX truck tires, they have those zigzags in the tread. The tires I have now have nothing like that.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Goodyear&tireModel=Assurance+WeatherReady&sidewall=Blackwall&partnum=25VR7AWR&GCID=C13674x012-tire&KEYWORD=tires.jsp_Goodyear_Assurance_WeatherReady_Tire&code=yes

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

gs350fan

Yeah, I'm not looking forward to testing them in a heavy rain either. Probably going to be changing them soon. Get what you pay for!

neurocity

iTrader: (17)

I had DWS's on my 450h which was rwd. Handled amazing in the snow. I would look into a set of those.

gs350fan

Continental is a great tire, I have it on my Grand Marquis, BUT they wear down very quickly. At 35k the W marker is starting to disappear. Not sure if I had DWS but in my experience they are are a fast wearing tire.

speedkar9

I have Michelin Pilot AS3 on my RWD GS350 and they are absolutely terrible in the snow. Forget getting up to speed...the darn thing won't stop and the ABS kicks in at the slightest touch of the brake.

On my GS350, the rear brakes don't engage until the pedal is more than 3/4 pushed down to the floor, which mean at slow parking lot speeds my fronts are quick to lock leaving me like a sled

neurocity

iTrader: (17)

You have to rotate them every 5-8k miles.
I got 45K out of mine. I figured it was decent in regards to the price, and performance.

IcyBishop

All about the tires when it comes to snow. I live in an area with a lot of hills in the snow belt (not as bad as Erie, but can still get feet within hours) and my GS with snow tires is awesome. Never had an issue and never need to use the snow button.
I haven't found a tire brand that is clearly better than the other- have used Blizzak, Falken, Cooper, and some off brand a while back. Currently rocking the Coopers for the last 3 years - price was good and have a deep tread pattern.

I also prefer to go down a size on the width (215/55 for example)- I've been doing that on my cars forever and it makes a big difference.