Winter wheel & tyres set up confusion

[Guest]

@jamkart Congratulations - that's pretty cool! What are the dynamics like with the LSD in the wet and dry? LEDs must be a huge improvement over the standard halogens too?

I'm not surprised about the Top Gear vote - I've yet to see a negative review of the car in video or print. What summer tyres did it come with from the factory - PS4?

[Guest]

For anyone following/looking for a winter set up the same as mine: I took my car in to Ford to have the winter set up fitted - having purchased the recommended wheel nuts x4 - only to find out they're incorrect. The parts number was 5114407 and fits my factory/summer wheels. The nut I needed for my winter wheels has the parts number 5114405; As such, these have been purchased and means the wheels are being fitted later on today. Probably just in time for the freezing temperatures and the light dusting of snow I've had in my area!

 

Anyway, just thought I'd share the info for anyone else.

 

Also, can anyone tell me whether the tyre pressure sensors in my summer wheels will need to be re-programmed to the vehicle every time I swap them over?

[iantt]

Yes

[jbell]

7 hours ago, craigjoshuamuscat said:

For anyone following/looking for a winter set up the same as mine: I took my car in to Ford to have the winter set up fitted - having purchased the recommended wheel nuts x4 - only to find out they're incorrect. The parts number was 5114407 and fits my factory/summer wheels. The nut I needed for my winter wheels has the parts number 5114405; As such, these have been purchased and means the wheels are being fitted later on today. Probably just in time for the freezing temperatures and the light dusting of snow I've had in my area!

 

 

That's odd. The standard nuts should fit both (otherwise they would have to provide separate nuts with the spare wheel). 

Apologies I lead you down the wrong road, it worked for me. 

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, jbell said:

That's odd. The standard nuts should fit both (otherwise they would have to provide separate nuts with the spare wheel). 

Apologies I lead you down the wrong road, it worked for me. 

No worries - only £22 extra for 16 nuts. Appreciate all the help you and fellow posters have given me - it has been very helpful. Might upload a pic of the wheels when fitted (hopefully shortly, unless Ford tell me something else is wrong 😁). At least the brake dust won't show up so much on the steel wheels haha!

[Guest]

Well, the wheels are fitted. Random pics just for the fun of it.

 

Now, I could be going daft having just woken from a night shift sleep - but are there not supposed to be 16 wheel nuts coming off my summer wheels? I've been given back 15....

 

Furthermore, I've been told that I may likely have to get the tyre pressure sensors re-coded every time I swap wheels, as the car may not pick them up...I personally think it's nonsense, but can someone confirm what the procedure is for swapping back to summers in regards to TPMS on the summer wheels? My assumption is: fit them, store winter wheels a good 30 feet from where the car is parked, and then reset the tyre pressure monitor from within vehicle settings? Seen as the sensors don't have a battery, I assume they only operate when within range to send and/or receive a signal.

[iantt]

Depends on what age fiesta you have. Mk7.5 or mk8. Mk7.5 you can just put wheels on and drive it and it will pick up sensors. On the mk8 the same can apply, but the mk8 you can see the tyre pressures in the instrument cluster menu and each sensor needs to be allocated there position ideally . 

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, iantt said:

Depends on what age fiesta you have. Mk7.5 or mk8. Mk7.5 you can just put wheels on and drive it and it will pick up sensors. On the mk8 the same can apply, but the mk8 you can see the tyre pressures in the instrument cluster menu and each sensor needs to be allocated there position ideally . 

MK7.5 Black Edition. By the sounds of it, you're right - thank you.

[iantt]

By the sounds of it I am . Lol 

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, iantt said:

By the sounds of it I am . Lol 

Yeah, thank you. Now all I need to do is get my 16th wheel nut back from Ford...Thankfully they're only down the road from me, or this would get a bit tedious 😅

[Guest]

Quite enjoying the feel of the car on fatter sidewall tyres - it is a lot more comfortable than on standard wheels and tyres. Been between +4/-4 day/night since Saturday and the car has felt nothing but planted. Also noticed my mpg going up; usually when it is this cold, it drops by a few mpg and the coolant temp gauge takes a lot longer to get to usual temp (which is still the case) but the mpg is going up. Be interesting to see what I get when I do a 200 mile journey in a couple of weeks.

[Mavroz]

I really don't understand the need here.

A bit of a faff for the light dusting of snow we may or may not get, along with the occasional frost.

If it makes people feel happier, then each to their own I suppose.

 

[TomsFocus]

5 hours ago, Mavroz said:

I really don't understand the need here.

A bit of a faff for the light dusting of snow we may or may not get, along with the occasional frost.

If it makes people feel happier, then each to their own I suppose.

 

Winter tyres are made of a different compound than summer tyres, they're much softer below temps of around +7c (so October to March in the UK roughly) .  Summer tyres become hard below this temp, and obviously harder the colder it gets, this means they can't 'mould' to the road surface as well so have less grip than they do in summer temps.  So winter tyres are really for about 6 months of the year instead of the 2 days of snow we get.  

[Mavroz]

7 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

Winter tyres are made of a different compound than summer tyres, they're much softer below temps of around +7c (so October to March in the UK roughly) .  Summer tyres become hard below this temp, and obviously harder the colder it gets, this means they can't 'mould' to the road surface as well so have less grip than they do in summer temps.  So winter tyres are really for about 6 months of the year instead of the 2 days of snow we get.  

Well i certainly haven't felt the need for winter tyres in the last 30 (ish) years so i don't think i will personally bother in the future. 😄

[Eric Bloodaxe]

A lot of the problem these days is that cars tend to have much wider tyres than they really need, mainly for aesthetic reasons. Best car I ever had for driving on snow was a Citroen ZX Turbo D, never got stuck or even skidded once in 3 years and 90k+ miles. But that had what would now be regarded as laughably skinny tyres (175/65 x 14). I remember my first experience of driving on "modern" low profile tyres (235/45 x 17 on an Audi A4) - we came out of our hotel one morning after heavy overnight snow while on a winter break and couldn't even get across the car park.

