Winter tires
 

I drive an '02 sedan.

Just planning ahead.... if I buy steel rims and a set of winter tires, can I use 14" or 15" instead of the 195/50R16's I have on now for the non-winter seasons? Will performance (i.e. fuel economy, ...) change at all? I don't want to buy the 16"'s because they're so expensive. Anything else I should think of before buying the rims/tires?

btw, it's time to do my 24K kms maintenance checkup. Why the f is the dealership charging $136CAD for this? bastards. can I get this done elsewhere and still be covered under warranty?

thanks,

steve

Hi Steve

I have the same plan as you, I have 01 ES Sedan. The best way, I think you should go with 15" with 195/55/15 tires or 185/65/14 even cheaper BUT BUT you have to remember buy the rim with FIVE lug nuts and "Pitched Circle Diameter" is 4.5". I know the LX has FOUR lug nuts and PCD is 4" only.

The 24K dms service is useless

1. Inspect air cleaner element (or air filter most commonly called). It's very easy, you do not need screw driver, just pop up two clips and take a look at. Change it if it's very dirty, I change mine to K&N Filter about $50

2. Inspect cooling system for leaks. Do you think you have coolant leak for two year old car ? If you do, Mazda should be out of business

3. Adjust idle speed. Look at tachometer and does it need to be adjusted ? I do not think so for two year old car

4.Inspect disc brakes(front and rear) and lubricate caliper slide rails/pins. Same as above, it's new car.

I have mine 01 ES Sedan. So far, I only spend money for oil change on scheduled intervals. Everything else, I examine myself. Why do I have to pay someone JUST look at my car, not fix it? Remember INSPECT = LOOT AT

See you

Thanks for the info.

Anyone disagree that the 24k maintenance check is useless? Will skipping it void my warranty if I have problems down the road?

Steve

Last year I bought a complete 15" steel wheel and 195/55-15 package from Tire Rack. It even included the proper lug nuts. A real no brainer. the wheels were $36 each (US).

how about the o2 protege5 wagon, is that the same as well. i'm also looking for some 15" steel wheels for my winter tires??

Mine is a '03 P5, the same as yours. Just get on their website and see what they have available in 15 or 16 inch.

The winter tires I have for my P5 were mounted on a set of 15" Borbet wheels. My wife calls them the snowflake wheels. They were on clearance at TireRack. You don't have to look ugly just because its winter.

I prefer my summer tires though, except they probably kill me in the snow. The winter tires aren't as responsive and don't handle as well because of the increased sidewall (same height, but 15" wheel instead of 16"). Not like I do much performance driving in the winter. Also, becuase of the tread pattern, the tires are also louder.

Wait Here.....
 

<<
4.Inspect disc brakes(front and rear) and lubricate caliper slide rails/pins. Same as above, it's new car.
>>

This is VERY wrong. Indeed, you can do it all yourself, but you must lube the pins. I pulled mine out at 24K, and fronts had a bit of grease, but rears were BONE dry. Forget the new car thing with these.

I do agree with the rest.

Winters - I use Nokian Hakkapeliita 1 in 195.55.15 ( they are now called Nordman 1 ). You can't get them on TireRack or the like, they only use authorised dealers. If you want to get an amazing winter tire - look at the reviews on them. ( I am NOT a dealer, BTW... )

I would be VERY careful if you want to go with 14" - nothing to do with speedo errors ( you can play with tire sizing to compensate ). I know some people run 14" on P5, but I'd be worried about clearing the calipers, depending on the curvature of the steel wheels.

The stock tires on my 01 Protege ES Sport were okay the first winter but they were horrible for the second winter...I recomend winter tires to anyone with performance stock tires because once they wear a bit they are horrible on snow and ice....

The Protenza's on my MSP were horrible last winter. I'm surprized I survived, but I did have a number of near misses. So for this winter, I just got a set of Bridgestone Blizzark WS-50's 205/45Q-17R on Konig 'Trouble' 17x7 5-spoke wheels. I picked these because of the reviews on TireRack, I also liked the agressive tread pattern. I liked the Kong's because they resemble the Racing Hart's. So far this set up exhibits only slight increase in road noice and somewhat more 'spongey' feel with hard cornering. I'll let you know how they handle the snow after we get our first storm.

I installed the Walmart Winter Mark HTs on my 01 Protege ES with 15" steel rims.
These tires are great. Calgary had ice sheet all over the place this morning, and I had no problems, while other people were sliding all over the place. I was expecting good winter performance but so far I am amazed. Not very often you get more thatn what you think you paid for.

Cheers!

I just wanna state my opinion on it; and that is a good all season tire is usually all that you need--and if you have the stock rim/tire setup already, you won't lose the look. Dunlop and Toyo both make GOOD all season tires that are still (relatively) low profile and don't have the disadvantages of winter tires. Besides aren't we supposed to get crazy El Nina action this winter?

EDIT: by "all that you need" I mean that you just need to drive carefully on those extra-icy days which really only represent a smaller percentage of the season. I can definitely vouche for everyone sliding around this morning and yesterday morning. But by downshifting and accelerating slower you'll be fine. That's just my opinion though.

I would agree with stefan....but the stock tires that came with the Protege are definitely not a decent "All Season Tires" even they they are marketed that way. If you look at the tread pattern, tread depth, and lack of siping it is clear that they will be horrible in snow and terrible on ice. Now my dad's GM Impala has a great set of all seasons from the factory. I don't think I would change to winter tires with his stock tires.

Yes if you see the ice and snow a hed of you can make adjustments to compensate, but it those sudden stops that you don't see coming where winter tires save the day. I had that happen to me last year where a pedestrian just ran out into the road and everyone slammed on the breaks on an icy road. Well we all slammed on our breaks and my car was the one that slide and I turned into a post to avoicd hitting the car infront of me. Pretty much everyone who was around me stopped to see if I was okay. They all asked why I couldn't stop and my response was the crappy stock tires. Pretty sad when we were all doing 40 km/hr in a 60 zone.

If I had my winter tires I would of not had the accident that cost much much more than a set of good winter tires.

To me safety is worth the extra $550 I paid for the tirest, rims, instal, taxes, and cute little plastic hub caps. We all draw the line in different places.

Just put on the winter tire package from tire rack. 490.00 shipped and 45 minutes in my garage to change them out for 15" steelies and Dunlop Graspics. They look like great winter tires, but they are awful on dry pavement. Well, not awful but my car sure doesn't take a hard turn like it used to. Oh, well, it's a small sacrifice to ensure that I get home in one piece all winter.