Glad to hear TCH does fairly well in your area.

I've never done very much on cars... I am a big DIY in the home with almost everything, so I can do simple stuff like air filter, but don't have any jacks or that stuff.

I'll have to see if it worth the cost to get new rims/sensors vs switching tires. How much does it cost to swap them at the shop if they are already on rims? Wouldn't be much different then a rotation would it?

 

You can use the jack that comes in the trunk to do a tire change. If you do a rotation, you have to put the spare on temporarily to do the juggling. I got a floor jack a few years back, and it makes it a little easier, but is not necessary. Often the hardest part with aluminum wheels is getting the wheel off the hub. They can freeze on. I use a big rubber hammer to jar them off.

Not sure on costs, as I either do it myself, or take the vehicle into Costco where the rotation and balancing is included for free. Best to just call the tire shop you plan to use.

 

Yeah, as long as its only the $10-20 range, I don't mind having the shop swap the wheels if I have a set of winter w/ rims already. I have a very small 1 car garage and a sloped driveway, so it would have hard to find a place to actually change the tires safely.

 

The easy way is to have new rims for winter use and have your local shop change them for you. The hardest thing in doing that is getting the extra tires to and from the shop....

You can have 4 new sensors added to the new rims if you want to and the shop should re-program them to the car during the swap over (it only takes a few minutes to do). The sensors are not that cheap ($60-$100 apiece depending on where you buy them) but they will last a good 8 to 10 years.

If you don't want that expense, just ignore the low tire warning during the winter. I would not have them change the winter/summer tires on the same set of rims as that will get expensive in a hurry with a rebalance needed every time you change tires in addition to the mounting fee.

 

Yeah, using the same rims is pretty expensive. I plan to have this car for several years, so the new rims doesn't seem too expensive and I've seen some cheaper OEM TPMS for like $30-50 ea, so probably worth it for the long term.

 

Selling customers a whole extra set of tires, wheels, and TPMS is good for business. Some shops around here offer storage of the wheels and tires that are not on the vehicle.

However, the whole deal has gotten way to inconvenient and expensive for me. So that is why I accept the all season solution. It is not perfect but if you have good all seasons, it is way less hassle. Tire companies spend big bucks trying to convince you to go the winter tire route.

When I hunted and did some off road with a 4X4 I always carried chains. Not sure if chains would work on a car or not, due to clearance. However they certainly can get you out of a mess.

 

Yeah, I never used winter tires when I was in MI for 10 years, but I never HAD to drive far... going to school was 1-2 mi and that's about it... just stayed in during the really bad days.

With the job though, driving 100+ mi/day, that's a different story. As far as I know, chains work on cars just fine, never used them in MI though because they are illegal (roads are bad enough already I guess lol). And currently my drive is like 1 mi, so no need for winter tires or chains.