So if I was still doing big business mileage I would certainly be considering winter tyres, which I believe are compulsory in much of Europe. As it is, being retired I can usually abort the journey if it snows or just get the bus!😀

 

[TomsFocus]

2 hours ago, Mavroz said:

Well i certainly haven't felt the need for winter tyres in the last 30 (ish) years so i don't think i will personally bother in the future. 😄

I don't use them myself either, but if I had the money and storage for a second set of wheels I probably would lol.

[FRG]

I use winters on my 7.5 van, on the option 17” wheels. They’re brilliant. This is the third winter they’ve been put on so it works out that they’ve done about 10k miles and still have a good 75% tread left. 

Edited January 22, 2019 by FRG
Obligatory tyre shop photo added 😀

[Guest]

Fair points raised by both sides for and against winter tyres. Personally, I could afford to purchase winter wheels and tyres - therefore I did, and I'm happy with the initial outlay. I think the tyres will last me well; I tend to drive most often for work when it's pretty cold (any time between 2300-0900) so the weather can be chilly at those hours.

 

I also didn't struggle to drive on my summers during the snow we had in March - but I certainly didn't enjoy the lack of control on occasion; and if needed to avoid someone rear-ending me, I'd have been unable to manoeuvre my way out of trouble.

2 hours ago, FRG said:

I use winters on my 7.5 van, on the option 17” wheels. They’re brilliant. This is the third winter they’ve been put on so it works out that they’ve done about 10k miles and still have a good 75% tread left. 

 What tyres did you go for?

[FRG]

23 minutes ago, craigjoshuamuscat said:

Fair points raised by both sides for and against winter tyres. Personally, I could afford to purchase winter wheels and tyres - therefore I did, and I'm happy with the initial outlay. I think the tyres will last me well; I tend to drive most often for work when it's pretty cold (any time between 2300-0900) so the weather can be chilly at those hours.

 

I also didn't struggle to drive on my summers during the snow we had in March - but I certainly didn't enjoy the lack of control on occasion; and if needed to avoid someone rear-ending me, I'd have been unable to manoeuvre my way out of trouble.

 What tyres did you go for?

Riken. I’d never heard of them but have been impressed by their capabilities in the cold temps and the snow grip is really good. They’re no good for spirited driving, laughable amounts of understeer, but that’s not what I bought them for. I went 205/45 not 205/40, the comfort is vastly improved over the ContiSC’s. 

[Guest]

10 hours ago, FRG said:

Riken. I’d never heard of them but have been impressed by their capabilities in the cold temps and the snow grip is really good. They’re no good for spirited driving, laughable amounts of understeer, but that’s not what I bought them for. I went 205/45 not 205/40, the comfort is vastly improved over the ContiSC’s. 

Never heard of them - Camskill typically only brought up Pirelli tyres for 205/40 R17 and they weren't cheap - think they were £120ish per tyre before fitting. May I ask how much yours were?

 

The Continental TS860 in 195/55 R15 are a HUGE improvement in terms of comfort - it's so much more absorbent of bumps now! I've not encountered snow yet but have had below-freezing ground temperatures and the car feels no different to driving on a warm, sunny day (but then I'm not driving exactly the same); If I had my summers on, below 4 degrees and I could definitely feel them become less pliant and grippy.

[FRG]

1 hour ago, craigjoshuamuscat said:

Never heard of them - Camskill typically only brought up Pirelli tyres for 205/40 R17 and they weren't cheap - think they were £120ish per tyre before fitting. May I ask how much yours were?

 

The Continental TS860 in 195/55 R15 are a HUGE improvement in terms of comfort - it's so much more absorbent of bumps now! I've not encountered snow yet but have had below-freezing ground temperatures and the car feels no different to driving on a warm, sunny day (but then I'm not driving exactly the same); If I had my summers on, below 4 degrees and I could definitely feel them become less pliant and grippy.

I can’t remember exactly but I think they were about £60/corner fitted. 205/40 17 isn’t an easy size to get in a winter which is why I went for the 205/45’s as there’s more choice and half the price. I’ve spec’d 18’s on the new sport van so either need a new set of winters or a set of 17” alloys!

[Guest]

On 1/23/2019 at 10:13 AM, FRG said:

I can’t remember exactly but I think they were about £60/corner fitted. 205/40 17 isn’t an easy size to get in a winter which is why I went for the 205/45’s as there’s more choice and half the price. I’ve spec’d 18’s on the new sport van so either need a new set of winters or a set of 17” alloys!

That's a good price for that size tyre. Do you have a spare set of wheels for winters on 17s, or do you swap them over on your usual wheels twice per year?

[FRG]

6 hours ago, craigjoshuamuscat said:

That's a good price for that size tyre. Do you have a spare set of wheels for winters on 17s, or do you swap them over on your usual wheels twice per year?

I have the tyres swapped over twice a year and have the wife's car done at the same time which makes it a dear job! It would be much better if I had a spare set of wheels as I could just change them myself then.

[Guest]

16 hours ago, FRG said:

I have the tyres swapped over twice a year and have the wife's car done at the same time which makes it a dear job! It would be much better if I had a spare set of wheels as I could just change them myself then.

It's a fairly big initial outlay, but it should cover itself financially over 2/3/4 years. It really depends on how mobile you need to be at all times, whether finances allow etc. I'm sure you've looked into it, but if you need any help then let me know/others who have replied here will likely be able to help you out too.

 

If you do it yourself, at least you won't lose a wheel nut...Ha!