Last week when it snowed in Rochester - I was all over the road. I'm not used driving this car and was surprised at how ard it was to drive in the snow. I went to sears to get snow tires and they said they don't have any to fit this car. Do I have to go to a dealer? HOw do you handle the snow? Should I put weight in the back? Studded tires?
What size wheels do you have currently? If you have run-flats, are they the performance tires or the all seasons? (I have 15" Continental all-seasons on my MC).
Here's a recent article on Motoringfile about winter tires (I think Tire Rack is one of their sponsors) http://motoringfile.com/2005/11/25/winter-driving-tips-from-tirerack/
I got my snow tires from Tire Rack, though the type I got are no longer available (Dunlop M2s). I have a 2nd set of Mini rims, but Tire Rack has winter tire & wheel packages, and can ship them to a local shop here for mounting.
I had my tires shipped to Craig Autometrics (Winthrop St downtown by the Little Theater).
Also be sure your tire pressures are OK, since this does affect the handling if they are under or over-inflated.
If I remember right about the 17" tires, the Dunlop run-flats are all seasons & Pirellis are performance. If any of the MCS folks can verify this, & any info on 16" wheels OEM (standard) tires would be great too.
If you have an MCS with the performance runflats you do not (as you found out) want to drive in the snow with those tires. They are purely for summer / warm weather use. During this time of year I put on a set of 4 185/65 - 15 Blizzaks mounted on black steel wheels. With 4 snow tires the MINI is transformed into a little tank in the snow. I've had an MCS since they were first available in the US in 2002 and don't hesitate to take it out in the snow, as long as the winter tires are installed. Only limitation is when the snow is very deep the MINI's low clearance works against it and you can become a snow plow.
When getting snow tires it's better to get a taller, narrower tire as that design is more likely to grab the snow whereas the wide stock tires will tend to ride up and "float" on the snow. If you decide to go with 15" tires Sears should have the 185/65 - 15 size. Depending on the MINI model and OEM tire / wheel size you may need to get a set of winter wheels, which is not a bad idea. If you don't a set of black steelies (admittedly not very stylish) look for a set of the stock MINI 15" wheels with the holes. They are frequently available on eBay for reasonable prices.
Yellowmini is a little off on the 17" MCS tires as both the Dunlop SP9000 and Pirelli Euforias are peformance runflats while the Goodyears are all season. I'm not sure about theose on 16" wheels.
I purchased the Blizzaks and wheel package at Tire Rack and do the switchover myself. If you buy tires without wheels from TireRack you're going to need to have them mounted on whatever set of wheels you'll be using. TireRack has a list of recommeded local tire dealers who will do this for you. Note this is not a free service and can actually end up costing a pretty penny. On my previous '02 MCS I purchased a set of replacement tires when the original Dunlops wore down. I was looking at Craig Autometrics to mount the new tires - there is no doubt that they do an outstanding job and they have a very sophisticated machine for wheel balancing. However, it would have cost about $150 to have the 4 tires mounted and balanced. I ended up going somewhere else but it still cost almost $100 to have this job done. That price is partially due to the size of the wheel (17") as well as mounting onto alloy rims, so perhaps if you are mounting onto a smaller diameter steel wheel the price would be less.
Now, don't do what I just did and forget to check your tire pressures after you put your tires on. One of my snows was flat today, & didn't reinflate easily when I tried to inflate it with my cimpressor. AAA was able to get 30 psi to hold, at least so I could get to work. Hopefully it will still have air in it when I want to go home!
Thank you for all of your advise. I've never bought a tire in my life - so this is a liitle confusing for me. The dealer in Buffalo will sell me snow tires and wheels which I believe are smaller than the tires I have (17" - now), I think they said the snow tires are 15". The package is $760. Is this a fair price? If it is, I think I'll just drive back to Buffalo and have it done there. It just seems like a lot.
The smaller tires and rims are an advantage in the snow. You might be able to get a wheel/tire combination from Tire Rack or someplace like that for less, but probably not a whole lot less, once shipping charges are added in. Ask Towne how much they'll charge to put them on the car, just to get the final total.
Looks like Tire Rack is out of stock on sttel wheels, and their cheapest alloy wheel is $99 ea, so their wheel/tire/shipping is around $720 before the wheel mounting charges that you'd get if you have someone put the tires on for you.
ovendoorbakery wrote: Thank you for all of your advise. I've never bought a tire in my life - so this is a liitle confusing for me. The dealer in Buffalo will sell me snow tires and wheels which I believe are smaller than the tires I have (17" - now), I think they said the snow tires are 15". The package is $760. Is this a fair price? If it is, I think I'll just drive back to Buffalo and have it done there. It just seems like a lot.
The 15" tires will be fine. You may notice that they are somewhat narrower than your 17" tires, but that's what you want in the snow. A price of $760 ($190 each tire & wheel) is a lot but you're buying from the dealer who will be more expensive by nature, plus they're most likely selling you a set of alloy wheels which are more expensive than standard steel wheels. I just purchased a set of Dunlop Graspic 15" snow tires for one of our cars and paid about $475 (including installation, tax, etc) at a local tire dealer. This price did not include any new wheels.
The advantage of having a set of 15" tires already mounted on wheels is that changeover in Spring and Winter is something you can do yourself.
If your present tires are 17" you have an MCS with run flats. You don't need run flat snow tires - get an inexpensive kit that contains a can of sealant and an air pump that runs off the power points.
If you were able to find some 15" steel wheels locally Tire Rack sells 15" Blizzak tires for $77 each plus shipping.
By the way, be aware that snow tires don't handle as well as the summer tires. I installed the snows on my MCS / JCW last night and this morning I forgot I had the snows on and almost drove off the road when I took a corner at the same speed that I do with the summer tires and never have any difficulty.
Off topic, I noticed your posting name? Are you referring to the bakery in Bushnell's Basin? If so, we live about a mile from there.
I went on eBay and scored a set of factory 15" alloys for my MCS (which runs performance 17" tires in the summer). With snow tires the Mini is an awesome winter driver. I went with the runflat M2 snows, but will go with non-runflats the next time round (probably Nokia Hakkepelittas). I'm out of warranty, so the roadside assistance is of little use to me now (and who wants to wait around at night in the winter for the truck anyway?). Instead, I'm going to buy a 12 v compressor and a can of fix-a-flat.
I'd also suggest getting a steel skid plate from someplace like Moss Motors, to protect the power steering fan and other delicate things on the underside of your Mini from blocks of ice that seem to appear on night-time winter roads.
At the last Pulley Party at Jack's, Randy Webb strongly suggested the skid plate is a lot of weight for little effect. I remember the couple who had it on left it off. Discussion?
I run Blizzacks, and can attest that they also make my MCS very 'Tank Like' in the winter.
I would also suggest a skid plate. At the very least the mesh cover for the Power Steering fan. The last thing you want to happen is for your MINI to shut down because something's stuck in it. I installed a skid plate quite some time ago on my MINI, and yes, it may be a case of being overprotective, but I'd rather have the weight on my car than risk a chunk of ice being kicked up and damaging something. Also, I won it from NAM when it was MCO, so that helped also..
