Happy New Year everyone, I'm in the process of purchasing 4 new winter tires with my OEM wheels and I wanted to ask which tire I should go with. I was looking at the Blizzak LM-25 19's 225/40R19. Please keep in mind I do not want to buy new wheels, I just want to use the OEM wheels.

 

i would find cheap wheels too!

 

I was thinking the wheels to but I am not a real tight budget right now.

 

if i am to ask what is buget? maybe i can help you find a deal?

 

Maybe a 1K if that, I was laid off recently so I am tying to hold out until a new gig comes in. I know the tires are close to 1K and that is not even talking about new wheels. What is wrong using the OEM's?

 

well im against mounting and unmounting tires. i believe it actually is bad for that tires side wall.

 

I agree, not to mention the labor, rebalancing and the chance of marring to finish of the wheels.

Mount snows on new wheels, or park it.

Lou

 

If your going to go with just the tires, I would say the Blizzak's are really good wheels. There are quite a few people running them on here (Fig comes to mind). Not sure how they are on stock wheels but I'm sure they'd be fine if they're highly recommended on snow wheels

 

I heard the same tire make from a few other people, I just want to make sure they fit without a problem with the stock rims. A friend of mine is a tech at Lexus so I know he would handle everything with care plus I don't have to pay him to mount them.

 

did he recommend you remounting the tires? surely he knows thats not smart? but its your car! so rock on billy ray!

 

After a couple of mounting and unmounting on my IS350, the dealership AND local tire shops eventually killed the bead of my tires. I would downsize to 18's and get some cheap 18" aftermarket rims for the winter. I'm running 18" Blizzaks LM25s with no problems and it's probably better with winter potholes anyways.

 

Consider that Blizzaks to fit OEM wheels are going to cost at least something like $250 more than buying 225/45R18s all around. You can just apply that to buying the new wheels. You never want to remount tires twice a year, and it takes way longer to do it to boot.

Plus, why would want to drive around in the OEM (or any 19") wheels during the winter anyway?

 

Tire Rack has a great set-up for some 18" Sports K-5s on Blizzaks, about $1700 shipped... mounting and unmounting WILL damage the wheel and seal integrity eventually... or as other poster mentioned, just park it.

Good luck!

 

I bought Dunlop M3's from Tire Rack and they were about $15 per tire cheaper than the Blizzaks. I have been doing fine with them in the snow.