Winter tires
 

Time to get winter tires for the new X5. Unfortunately, the wheel sizes are different from my old e70, so I can't reuse my beloved Nokian Hakka 7s. They also no longer make the 7s, and the 8s are sold out in North America. I could do the Hakka R2 SUV which seems fine (though very expensive), if a bit tamer than the 7 and 8.

I'm open to any suggestions (doesn't have to be Nokian). Thanks!

I love the Nokians on my e46, they are unbelievably good. I agree they are pricey and hard to find, but if you're going to be keeping the x5 for a while probably worth the price for Boston winters. Did you check ebay for 8s? Might be able to onsey twosey a set from there if you have some patience.

On that note, if you still have your e70 set up and want to discuss selling them, PM me :)

Which Nokians do you have on your e46? My old e70 had the staggered M Sport 19s so F: 255/50/19, R: 285/45-19.

I have the gamut on sedan winter tires but little experience with SUV ones (only one set on my short lived X5d).

I'd say stick with something H-rated or lower speed. Michelin X-ice line and Bridgestones are all fine tires.

I ended up with some Michelin on the x3 because it was the only thing TR had in the size I wanted. Sometimes having no choice makes the decision easy. :)

Are you sure about this? I thought the wheels were a straight swap. If not, I've got some wheels to get rid of, too.

Edit: We have a square 18-inch set up from the E70: 255/55R-18 Bridgestone Blizzak LM-60 RFT Run Flat

I only have the old staggered tires - I never got dedicated winter wheels. It appears I can get Nokian Hakka 8s with studs, but that doesn't help me at all. Darn!

Ah. Nokkians are hard to find. Not sure why. Do they make the Michelin Pilot Alpins in SUV sizes? Those were great on my M3. Maybe you need more bite up north. There was a story in the Washington Post about how this may be a colder/snowier winter than the last two...https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.cbdaf4e01644

They do not appear to make Michelins in the right sizes. My default is to go with the Nokian R2s I suppose.

Going with the R2s. My mechanic got me a great deal. :)

I'm late to this party but I got the x-ice on the wagon and was seriously impressed with the snow performance. But handling on dry is pretty squishy and uninspiring.

Clearly everyone needs a car dedicated for snow driving only, and a second with high-performance snows (or all seasons) and it all works out just fine.

I'd love to have a dedicated winter car, but no way to do that in the city. I did that for years before the kid with the M3 and Tundra combo though. It was perfect!

It does not appear any Michelin winter tires fit the X5. Nokian R2 it is.

So... I’ve never lived in a place that needed winter tires...

Now that I’m in a place with winter, I’m considering. But nobody here has even mentioned them. Winter here tends to yo-yo in temps. A few days of cold with moderate days in between. Not a ton of snow - a few inches a few days a year.

Thoughts?

What car would you be driving in snow? What tires does it have on now?

Do you have a schedule where when it snows you can just sit home and wait for the roads to clear? If so, don't worry about it.

But if you want to be in control to be able to drive anywhere, anytime, regardless of how rare the storm... then maybe.

I really liked the pirelli soto-whatever 3 performance snows. The dry handling wasn't so horrible.

I drive the Tesla... it’s on all seasons now (Goodyear something)

We live about 2 miles from the freeway, and the commute to work is all freeway (2 different routes...)

I could work from home on a snow day...

Remind me... It's awd or rwd?

If awd I'd just make sure you had decent tread depth and be done. Stay home during the bad storms.

RWD... All early Teslas are RWD. AWD was introduced a couple years later...

Didn't Josh get stuck like 10 feet from his house last year?

All seasons are going to be mostly fine. Winter tires are better.

The thing that gets us in trouble on MD is when we get shit weather in the middle of the day. They may say it'll just be rain, but the temp drops and all of a sudden you have freezing rain and now you're stuck at work for the day staring out the window and dreading the drive home.

Yeah, the Tesla on all seasons is fine until you get to a hill. Any hill.

Get a set of winter tires. It’s worth it. Tire Rack will ship you a set mounted on aftermarket turbine wheels in a single day.

In Maryland, which sounds similar to what you’ll get, I always changed over to performance snows on winter wheels for the RWD cars and the AWD cars by Halloween. And ran summers by mid to late April. The performance snows did fine through warm winter days. No deep snow, though. Like Bren says, we often got caught in something nasty the forecasters did not predict by the drive home. Or coming back from the airport after a business trip...

One of the best performance snow tires is the Michelin Pilot Alpins. I've had them as PA3's and also PA4's on the audi a4, s4 and the 335xi. It's a good tire with decent tarmac feel and handling. Snow is good too, but it's a bit lacking compared to the slower/squishier snow tires when the worst storms hit.

Perhaps the dunlop wintersport outperforms the alpin in the worst snow while still being not too squishy.

For the last ten years I have had a car with summer tires available during the winter for warmer days. I'll stay with the more focused snow tires (blizzaks, x-ice's etc).

One of THE best snow tires I've ever driven on was on my g/f's Subaru GL wagon when I first met her in Anchorage, AK. Can't remember what brand it was but it was studded. It was the first time I've ever driven with studs, and man, with Subie's 4WD system (it had a shifter that you select 2WD-high, 4WD-low, 4WD-high, etc.) it would stop and go anywhere.

