I have a is350 and have the stock OEM 18" rims with summer tires on right now. The weather has been becoming cold lately and I have to get ready for the winter soon. I know the stock specs for OEM rims are

225/40/18 front and 255/40/18 rear

however I saw a great deal locally for a new set of

245/40/18 front and 255/40/18 rear

will these fit my OEM rims?

Thanks for the help sorry for the noob question :-p

 

I do believe they would but a staggered setup is relatively useless in winter driving, unless you're hard on the accelerator, which you shouldn't be.

 

I understand that the stagger setup isn't a great advantage for a snow environment however I just saw these great tires available locally so I wanted to see if any tire experts would know if they will fit the car or not before I make the jump to purchase them.

 

they should fit, but for snow tires you want to try to get thinner tires to dig into the snow.

they should be fine. just make sure the tread is good.

 

i did a cost analysis for this, and it makes more sense to just buy all-season tires for your wheels. Unless you go on the track...

if all you do is drive on regular roads for commuting, just get all season tires. i've got kuhmo ecsta asx on mine.

just giving a pragmatic view

 

I went with 225/40 18's for all four tires. This way, you can rotate them every year, since they have softer rubber. I have Blizzak LM25's. This will be the second winter with them on. Good tire, and I would recommend it, but the reality is this car doesn't like alot of snow. Packed, Icy conditions are fine, but deeper wet, sloppy stuff, not so much. One thing I did notice, be careful when you are stopped at a light and you are on a sheet of ice, or snow. The rear wheels may begin to turn, while you have your brake on. Happened to me. Put it in neutral to prevent that from happening. Not sure if any of this helps, but hope it does.

 

you do know that all seasons aren't meant for snow. snow tires will always give you better traction than all seasons. under 7 degrees Celsius(I'm canadian) snow tires have sipes that can grip snow.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/....jsp?ttid=116&

 

sorry this question is kinda of off topic but do smaller size tires run better on snow than bigger tires? right now I'm on 16" and the winter condition is pretty bad here but I really want my car to look better with bigger wheels. but if changing to bigger tires is going to make it worse on snow, then I'm going to stick with what I have now.

 

The size of the tire itself makes virtually no difference... what is important is the width of the tread, i.e.: 205 vs. 245. There is a compromise for each, though. The 205 will slice better through snow and the 245, which has more contact with the surface, will be better in icy conditions. This is one of the main reasons why you rarely see small vehicles stuck in snow, because the width of their tires are considerably smaller than that of a big sedan.