That thing was a beast. We drove all over AK in some of the slickest, narliest roads, and we never got stuck. Up there, it starts to snow around Oct or so, and the snow=>packed snow=>ice on the streets stays until April or May.

It was also the first time a drove a Subie and was really quite impressed with its 4WD capability.

I switch over Thanksgiving to Easter.

Yea, after 10+ years of having the RWD E46 as my winter vehicle (that sounds weird just saying it) I became constantly paranoid about hills. It would start snowing while at work or visiting family and I'd immediately start thinking about whether there were any hills in the drive home. Even when snow tires.

Part of that was the open diff, which is a deficiency you don't have. The other is the lack of weight over the rear wheels. I think the Tesla has slightly more rear bias but not a lot.

Adding weight to the trunk is supposed to help, but I never tried it for some unexplainable reason.

The Tesla also has an open diff, though it has TC. But that doesn’t help so much on really slick surfaces, where it basically just cuts power to zero.

The Tesla on winter tires behaves about like a RWD BMW on winter tires. It’s fine, but it will still get stuck in places an AWD or even FWD car on all seasons will just motor out of. Like the curb in front of my house.

Oh Jesus. For some reason I thought they were independent. :ack:

:lol:

Winter tires really are the best. My X5 with Nokians is basically unstoppable in the snow.

For RWD Teslas, there’s a single motor that drives through a single speed gearbox to an open differential to the rear wheels.

AWD Teslas have a motor on each axle, which are independent of one another but which both have open diffs.

Yeah, I has read some stuff bragging about the awd Tesla not having a center diff. And I could have sworn that long ago I read that the rear wheels were individually powered as well. Clearly I'm going insane.

Bottom line: I'm with JST. RWD + open diff + all season tires = stuck on any non-trivial incline. It sucks.

But speaking of LSD's, I was in a gravel lot the other day and did a controlled power slide with the rear. It was awesome. I can't wait to try it in the snow. :lol:

:) I LOVE the MLSD. Has totally transformed my relationship with the car. Every drive is a pleasure. And, I actually prefer the A/S 3+ to the MPSS tires. I feel like there's so much more grip and confidence. Or maybe that's just the LSD talking.

Open diffs are not all the same. The 2006+ DTC program in bmw rwd's is much better than the e46 option. The rear brakes do a fairly good simulation.

My xdrive experiences are not good enough to recommend. Less grip/traction compared to audi & subaru (even if I prefer bmw overall as a car).

Is the Xdrive in the 3 series the same as the X5s?

I already have an extra set of wheels -- the original 19's from the car. I bought a set of the current base 19's just about a year ago, and put those on when I got new tires earlier this year. I boxed the originals back up thinking I may need them for winter tires here...

I need to stop at Discount Tire this weekend to have them check one wheel -- I have a super slow leak in one tire (think its the valve stem…). I'll see what options they have for winter tires and the in-wheel TPMS sensors needed...

I have no experience with audi's or subaru, but last winter I found my BMW '06 xi wagon on x-Ice 3's to be just awesome. It clawed up anything. Twice I went out mid-storm just for fun and I was as confident as could be.

The scariest part was braking. The confidence in acceleration left me disappointed in my ability to stop.

What were the scenarios where you felt it was lacking? Trying to get un-stuck (while parked, etc.. Something I never tried) or handling issues while moving?

Or just spray the hell out of it with soapy water and stare at it waiting for bubbles. Easier than hauling it to a store.

Ordered a set of Pirelli Winter Sottozero Serie II for my OEM rims.

Figured I'd just pay my guy to switch the tires this year (and next, I guess, then maybe one more?) instead of dealing with my old BBS rims and spacers with non-functioning TPMS, on which the old Michelin PA2s are just about spent.

https://www.tirerack.com/images/tire...II_pdpcrop.jpg

Why not just get new TPMS? The cost of job having to mount and unmount would pay for them, no?

This decision was all about convenience (aka laziness).

I think I've pretty much lost any and all motivation to do any of the work of owning a car myself at this point. Not sure if it's because I'm old, because I can afford it more easily now, both, or something else.

But this way I put a set of tires in my trunk, drive 5 minutes to a guy, go get some lunch, pay the guy and get my car back, drive home, and put a set of tires in my garage. Sounds pretty good. :lol:

245/265 snow tires are pretty ridiculous to start with, but I hope they don't suck too badly. More about the cold than the snow really.

I didn't have a bad experience with my 06 330xi (that I had to get rid of after it got rear-ended, hard). It did a few VT ski trips and a few storms. It did well clawing up in a straight line.

My bad xi/xdrive story is from '11 335xi (car was under warranty and 25k miles or so, no malfunction suspected). I simply could not get into an icy parking spot, trying all possible nanny levels (on/partial/off). I had decent tread alpin pa3's on it. Then after many tries, I gave up and a Mini Cooper FWD with all-seasons promptly took the spot. Maybe it was an edge case, maybe they fit better between the ice piles. I don't care, the car was spinning diagonally, one front and one rear wheel with little forward traction.

That, and the floaty feel xi's have as the engine and thus the whole car is raised over the front driveshafts.

These have been great. Grippy and sharp in the dry, but also comfortable. Good snow performance in up to about 2”, which is as much as I’ve tried. I like them much more than my last set of winters which were Michelin PA2s.